Accolades are great
Last week, our QuestionPro CX software received another glowing write-up by industry analysts. It wraps up our 2020 reviews with great stories from multiple highly regarded research firms like this one and one here from earlier in the year. Unlike the celebrity award season which seemingly takes place over a short time with awards like the Academy, Golden Globes and Grammy Awards, our accolades tend to take place over a longer time and without much fanfare except for the occasional press release.
Despite the lack of public fanfare, it is great for everyone in our organization to see where their hard work is being recognized, not only in our success as a company, but also by the industry visionaries. It really takes quite a bit of effort to make it all happen between product planning and engineering and even the development operations team that keeps everything running. If it were an Oscar, it would be during the untelevised portion, but in my world these are the ones that should be giving long winded “Thank You” speeches to the global audience that tuned in. We also have people working hard on the front lines, our marketing team which gets us noticed in the first place and the account management team which makes certain we deliver on our promises. It really is a team effort, and my speech would probably start out with me individually thanking the nearly 300 dedicated QuestionPro employees that made this all happen….probably only to be cut off by the music taking us into commercial….
Where is the ceremony?
Over the years, I make an effort to thank people whenever I have the chance for their efforts. Ultimately, they make us successful and make these awards possible. In addition, if you know anything about the employee experience, you would know that it is important to show your employees that they are appreciated. That is why you’ll frequently hear me discussing EX and the impact it has on CX. I feel strongly enough about it that I’ve written about it in my blogs and as far back as 15 years ago I worked on a significant contribution to the space connecting CX and EX with my colleague Tim Keiningham.
If you think about your organization, when was the last time you celebrated a CX success? Go into any car dealership, there is probably a bell that celebrates a sale, but I don’t remember ever seeing that in the service department. I visited a popular nationwide electronics store this weekend and saw the banners celebrating “Best CX Score” for the region for a specific quarter, but it really felt like those were for the customers to see.
One might ask if I’m suggesting that the customer be invited to celebrate the success of a team getting a high rating. I’ll simply respond with, why not? I’m not suggesting that every customer be on hand to celebrate the success of a team that worked hard to get good customer service feedback, but what I do want to emphasize is that we should remember everyone that contributed. Maybe even celebrate with cake and invite the customers to join, along with the cashier that had the best score, the call center rep that had the best KPIs and the overnight stock manager that made the location look extraordinary every day to start with. Not that everyone needs a trophy, but you can really help your CX by acknowledging all those that make it happen, even if from a thousand miles away.
Best director in a CX documentary…
When I think about our awards, I have so many people to thank at QuestionPro for helping us to achieve those accolades. However, it also goes beyond the walls of QuestionPro. There are people that shaped my career in CX that range from employees in my past companies to educators that shaped my approach to thinking and philosophy. Speakers at conferences I’ve attended and customers that filled out our survey. Yes, I can even extend a thank you to all my competitors in the industry over the years, you push us to be better and I hope the same is true for you.
Join the next ConneXt Live! that features the very well known Diane Magers about designing CX programs to maximize ROI. Learn for 20 minutes and meet eight to ten new people that have similar interests in CX as you. If you enjoyed CX Talks, this new format will prove to be even more engaging, interactive and informative. You can register here.
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