How to prove the value of your customer experience programs - actionable advice from CX expert Jim Tincher

The reasoning is quite simple: if you invest in the customer experience, it will improve. But by how much? And where is the proof?

Let's say you're the customer experience manager. You're in a budget meeting with the rest of the C-suite, prioritizing strategies for the year ahead, and you present a project that you believe will significantly improve the customer experience throughout the customer journey - maybe even will improve the CSAT or NPS by a few points. The customer experience is important; Everybody knows it. But when the difference between an elusive plan and a concrete proposal is a million dollars in retention fees, you can probably guess what they'll choose.

Companies are increasingly investing in customer experience programs, but few can demonstrate that this investment has tangible results. And so, CX programs often end up getting cut. This is what sets “Change Makers” apart, as customer experience expert Jim Tincher calls them. In his most recent book, Do B2B Better: Drive Growth Through Game-Changing Customer Experience, he sought to understand the differences between those who can prove that better customer experience equals better business. and those who just hope it will happen.

Before starting his consulting firm, Heart of the Customer, Jim Tincher led customer experience efforts at Best Buy and UnitedHealth Group, and over the decades he learned how important it is to build a company around the customer. No half measures, no shortcuts: just listen to them and create experiences that meet their needs.

In today's episode, we caught up with Jim to talk about how B2B and B2B2C companies can measure the impact and show the value of their customer experience programs.

Lack of time? Here are some key points:

To run a successful business, it's important to engage directly with customers and structure a growth strategy around understanding their needs. A true change maker captures financial metrics and links customer experience efforts to business growth and KPIs that drive business decisions. Change Makers don't just rely on surveys - they use operational, behavioral, sentiment and financial data to get a complete view of the customer and the impact of their behavior. Emotions are key predictors of behavior – positive impressions of a company lead to increased purchase intent and even forgiveness in the event of a bad experience. Typically, only 5-10% of customers respond to surveys. AI can take customer data, fill in those gaps, and even reveal issues that weren't captured by surveys in the first place.

If you like the discussion, watch more episodes of our podcast. You can follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or grab the RSS feed in your player of choice. The following is a slightly edited transcript of the episode.

To safeguard

Liam Geraghty: Jim, welcome to Inside Intercom.

Jim Tincher: Oh, thanks for having me.

Liam: It's great to have you here. Before we begin, could you give us an idea of ​​your background so far in your career?

Jim: My first job out of college was going to visit my girlfriend-turned-wife in Connecticut. I went to my boss and said, "While I'm at it, I'd like to visit a client." And he gave me this weird look and said, “Why? Go on vacation." I couldn't answer his question as to why, but from the start, I just thought that's what people do, spend time with their clients to understand how to create best products and services. From there I went into a small business. From there I went to Best Buy. All of them are very customer-focused organizations.

"Growth covers a multitude of sins"

Then I joined a large health insurance organization. I ran the largest line of health savings accounts in the country. And literally no one on our product or marketing team had ever met a customer. When I talked about the importance of talking with customers, the comments were, "Jim, we don't need to talk to customers. We're customers, so we know what customers want. And so that you can make our custom...