The customer promise clarifies “What is great customer experience”: CX Mini Masterclass – E69

Welcome to Decoding the Customer, a podcast about customer experience and how to realize customer-centric change in today’s dynamic business world. I’m Julia Ahlfeldt, certified customer experience professional, business advisor, and host of this program. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you’re new to the show, welcome.

If you’re a returning listener, thanks, and it’s great to have you back. This episode is part of my CX Mini Masterclass series here on Decoding the Customer. These weekly episodes are published each Thursday and designed to be punchy, bite-size overviews of key customer experience concepts and ideas for how you can help your organization thrive through customer centricity. Whether you’re new to the field of customer experience, are preparing for the CCXP exam, or are a seasoned professional looking to brush up on a few basics, this series will help you improve your knowledge, skills, and performance to stand out as a CX professional.

This is episode 69. Episode 67 covered how and why organizations should internally and externally market CX. Today I want to explore the concept of the customer promise, which is a foundational element for the internal and external marketing of customer experience. Specifically, I want to cover what a customer promise is, what one looks like in practice, and then why your organization needs one.

As always, if you’re out and about while listening to this and here’s something that you’d like to remember later, don’t worry about writing it down. You can find an overview of the key concepts that we’ve covered today in the show notes for this episode, which are on my website, juliaahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com. Right, so let’s get started. Most of us working in or adjacent to the field of customer experience will have encountered the term customer promise before.

But I find that there is quite a lot of confusion about what a customer promise actually is, so I want to kick off this episode with a clear definition. A customer promise is a single statement outlining the experience that a brand intends to provide to its customers and prospective customers. It should be clear, simple, and actionable, ideally no longer than one sentence. You could almost think of the customer promise as a vision or mission statement focused exclusively on the experience and how it should be delivered.

And I know what you’re thinking. We already have a vision, mission, and values. Why do we need another statement? That’s a great question, and the answer is twofold. First, most visions, missions, and values statements are not specific to the customer experience. They are broader in scope and reflect where the company is heading and how the company wants to operate.

Some companies are lucky enough to have really customer-centric visions and missions, in which case these could double up as a customer promise. But most brands don’t have a vision or mission focused on the experience. And secondly, while a company’s vision and values might support customer experience management, they are not the same as a customer promise, which is a specific commitment of the experience that can be expected by customers. Now I should mention that a customer promise is related to, but different from, a brand promise. Brand promise is more of a marketing term and describes what a brand promises to its customers in the broadest sense, encompassing all aspects of the relationship.

We could look at Apple’s brand promise of innovation, simplicity, and elegance. These brand attributes underpin how the brand interacts with its customers across all facets of the brand. Whereas a customer promise specifically focuses on the experience that a customer can expect when interacting with the brand. To bring a customer promise to life, I’d like to walk through a simple example of one. Let’s look at Hyundai’s customer promise for their service teams.

At Hyundai, we put all our efforts to provide customers with the best after-sales service. Now, I like this customer promise for a few reasons. First, the statement is simple and clear. Second, it communicates the importance of after-sales service as a strategic priority for the brand. And third, it sets expectations for what the customer experience teams should aim to deliver.

The statement signals to Hyundai’s teams that the service experience is a major strategic priority. When they say we put all our efforts, this signals to Hyundai’s teams that everything they do should contribute to a journey-defining after-sales service experience. But Hyundai’s customer promise alone is probably not specific enough for customer-facing teams to understand how to consistently deliver on this promise. So in their case, the customer promise is supported by eight experience principles, which are commitments to more specific things like listening carefully and actively following up on requests, maintaining a clean, safe and friendly environment, attending to customers promptly on arrival in a friendly and professional manner, and so on.

Experience principles are the how-to details behind the customer promise, linking the vision to behaviors or outcomes. They are a great way to unpack the next layer of detail behind the customer promise and can be incredibly helpful for specific departments or teams. They can also be very useful for defining how an organization should manage experiences delivered through specific channels. Now, this example from Hyundai is specific to the after-sales journey. It should be noted that it’s not best practice to create a customer promise that is so specific to one aspect of the journey.

Hyundai could and should have just as easily made a customer promise that was applicable to the entire customer journey. But this is a great example of what a customer promise looks like and how it should work in concert with more specific experience principles. OK, so we’ve covered what a customer promise is and what one looks like. Now let’s look at why it matters.

Most of us working in the field of customer experience will have had the experience of working in an organization where teams are running in different directions when it comes to customer experience management. Sometimes teams don’t even agree on what constitutes a good customer experience. Without a customer promise, different teams within an organization are likely to interpret the customer experience in different ways and may end up pursuing disparate targets. Your sales team might prioritize fast turnarounds, while your operations team might prioritize thoroughness.

Your marketing team might emphasize innovation, while your customer service team emphasizes consistency. Each team is trying their best, but they’re each working from their own interpretation of what great customer experience looks like. And without a North Star to guide them, they’ll struggle to come together and deliver a cohesive experience. It should come as no surprise that a shared understanding of what is great customer experience is a crucial place to start when it comes to rallying teams around a cohesive customer experience strategy.

The customer promise is that shared understanding. It’s the thread that connects all of the different teams and their efforts to deliver great customer experience. But defining and communicating a customer promise is only the first step. Once you have a customer promise, you need to operationalize it. This means that every team in the organization needs to understand how they contribute to delivering on the customer promise and what their specific responsibilities are.

This is where experience principles and customer-centric KPIs can be incredibly powerful, because they bridge the gap between the high-level customer promise and the day-to-day activities of each team. So that’s a quick overview of the customer promise concept. I hope you found this helpful. The key takeaways here are that the customer promise is a single statement outlining the experience a brand intends to provide, it is related to but distinct from a brand promise, it should be supported by experience principles that unpack the more specific detail, and it plays a critical role in aligning teams around a common definition of great customer experience.

If you’re enjoying the show, please share the program with others who might be interested, or head on over to iTunes and rate the podcast. This helps others find the show. I’ll be back soon with another CX Mini Masterclass, so tune in then or subscribe to the show for updates when new episodes go live. And if you’re keen to do some more intensive online training in the field of customer experience, then I’d encourage you to check out CX University.

They offer a broad array of e-learning options that you can access anywhere and anytime. Their offering includes practice tests for the CCXP exam, and they’re a Customer Experience Professionals Association accredited resource and training provider, meaning that their materials have been reviewed and vetted by the association for alignment with the six core competencies that are in the exam. And what’s better is that all of this is available on a flexible monthly subscription plan, meaning that you don’t have to fork over hundreds of dollars to get started. As of the time of publishing this podcast, plans including CX courses and practice exam questions start at just per month.

Listeners of this show can use the discount code Podcast10 to get 10% off the first month subscription and help support the show. I’ll catch you next time. But if you’d like to get in touch in the meantime, you can send me an email, tweet, or LinkedIn message. My handle is at Julia Ahlfeldt and my full contact details are also listed on my website, juliaahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com.