No one can deny the fact that customer experience has become a significant part of business success today. The reasons can be attributed to competitive differentiation, enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty, increased acquisition and decreased churn, greater top-line growth, etc.  

The point is, there are “N” number of reasons to improve customer experience. But, it is never easy for an organization to execute it. This is where the role of a customer experience coach comes into the picture. 

Now the question is, why do organizations turn to customer experience coaches?  

This write-up will answer this question by providing five impeccable benefits of hiring a customer experience coach.  

So, let’s get started. 

Why do top performers turn to outside customer experience coaches for guidance? 

There’s no denying in the statement that several top-performing companies turn to outside customer experience coaches for guidance. There’s statistical evidence to prove this. Research done by Gleanstar suggests that at least three-quarters of the businesses outperforming their peers in terms of customer experience take guidance from external customer experience coaches.

Take any given industry; the leaders in the industry reach the position because of certain actions. They understand things more intricately and are willing to invest in services that fortify their performance. This is just like top athletes hiring coaches for themselves.

The athletes, undoubtedly, know every minute detail about their game, and they still need someone to analyze their performance and provide guidance for improvement. The same applies to business. It is a tough task to handle every minute detail of the operations and question things.

Outside Customer Experience Coaches are experienced to do their job. They have a new approach and perception about your business and its performance and can better understand the overall picture. On the other hand, executives who are part of the business see its performance in silos.

External coaches provide a perspective and focus that cannot be expected from internal organizational support. Top performers in any industry understand this valuable difference between internal assessment and external scrutiny.  

Further, customer centricity has now become much more important than ever. It is no more just a good business trait, rather, it is a necessity for survival.

While all businesses know and claim to understand the importance of customer-centricity, very few are able to implement it satisfactorily. This is due to the knowing-doing gap. Because the outside customer experience coach sees a wider picture, they can help effectively fill the knowing-doing gap.

The top performers are humble enough to accept the knowing-doing gap of their organization. Hence, they hire external coaches to show them their weaknesses.

External coaches do not work like cheerleaders for the business or its executives. They provide honest feedback on whether the business performance is good, bad, or ugly in terms of customer experiences. Honest feedbacks are precious gifts for anyone willing to work on those feedbacks.

The top-performing businesses, who hire external customer experience coaches, know the value of feedback provided by the coaches and willingly work to improve their performance. This is why they are the top performers. 

Top 5 ways hiring a customer experience coach can benefit your organization 

Hiring an experienced customer experience coach can transform your business. We can list down numerous legitimate benefits of hiring a customer experience coach. But we do not intend to overwhelm you. So, let us give you the top-5 reasons for hiring an external customer experience coach.

So, here we go!

1. Prevents you from making a false start 

A good beginning may or may not make your work half-done, but a wrong beginning surely ruins all your efforts. To reach your desired destination, you need to start your journey from the right place. Once you make a false start or a start from the wrong position, you get into the vicious cycle of committing mistakes. And these mistakes may not only attract financial losses but may also result in reputational loss.

A customer experience coach gives you a well-planned roadmap that takes you to your destination from your current position in the least possible time and resources. They prevent you from taking the wrong road from the very beginning.

2. Helps in measuring progress through qualifiable outcomes you wish to achieve 

Ascertaining a goal to accomplish is the first task a coach does. They know your destination from the very beginning. And they also know your exact position with respect to your destination.

They make sure to place milestones in the roadmap so that they can measure your progress in quantifiable terms. It is important for their self-assessment too. So, when you work with a customer experience coach, you will know your progress in measurable terms.

You should know that when you have the capacity to measure your progress, you are less likely to get diverted from your path. This means the customer experience coach helps you in staying on the right track throughout your journey. 

3. Makes you maximize their experience in transforming your business for better 

Every business is different from the other. Even businesses in the same industry working on the same level cannot be identically similar. So, even though experienced business coaches have seen many business settings, they will gain unique experience from your business. Therefore, a business transformation, therefore, is an as exciting experience for the coach as is for the business itself.

When an athlete breaks an old record or creates a new one, it is not an exciting moment for the athlete only. The coach, too, has a similar stake in the athlete’s performance. The same relationship stands between a business (or executive ) and the customer experience coach.

A business transformation thus maximizes the experience of the coach. And guess what, the maximized experience of the coach will again be put in enhancing your business performance, thus creating a virtuous cycle of growth and development.

4. Helps you approach customer experience in a better way 

A business executive cannot have a clear view from the perspective of a customer. It is only a third party like a customer experience coach who can stand in the shoes of a customer and simultaneously wear a business executive’s hat. It is this unique capability that enables a business coach to see a wider picture. They provide you with the insights to approach your business from the customer experience perspective.

A customer experience coach can transform any business into an experience-led business which is the need of the time. No business in today’s time can survive without getting truly customer-centric. 

5. Addresses culture questions in the organization  

Every organization has a culture. The culture may be beneficial for the organization or may even be harmful to the overall business growth. It is difficult for an insider to assess the culture and ask tough questions. A coach can help an organization question its culture and scrutinize its effects on the overall performance of the business.

The customer experience roadmap prepared by a coach determines responsibility for every business unit and makes people accountable for their responsibilities. This can significantly enhance the organization’s performance as a whole. Without a coach, any hampering culture of an organization can go unnoticed, unquestioned, and unchecked, which may have a significantly bad impact on the business and customer experiences.   

Final Thoughts 

Hiring a customer experience coach is a no-brainer, especially for B2B organizations. As the years roll by, we are going to see customers diverting towards customer experience. And, to ensure that your organization can cope with their increased demands, you will need the services of an experienced customer experience coach to ensure that your business achieves the threshold of success in the years to come! 

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