Product Success with Customer Experience (CX)
How to drive product differentiation through a better customer experience
This article was written in response to a discussion with Craig Strong on the role of customer experience in a product team. Craig said:
Some leaders mistakenly view customer experience as separate from product management and a Product Operating Model. In reality, customer experience is deeply embedded within a product operating model.
Craig helps organizations transform into more customer-centric, product-driven enterprises.
Who Does Customer Experience?
My product team has an active CX leader. I wondered if other product teams have a CX leader. I ran a poll to see how product teams fill the role of CX:
The product people that responded to my survey show a split of:
28% have a central CX team
24% have a CX leader embedded with the product team
41% don't have a CX leader
It's an interesting split from a quick LinkedIn survey! Let’s dig into the role of CX in product teams.
Why Is Customer Experience Important?
Products are increasingly using subscription and as-a-service models. This drives product teams to pay attention to churn rates and the lifetime value of their customers. Customer Experience (CX) looks at all the touchpoints with a product and optimizes for the best customer satisfaction. Some of the key product touchpoints are:
Pre-sales contact
Buying the product
Using the product
Getting support on the product
Expanding and renewing the subscription
Providing an excellent customer experience leads to loyal customers that renew. Customer experience can be a competitive advantage by removing reasons to terminate service and move to a competitor.
What Can Customer Experience Do for a Product?
A good CX strategy can go beyond a strong, customer-centric product team. Product teams do a lot to grow their products. For example, customer-centric product teams are known for:
fast responses to customer issues,
knowledgeable sales teams that create world-class solutions,
easy ordering of service
high-quality features that customers use.
A strong CX strategy can take product teams even further by:
Optimizing the customer journey
Reducing churn
Activating service effortlessly
Taking a higher level view of the customer experience with a product can show opportunities to improve:
Gaps in handoffs from sales to operations
Clunky transitions from customer support to service expansion
Missed signs of a potential termination of service
Service activation timing
Having a CX strategy is more important than who leads it. The CX strategy reminds even the most customer-centric product team that there is always more to do.
What's in a CX Strategy for a Product Team?
Product managers are on the frontline of defining their CX strategy. By pausing to consider CX requirements, product managers draw attention to the cross-functional needs of a good CX.
The steps for a good CX strategy consist of the following:
Prepare and use your customer journey on every product iteration
Look at the risk to your CX when you have quality tradeoffs
Drive commitment to CX requirements
Celebrate your competitive advantages with CX improvements
Take a CX requirements review before releasing a new product iteration
Product managers can take these steps whether there is a CX lead embedded in their product team or not. It is easier to do these with a dedicated CX leader - especially for justifying larger investments by your organization. However, maintaining your customer journey and keeping your customers' touchpoints in front of your product team can drive a better CX for your customers.
Conclusion - Driving Product Differentiation Through a Better Customer Experience
A good customer experience is the responsibility of the whole product team. The customer experience strategy begins with product managers and is driven by the product team. A dedicated CX leader is valuable for consistency and insights into a better customer experience. Though many product teams fill in the CX role organically, competing priorities can interfere with CX improvements.
In the end, a good customer experience comes from a good product team.
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I would be interested in seeing the results of your poll broken down by company size and/or revenue. I reckon the presence of a CX lead inside a product team highly depends on traction.