How To Rock Your CX Basics

Good CX rocks.

In the case of James Dodkins—the CX Rockstar, CX Evangelist at PEGA, and International Keynote Speaker—that statement is true from every angle. And, if you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing him speak, oh dear friend… get thee to our podcast page .

Dodkins sits down with Flip CX’s own James Gilbert to talk CX basics, and why it’s so essential we get back to them. This week, on the Spamming Zero Podcast.

This episode is packed with all kinds of ridiculously relevant advice, and Dodkins has a way of making even the word “crappy” somehow both charming and hilarious. Yeah, go figure that one out.

Point is, there’s simply not time to cover all that goodness in a quick blog post. You’ll want to listen in for yourself. For now, here are some top takeaways sure to rock your world. (Went there, not sorry.)

A deeper dive into CX basics + how to implement them 

There’s so much talk out there about wowing customers and exceeding expectations—excellent goals, to be sure. But, as Dodkins points out, none of that stuff matters unless you can “do the normal stuff properly”.

In fact, our rockstar is a big fan of what he calls “boring companies”, because they do what they say they’re going to do consistently. So, his advice? “Just get the basics right. Be consistently consistent and brilliantly boring.”

Some “boring” basics to get back to: 

1)    Take a center-out approach. This is a big one for Dodkins and for his company, PEGA. In his words, “Start with the outcome—the thing that customer’s trying to achieve—and keep that context throughout the journey.”

2)    Have a phone number. It doesn’t get more basic than that, but this also includes NOT intentionally burying your number so deep in your website that the customer can’t find it… ‘Nuff said.

3)    24/7 support. Dodkins talks about “the moments that make experiences that create emotions that get stored as memories that build those relationships with companies,” and a lot of those are going to be simple service moments. The right automation can be super helpful here. In fact, as host James Gilbert points out, automating some of those simple requests ARE the basics. But don’t be that company that has a 9-5 bot. As Dodkins says, “You’re a robot, mate. Why are you not open 24/7?”

4)    Clean up the connection between your channels and your systems. You’ve got a boatload of shiny channels, and then you’ve got all your systems that actually get the work done. If the two aren’t connected and communicating, what was meant to make your customers’ lives better will make them head for the door.

5)    Trackability. For our guest expert, this is about letting the customer know the exact process they’ve got to go through to achieve whatever it is they’re trying to achieve. Give your customers that visibility—that line of sight to see where they are in the process—and watch what happens.

6)    Get more proactive in today’s world of prosumers. A big part of this comes down to how you handle feedback, and traditional channels aren’t necessarily cutting it. Dodkins encourages getting in front of issues and reaching out to customers the moment you, as a company, know something’s gone wrong.

“That is like the holy grail,” he says. “You would save the people going online and spreading the bad sentiment about you… But you’d also save that other 96% that are gonna’ just silently leave and never use you again.”

There’s so much more delicious info to consume in the episode, so we’ll let you dig in. Here’s to you and the “brilliantly boring basics” that are going to rock your CX!

Check out the full conversation in Episode 5 of Spamming Zero. And be sure to Listen, rate, and subscribe on Casted, Apple Podcast, or Google podcasts for more great eps coming your way!

If you’d like to see how Flip CX can slash the spamming of zero in your call center—cutting costs while improving CX metrics across the board—schedule a quick meeting here.