How do people experience you?

Hi everyone.  Today, I want to apply the concepts of customer experience to career progression.  "Experience" has been a heavily used buzzword for the past decade.  Corporate functions and consulting offerings have been built around customer experience.  The idea is that a customer's experience heavily influences purchase decisions.  As an omnichannel consumer (catalog, online, app-enabled, and in-store), I wholeheartedly agree.  If I am frustrated by my experience at a store, website, or app, I will be less likely to complete my transaction or shop there again. 

I had a conversation recently with a retired executive.  We discussed how people's experience with an individual greatly influences their career progression, especially at the executive level.  Most executive development programs include psychiatric and 360 assessments to help participants benchmark themselves against behavioral models and explore observation and feedback from others.  The first time I participated in these assessments, I was humbled to learn that people’s experiences of me were different (in good and bad ways) from my own perception.  

So let's explore five major customer experience metrics and apply them to career progression:

1.) Net Promoter Score – This is arguably the most important metric when it comes to customer experience.  It is a score that answers the question, "Would you recommend this provider, product, or service to someone else?"  

Executives will make sure their peers are comfortable with their protégés before recommending them as successors.  They will build the “net promoter score” case for promotion by allowing the other executives to "experience" their protégés’ capabilities.  It is important for the protégés to come across as equals to the other executives, with the right tone and presence.

2.) Response time – Another key metric to customer experience is response time.  Like me, you can probably think of a few people at work that you turn to regularly because they respond quickly.  You can probably also identify a few people you have reservations about: they only respond when you CC the right person or name-drop, or never respond at all.  This is a very interesting metric to crowdsource because while you may think your response time is appropriate, others may disagree.

3.) Problem resolution and reliability – Obviously, the more positive experiences people have around your problem resolution skills and reliability, the better.  I have had some hard lessons learned here.  At a certain level, you become the face of quality issues.  This is true even if there are legitimate reasons and other parties that were directly responsible for the issues.  Problems are sticky, especially for people who have a tendency to have blind spots.  They will recall their experience of you for all the wrong reasons for a very long time.  It is important to resolve issues quickly and rebuild trust by delivering issue-free experiences going forward.

Keep it real – if you have ever had the experience of receiving a cheap imitation of the product advertised online, then you know that people will share negative reviews of you with others if they discovered that you were not authentic.  

4.) Contact volume – Are you interacting enough to develop a "relationship" with your customers?  The depth of people's experience of you will depend on how often you have had meaningful interactions with them.  I have heard positive feedback about leaders who are known for spending the effort to interact with their constituents.  I have also heard negative experiences from employees who felt their supervisors only came around once in a while, usually with one-sided constructive feedback.  It is important for you to strategize and plan meaningful interactions that will improve people's experience of you.

5.) Relationship economics – Who are you focused on when you are interacting with others?  Clearly, people's experience of you will be much more positive if it results in something of value to them - business benefits, reputation, advice, information, connections, job opportunities, etc.   Information is an interesting one.  I have had some very frustrating experiences when I cannot quickly find the information that I need to make a purchase decision.  Think about how others experience your ability to provide useful information to them.  Are you articulate?  Do you respond with the right information with the right level of detail?

As I took you through this analogy, I found myself gravitating to the importance of having an open dialogue about how others experience you.  In the past, I have made the mistake of leaving many things unspoken.  Why make waves?  Why force uncomfortable dialogue?  Unfortunately, when there is no open dialogue, all the bad experiences end up festering and sticking to our brand.  All of our bad habits become more firmly entrenched because they are not called out as areas for improvement.  So, it is a good idea to schedule self-assessments and solicit feedback from your own board of advisers.  

Stay Amasian!