by: Tricia Morris, Business 2 Community (Excerpt)

Just a few years ago, Gartner Research conducted a marketing spending survey where 89% of the responding companies said that by 2016, they expected to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience. In the same survey, less than half rated their company’s customer experience as exceptional at the time (2014), but two-thirds said they expected it to be exceptional within two years – which brings us to today… […]

With more and more companies pursuing the customer experience peak, what can drive, improve and hasten the journey?

Altimeter Group digital analyst and author Brian Solis recently told fellow influencer Michael Krigsman on CXOTalk:

1. Don’t wait for change. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and challenge the status-quo if the change you’re seeking helps everyone succeed. “If you’re waiting to be told what to do, you’re on the wrong side of innovation,” said Solis.

2. A great customer experience is all a matter of perspective. Organizations cannot deliver what customers want by assuming the organization knows. They must look at and empathize with how the customer experiences their brand or org from the customers’ eyes and evolve from there.

3. It may mean taking a few steps back or starting over. Building on top of incorrect, broken or siloed basics won’t work, and this applies to even the largest, most established brands.

4. Gaining support is a journey in itself. Change agents must become lawyers (gathering data and evidence), politicians (working across the aisles and divisions) and cheerleaders (promoting the positive even when others aren’t on your team) – all before seeking executive sponsorship.

5. Non-supporters can actually help. In listening to those who aren’t buying the change you’re seeking and trying to sell, you can utilize the insights to ease concerns and pushbacks.

6. Organizations must work from the inside out. Solis notes that employee experience and culture design are the next big things and key to the greatest customer experiences.

7. Transformation involves iteration, innovation and disruption. To get to the top and stay there, organizations must do the same things better, do new things that unlock new value, and embrace new things that make the old things obsolete. […]