Course Description Creating compelling customer experiences is an innovative way to gain

Course Description

Creating compelling customer experiences is an innovative way to gain sustainable competitive advantage in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment. With the evolution of Industry 4.0 and technology disruptions, businesses need to fully understand their customers in order to deliver optimised and personalised experiences that can increase customer value, engagement and loyalty. Customer experience management offers an innovative approach to assess, create and evaluate organisational-wide processes related to customer experiences.

This course examines the concepts and strategies of customer experience management. You will learn how to craft a customer experience vision blueprint and customer journey mapping canvas, build a customer-centric culture, design research and measurements for customer experiences, storytell customer experiences and familiarize yourself with some established CX systems and companies. Using real-world companies and case studies, the course presents a hands-on approach to initiate and manage customer experience improvement projects.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

A. Knowledge & Understanding

Construct a service blueprint and customer journey map to optimise customer experiences

Formulate metrics and analytics to measure customer experience

Appraise customer experience management strategies

Critique commercial customer experience software and tool

B. Key Skills

Propose elements of a service innovation culture

Design customer acquisition strategies to attract new customers and customer retention strategies to foster long-term relationships with customers

Develop analytical skills and expertise in using customer experience software and tools

Course Topics

Topic 1: Build a Customer-Centric Culture

We look at the importance of developing a customer-centric culture within an organisation. Customer-centric enterprises ensure that the customer is at the centre of business philosophy, operations and ideas. 

Topic 2: Develop a Customer Blueprint

Customer Experience Blueprint provides a graphical overview of an entire service process. We will introduce the benefits, components and characteristics of a CX blueprint.

Topic 3: Customise a Customer Journey Mapping Canvas (CJM)

CJM provides a visual tool to connect CX stakeholders. We will discuss the benefits, characteristics and process of CJM. 

Topic 4: Analyse Customer Experience

We will first have an overview of the most popularly used research methodologies in CX and CRM. We then introduce commonly used CX measurements such as NPS, CSAT and CES 

Topic 5: Storytell the Customer Experience

People love to listen to stories. This topic introduces the benefits, process and tools in the application of storytelling in CX.

Topic 6: Evaluate Customer Experience Software and Tools

We discuss CX tools such as google analytics and introduce market leaders in CX.

Introduction of Customer Experience Management

“Customer Experience is the totality of an individual’s interactions with a brand, over time.”

— Don Peppers (2016)

Customer Experience (CX) is crucial to business success. In the past decade, technology has brought remarkable transformations to the business world. Today’s customers are more empowered than ever before. They are more informed and knowledgeable, more connected and vocal, and more discerning and demanding. Business exists for customers. To succeed in today’s competitive world, business leaders and marketers need to experience what the customer experiences and take steps to ensure that this experience becomes better, easier, and more enjoyable for the customer. 

In 1996, renowned strategists Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema published an influential, best-selling book titled “ (Links to an external site.)The Discipline of Market Leaders (Links to an external site.)” after interviewing some top CEOs in the United States. The authors summarised three value disciplines that enable the success of big brands: a) top quality products; b) low price driven by operational excellence, and c) best customer experiences. Here customer experiences, or “customer intimacy” as the original phrase used by the authors, refer to the strategy that a company builds its success on the knowledge of the individual customers and their preferences without putting an excessive price tag for doing so.

Until today, Treacy and Wiersema’s work helps us put Customer Experience into perspectives, that is, customer experience may not be the dominating strategy for all organizations, as product and price hugely matter, however, CX is a crucial success factor for most companies. An uprising trend today suggests that even companies that establish their successes base on product or cost leadership strategies such as Wal-Mart have to adopt CX strategies for continued success.

Although most business leaders understand the importance of good customer services and experiences, the aspirations and resources vary by companies. Some companies are determined for transformational changes in customer experience and are willing to invest in precious resources. Other companies may only be able to afford modest changes without having to go through significant changes in organizational structure and processes. It is essential for each company to conduct its own internal analysis and identify the mission and strategies that are most suitable. Regardless of the commitments and resources, eventually, a mission on customer services should be formulated and become a guiding principle for the whole company. It is essential to develop a customer-centred mission statement and develop strategies based on what matters most to consumers and the business.

In this episode of Dianna’s Guest Speaker Series, I talked to Mr. Rob Triegaardt (Links to an external site.) from Zendesk about the following issues:

Overview of the CX marketing in Singapore (as of 2021)

Impact of the COVID-19 on the CX market

Benefits of CX

https://suss.ap.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=5f93be9c-4483-4938-b683-ad6d003f0cac

References

Peppers, D. (2016). Customer Experience: What, How and Why Now. Bookbaby

Treacy, M. and Wiesema, F. (1996) The Discipline of Market Leaders, New York: HarperCollins.

Recommended Readings/Videos

Mckinsey & Co. (2016, August 17) The CEO guide to customer experience.
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-ceo-guide-to-customer-experience (Links to an external site.)

McKinsey & Co. Seeing through customers eyes.
https://www.mckinsey.com/Videos/video?vid=4807065718001&plyrid=HkOJqCPWdb&aid=785F27F0-805C-435B-9737-B1532BC2AF42