What Jeremy Lin Can Learn from Customer Experience Management

With a fresh NBA season kicking off, one of the story lines I’ll have my eyes on is the progression of Jeremy Lin’s career. Like many sports fans I became quite caught up in the #Linsanity phenomenon last season and am looking forward to seeing what he can do in his starting role in Houston.

When it comes to how he will do, I think most people have two questions when it comes to his basketball potential.

  1. Can he play in the NBA?
  2. Can he play at the level he played at last year for a full season?

If #Linsanity proved one thing , the answer to question number one is a yes. Question number two is trickier and requires the young point guard to be able to sustain a consistent level of performance for a full season, perhaps the playoffs, for many years to come.

Variations of these two questions are what retailers are asked of when it comes to business success.

  1. Does a retailer have a unique offering that addresses the market?
  2. Does a retailer offer a consistently great experience that can scale their growth?

Like the young point guard most, if not all, retailers can answer an unequivocal yes to question number one.  After all defining a unique offering is the first paragraph of most business plans. The trickier part is question number two. Particularly in a fast growing brand, maintaining a level of consistent execution can be a challenge. But brands that are successful, the ones that separate themselves from the pack and reach iconic status, are the ones who have this operational consistency.

There is help out there for brands who want to achieve consistency but aren’t quite sure how. Today’s customer experience management (CEM) programs are focused on helping brands to first uncover what elements are most important to a great experience, and also help brands with action driving tools to make sure those key elements are delivered on in a consistent manner.

These programs work by focusing on location excellence and help location managers to do their jobs better by:

Providing program accountability to local managers

Customer experience programs don’t work if locations ignore them. A CEM program should turn complex customer feedback into simple, relevant insights and clear actions.  This goes beyond reporting and allows location managers to take increased ownership of the experience delivered at their locations.

Help ensure consistency across all locations

CEM programs can help ensure that all of your local managers understand the key elements of a brand promise and what factors they control to ensure they are delivering it. One of the most valuable assets multi-unit brands have is their top performing locations.  Not only are they big contributors of profits but decoding their formula for success can be a key to brand growth.  Location focused CEM programs have the ability to raise the performance of all locations by providing local managers with insights on best practices from top locations and how best to apply them.

Coach local managers on what to fix and how to execute

Today’s CEM programs eliminate wasted time spent reading and interpreting reports.  Instead, local managers are focused on the most important area to improve and spend their time ensuring the correct front line execution.  Locations control an action plan based on best practices to tailor the execution to the needs of their specific teams.

Whether on the basketball court or in the game of retail, consistency is often the key to rising above the competition. The good news for retailers out there is there is help available. A well thought out CEM program can be the key to ensuring a recipe for retail success is within reach. As for Jeremy Lin, we sports fans will have to wait and see if he can rise to challenge put in front of him.

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