What Does Customer Experience Have to do With Your Career?

I want you to think of the last experience you had when flying somewhere. Now switch gears and think of the last time you called or ordered something from say, Apple. Notwithstanding the massive differences in the products they sell, Apple almost always falls into the “good experience” category or the easy, and generally without drama or strife” category. On the other hand, airlines and flying most likely falls in the “bad and way too expensive” category.

To clarify, I think we can all agree that the airlines never seem to have you, the customer, in mind – its own bottom line is what’s on its mind: making money and moving “units” (that’s you). Meanwhile, Apple’s core culture is all about you, the human you. They make it easy to do business with them.

So how does this relate to your career? As an individual pursuing success and shaping a career, your opportunity is much more manageable than an airline or Apple. And dare I say, it’s one of the biggest differentiators you have going, regardless of your position, pay, company, or the industry you work in.

Customer experience cannot be taken out of the revenue and profit equation. People will always be the path to success. Always. And when you don’t focus on them, your strategy will fail regardless of if you’re an industry, an up and coming ruler of the free world, just out of college, or an experienced professional looking for your next step.

At its core, customer experience is really about one thing: make interactions painless so that people want to come back. Make doing business with you easy. That’s the big secret to success.

 

Here are 4 ways you can align CX principles with your career success:

1. Make doing business with you easy. Don’t stand in the way of your own competency: look at what could be considered the “pain points” of doing business with you, and get rid of them. When you make it easy to work with you, you increase your personal brand value.

2. Mind your business. I don’t mean, stay out of it. I mean, be thoughtful about how you use yourself as a resource, and for whom. Companies do not make a habit out of “giving away the house”, but they credit customers occasionally when it will help maintain the relationship. Your skills are valuable, your attitude and approach are valuable, so charge, or don’t charge, for them wisely.

3. Consistency wins. Nobody wants to wonder which version of you they’re going to get: the bad mood, naysayer, or the exuberant, everything-is-wonderful version. I’m guilty of this, everybody is, because we’re human. Temper it, though. As a customer, you would never go to a restaurant again if you didn’t know what the condition of the food would be right? It’s about trust, ultimately, and managing the experience people have with you in the most consistent way possible.

4. Don’t overestimate your part. Have you done business with companies that are so arrogant about how much you need them, they become intolerable? They don’t listen, don’t respond to your needs, don’t really appreciate the relationship at all. In fact, the way they do things, or don’t do things, directly links to how dependent you are on them (think airlines, DMV). This sort of attitude is not a value-add. Be confident that your modesty will enhance your competency so much more. People will marvel at how good you are at what you do, and how “down to earth” and “easy to work with” you are.

 

As you do business with companies and individuals, start to notice how easy or painful it is. Take that to heart, and deliver yourself differently and in the best way possible.

 

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Career, job