Where’s the CX Data?

1984’s “Where’s the Beef” is now about how to be “deliciously different”!

Over the last 10 days I’ve listened to clients and peers talk about their need to improve experiences before Amazon and others eat their lunch. They all know they need data — more so insight — to drive priorities and show improvement, but all continue to struggle with where to start, what data to focus on and how to not only access the data, but also get to the source of truth.

Here are my recommendations on how to start to find the right data to provide the insight you need and measure your success:

1. Clearly define what problem you are trying to solve.
Why do you need a Content Management System (CMS) when you only have one person keeping content updated part time? Are you trying to improve the buying experience of current customers or how you attract new?

Hence, as my Collaboration Center Director Lisa Rasley would say to perspective Adventure Lab participants, ”Let’s start with defining the problem, also known as the point of view.”

(user) needs to (user’s need) because (insight).

2. Clarify and minimize your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for success.
Now that we know the problem we need to understand how successful the solution will be in going from the current state to the future state. Success needs to be defined both in terms of end-user success and organizational success. Success is in the eye of the beholder. So for every journey define two to three success metrics for the end-user and for your organization. For example, while a journey may end in a customer renewing their relationship with you or buying more, to the end-user it may be about making their life more efficient. At times we boil the ocean on the number of metrics to capture. Kiss that goodbye and keep it simple, silly. Less is more right?!

P.S. Don’t forget to capture the emotion and sentiment you want your end-user to have at the end of their journey. Do you want them to be elated? Do you want them to be relieved?

3. Measure your success.
Gotta get that stake in the ground to know where you are starting from. Many organizations miss this step!

4. Surface the data,
At first, some of this may be manual. But now that you know your problem (i.e., specific users you are looking at) and your KPIs to measure the future-state solution, you can begin to identify where the data is and surface it in something simple to start, such as an Excel spreadsheet serving as a dashboard.

Start with the KPI metrics: Where is the source housed? Is there conflict on the true source? If so, can you facilitate figuring out the truth or pulling both until the truth can be found?

Gather insight: Begin to get contextual and historical information about your users that is relevant in solving your problem. Again, surface everything to begin to find trends, and what data needs to be cleaned. Don’t worry about the data being available by a push of a button in a format for C-level presentations until you know you have the right, relevant data.

As you get into journey mapping possible solutions and touchpoint analysis, you will need to continue to surface information to guide your team toward designing a better experience, and maybe even shift the problem statement and KPIs to demonstrate success.

Once you know your starting point between the problem you are solving, measuring your KPIs today and surfacing key data about your users and the problem at hand, you are well on your way to knowing much more before you start to identify ways to improve experiences. You’ll most likely need to iterate on the KPIs as you learn more about what the true measures of success are, and aren’t.

So go on, start to dig into your data so you can be deliciously different!