Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Customer Worthy (The Book) Offers Methodology for Customer Experience Management

My friend and former business partner Michael Hoffman of ClientXClient recently sent a copy of his new book Customer Worthy, which explores use of his customer experience management tool, the CxC Matrix. I’ve long been a big fan of the Matrix*, which visualizes all the ways a customer can interact with a business. The new book provides a detailed explanation of Matrix concepts and applications.

The core concept is to “Think Like a Customer” (a favorite Hoffman catch phrase), meaning to understand each contact from the customer’s point of view. The book explains how to use the Matrix to document contacts throughout the customer life cycle, allowing companies to systematically visualize, analyze, monetize, prioritize and ultimately optimize each interaction. It shows how to extend the Matrix to the departmental and system view of each contact, giving companies a roadmap of the steps they must take to execute on Matrix concepts.

Other sections address privacy concerns and highlight the cost of poor service. A final section explains how each department throughout the company can use the Matrix to organize its internal work and coordinate with the rest of the organization.

Customer Worthy provides a good mix of inspiration, theory and practical examples. I’m pleased he’s taken the time to work through Matrix concepts at length, since it’s a rich topic that repays detailed examination. Even if you don’t deploy the Matrix in the forms that Hoffman describes, it’s worth reading to reinforce the broader points that (a) the customer comes first and (b) there are systematic ways to make that thought a reality.


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*This blog, which started when Hoffman and I were partners, was named for it.

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