Welcome to the 12th edition of the CX by Design Ideas newsletter, a monthly mailing by your hosts, Lis Hubert and Diana Sonis, with a focus on sharing human-centered ideas for business. Thank you for being here. We appreciate you. P.S. Was this email forwarded to you? You need your own!

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Los Angeles, CA, Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Yep. It's September. How did we get here already? 

The uncertainty of 2020 brought on a shift in customer experience priorities for many businesses regardless of industry. Specifically, digital services were thrust center stage in our remote-only environment. 

Through numerous conversations with our customers and other businesses, here's what we learned in August: 

1. Businesses with established and flexible customer experience initiatives have been able to adjust roadmaps quickly. However, barriers remain. Extensive checks & balances of management approval (a.k.a. the proverbial "red tape") that provide in normal times, often hinder in times of stress. Likewise, legacy technology systems are also an issue when businesses need to transfer vital business operations online. Everyone is in the same boat.
2. Those without an internal customer experience practice found themselves scrambling. When you don't have the customer experience data (or haven't had time to analyze whatever data you do have) to make decisions quickly in times of crisis, the entire ecosystem of your business - employees, customers, partners - suffers. 

The good news is, it's never too late. 

This month's theme explores how to establish an internal CX practice. To do that, we first define it, and then we explore initial steps to get started. And, we include a few interesting customer experience resources in times of crisis. 

Finally, we're leading a free webinar on Friday, September 4th on how to create an organic conversation with your customers through your website's navigation. We believe it all starts with defining and designing for customer intentions. Register here for free. We'd love to see you there!

Stay healthy,

Diana Sonis,
Founding Partner

The term “Customer Experience” is not new to you. As a leader who strives to bring Human-Centered thinking to your organization, you’ve probably said the phrase a time or two hundred.

But, we’re willing to bet that your definition of Customer Experience is at least slightly different than the definition others in your company or industry use.

What does it mean for a customer to have an experience?

In our first piece, we adopted the definition of customer experience as: “The perception customers have of their interactions with an organization.” ^[1].

But what, exactly, influences that perception? What are the atomic parts businesses can look at in order to empathize with customers, then unearth and fill gaps in their experience in order to shape that perception into an overall great customer experience?

The answer is simpler than you might think.