2-way conversations are now the norm! Social media, reality TV show voting, and smart phones make high interaction and accessibility a way of life. This is a trend that’s here to stay. And business processes that invite interaction at all employee levels are also proving more effective. So I’m wondering …. Which business process have you adapted to Web 2.0 principles of 2-way conversation?

Let’s talk about interaction and accessibility of employee recognition, and in particular, team recognition. Typically, managers are asked to nominate deserving recognition candidates – which is great, but of course this is dependent on the manager’s perspective … it’s 1-way communication. The managers typically need to document the recognition candidate’s achievements, adding to the managers’ already high load of paperwork duties. And this usually happens last-minute. Once the recognition recipient is selected, there is one-way communication from management. Really, how accessible and empowering is this process?

Key performance indicators are important gages of progress in customer experience management or any other endeavor. Balanced scorecards encourage 360-degree views of progress for a corporation or initiative.

The scorecard typically covers several categories, for example: customer, financial, productivity, and competitive metrics. By linking these categories in a single view, managers may see linkages between these areas and make all-encompassing, better informed decisions. Of course, the selection of these metrics is quite important, to ensure a truly holistic view with meaningful linkages and subsequent high-quality .

For senior executives the traditional balanced scorecard provides insights for steering the corporation or initiative in the right direction. However, these high level metrics may appear out of reach for most employees. The potential impact perceived by most employees in their specific job might be very disconnected from the high-level scorecard metrics.

Open your mind to new ideas for improving customer experience. It's a fast-paced highly competitive world, so continual improvement -- and occasional breakthroughs -- are imperatives for consistently delivering superior customer experience.

Every person has creative capability. "There's this common perception among managers that some people are creative, and most aren't. That's just not true," says Teresa Amabile, head of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School. "As a leader, you don't want to ghettoize creativity; you want everyone in your organization producing novel and useful ideas, including your financial people. The fact is, almost all of the research in this field shows that anyone with normal intelligence is capable of doing some degree of creative work."

'Too much information' (TMI) can hurt customer experiences. It can be tempting to brag or complain about things as the customer waits for something. It can be easy to get long-winded telling a story to a customer. Be careful! Not only is TMI inappropriate and unprofessional, but it turns customers off. It can negate an otherwise stellar customer experience.

Customers Expect Dialogue
Two-way communication, in short statements, is more the norm now. Think about Twitter, Facebook, and sites that allow customers to post ratings about their experiences. Customers now expect to be heard as much as they expect to hear. Adjust your communication style to accommodate these expectations. Make sure you're really good at customer listening!

Everyone wants good things to happen. For both customers and suppliers, we start off our day hoping everything will go well. Across numerous interactions you might feel great, or perhaps sometimes, let down. You probably want to feel great more often! How can that happen? It's up to you as a supplier to create excellent customer experiences that result in enthusiastic positive word-of-mouth and great business results.

It's up to you in all the decisions you make. As Jeanne Bliss explains in her book I Love You MORE THAN My Dog: 5 Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times & Bad, "Consider the story that the collective decisions of your organization tells customers, employees, and the marketplace. What story is emerging about who you are and what you value? Are your decisions reflecting what you intended? Do they indicate to employees and customers how much you honor them? When you make decisions that respect and honor customers you will earn their respect -- eventually their love. Are your decisions compelling customers to tell others to try your products and services? Are customers telling your story?"

For holistic customer experience management, the challenge is horizontal alignment to deliver intentional customer experiences. And to design intentional customer experiences, the company has to decide that experiences are a differentiating factor competitively. In my interview with Desirree Madison-Biggs, Director of Customer Insight and Measurement at Symantec, we discussed the keys to horizontal alignment, and what it takes to energize your customer experience strategy as a long-term journey enterprise-wide. She emphasized the importance of:

-Executive sponsorship from the CEO, defining customer experience management as a way of life rather than "the initiative du jour".
-Championing listening to customers and driving action for customer experience improvement through engagement across all functions.
- Systematic prioritization for fixing broken pieces of the customer experience.
- Consistent data, with focus on a key metric, communicated throughout the organization.
- Change management, including recognition, rewards, and ties to compensation.
- Champions within each business group to drive communication and actions.
- Keeping it fun through novel communication methods.

You've probably heard of the blind men who touched part of an elephant and were adamant about their interpretations. Businesses are in the same predicament without customer data integration for a panoramic viewpoint. In my interview with Swati Saxena, Customer Intelligence Manager at Hewlett-Packard, she outlined some of the benefits of integrating customer data:
- Better prediction and understanding of what drives customer loyalty.
- Identifying which products to sell to customers most profitably.
- Prioritizing customers to target with specific offers.
- Using the most effective messaging and communication channels, etc.
- Reducing waste for customers and the company, for improved customer experience management.

Social media contains a wealth of information about the customer experience, and savvy managers are paying attention. In my interview with Sean McDonald, fomer director of Dell's online community, he points out that the social Web is full of customer comments, and engaging customers in conversations enables opportunities for:
- Building brand reputation: turn negative sentiment into positive word-of-mouth.
- Customer service: delight and retain customers for additional growth.
- Competitor analysis: see how they are viewed by customers.
- Sales leads: find customers who are researching your brand category.
- Employee engagement: channel relevant data to all functional areas.
- New product development: augment focus groups with private community inputs.

Social media introduces excellent tools and customer feedback data streams for companies to monitor perceptions and trends. Best practices in customer experience management:
- Use social media listening first to determine how best to interact with customers.
- Recognize the importance of making emotional connections with customers via social media.
- Blend social media with other voice of the customer sources to create a holistic view of customer priorities.
- Leverage customer stories from social media to energize employees enterprise-wide in continual improvement of customer experience.