CX Book Gems #19: "CX-PRO - Beyond the Basics" by Karl Sharicz
Book summary of "CX-PRO - Beyond the Basics: Advanced Insights for Customer Experience Professionals" by Karl Sharicz.
This week’s book is CX-PRO - Beyond the Basics: Advanced Insights for Customer Experience Professionals by Karl Sharicz.
📘 Book Summary
CX-PRO - Beyond the Basics by Karl Sharicz is the second book in the CX-PRO series (CX-PRO: A Practical Guide for the New Customer Experience Manager is the first book in the series) and is aimed at guiding professionals who have already grasped the fundamentals of Customer Experience Management (CXM) into a more advanced understanding of the discipline. It’s a collaborative effort by sixteen seasoned CX professionals who provide insights into mastering CX in a modern business landscape driven by technology, globalization, and consumer empowerment.
I intentionally tapped into the lesser-known personalities with the field of CX yet those with insights and experiences well beyond their would-be reputation as CX experts and CX thought leaders.
Contents of CX-PRO: Beyond the Basics
Aligning CX with the C-Suite by Patty Soltis
CX From a Frontline Perspective by Scott Gilbey
Building CX Resiliency Through Self-Care by Jerry Seufert
Delivering on the Customer Service Experience (CSX) by Alex Mead
The Net Promoter System (NPS) Done Right by Jim Bass
Data Inventories for Better Experiences by Gary C. David
The Art & Science of CX Storytelling: Techniques for Change and Connection by Judy Bloch
The Emerging Role and Importance of Al in Managing the Customer Experience by Marc Mandel
The CX Professional as a Trusted Guide by Mark Slatin
Using CX to Act by Ken Peterson
Networking and Professional Advancement by Greg Melia
Customer Progress Design (jobs-to-be-done) by Eckhart Boehme
Quality Approaches to Customer Experience Management by Alec N. Dalton
Understanding the Human Element in CX by Mark Borst
The Power of Employee Experience by Rich Dorfman
Customer Experience Career Paths: How to Find a Job in Customer Experience by Laurie Gray
Contents of CX-PRO: Practical Guide for New Customer Experience Manager
Building a Customer Experience Strategy
Systems Thinking (The Big Picture)
Customer Experience Design
Customer Experience Governance
Customer Experience Maturity Assessments
Customer Journey Management
CX Metrics and Measurement
Survey Instrument Development
Survey Deployment and Distribution
Closed Loop Systems and Case Management
Analytical Techniques
Voice of the Customer (VoC) Survey Platforms
Change Management
Assessing and Measuring Success
The Criticality of the Customer Service Experience
Putting it All Together in Practice
CX-PRO: Practical Guide for New Customer Experience Manager
4 CX Storytelling Techniques
To make storytelling more effective, four techniques are commonly used:
Personal anecdote: Share a specific, relatable story about a customer’s interaction with your brand to humanize CX metrics and engage listeners on an emotional level.
Immersive/experiential: Take your audience on a journey, immersing them in the customer’s experience as if they were living through it themselves, which helps build empathy.
Analytical: Use data-backed stories that link customer behaviors, patterns, and trends to business outcomes. This combines the emotional with the logical.
Historical retelling: Leverage stories from your organization’s past to illustrate how changes in CX strategy led to tangible improvements, providing context and showing evolution over time.
💎 3 CX Gems
Aligning CX with the C-Suite: CX must be strategically aligned with the top leadership to drive real business value. Executive leaders must understand and champion CX initiatives, ensuring that customer-centricity becomes a core part of the organizational culture and decision-making processes.
CX storytelling for change and connection: Storytelling is a critical tool in CX. It allows CX professionals to connect with customers and stakeholders emotionally while also driving internal change. Through effective storytelling, CX teams can advocate for the customer, inspire innovation, and foster a deeper organizational commitment to improving customer experiences.
The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in CX: Emerging technologies, particularly AI, are playing an increasingly significant role in managing and improving CX. AI can enhance personalization, automate routine customer service tasks, assist agents and analysts, and provide real-time insights into customer behaviors, enabling CX professionals to be more proactive in addressing customer needs.
CX leaders must stop trying to prove ROI and instead add value to the organization and connect to leadership priorities.
Humanize data insights through storytelling.
AI in customer-facing applications needs governance.
The book emphasizes the central role of CX in modern businesses, highlighting its importance as a business strategy that aligns closely with leadership and operational processes. Through contributions from CX experts, readers gain advanced strategies on how to leverage data, AI, storytelling, and employee engagement to enhance customer experiences. The collective tips shared in the book empower CX professionals to navigate the challenges of a rapidly evolving business landscape and drive customer-centric growth.