As a customer experience management (CEM) continues to gain importance in the minds of today’s CEOs, more and more companies take on customer experience management projects to improve customer satisfaction, develop better customer insight, nurture loyalty and support, and improve customer lifetime value. The rapid growth of the top echelons of strategic priority has brought an unfortunate side effect, many customer experience management myths have begun to form due to a flood of conflicting definitions, perspectives and over-hyped promises.

For any company wishing to establish or improve customer experience management capabilities, it is important to remove these myths once and for all.

Myth # 1: Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the only Metric You Need

Customer satisfaction experiance can be wide, long run, it can span channels, and is influenced by a combination of internal and external factors. Attempts to measure it effectively with a simple calculation that customer satisfaction or Net Promoter Score is overly simplistic and risky. Effectively managing the customer experience requires effective measurement and management of a portfolio of metrics that provide a true measure of what is – or not – working.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of customer advocacy that was the centerpiece of Fred Held Reich’s 2006 book called “The Ultimate Question”. The Net Promoter Score is calculated by taking the percentage of customers who are promoters smaller percentage of customers who are opponents. Obviously, the higher the resulting number – the better.

While the Net Promoter Score is an effective measure of overall customer advocacy, it will not take all possible customer experience management issues. Here’s why:

1.Customer advocacy – or Net Promoter Score – measures only one dimension of customer experience. Focuses only on a single metric Net Promoter Score means ignoring equally important dimensions of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. An efficient and comprehensive customer experience program must take all these dimensions into account.

2.The Net Promoter Score is only an aggregate measure of the total customer experience. However, several factors and the touch points that contribute to the total customer experience are many. Focuses only on an aggregate calculation without understanding or managing the contributory factors can cause unpredictable results. Companies wishing to improve their overall customer experience to focus on managing and measuring the underlying events that contribute to an exceptional customer experience.

3.The Net Promoter Score does not necessarily equate to customer action. For example, for each customer who said they would “definitely recommend” the company in a customer survey can not do any actual recommendations. Companies seeking to realize tangible results need to relate their NPS agrees with other key business metrics such as new customer additions, increase in profitability, or changes in market share.

While the NPS is an important customer experience metric, companies wishing to establish or improve the customer experience capabilities to find a more robust set of metrics that measure all the dimensions of the customer experience lifecycle.

Myth No. 2: The customer experience is just a new term for customer service

Customer service just does not measure up to the customer experience. Do not get me wrong, customer service is just as important as ever, providing good customer service is one of the most tangible and visible ways to improve customer satisfaction. Customer service, but represent only a small fraction of the total customer experience. Companies that talk themselves into a false sense of achievement by focusing only on customer service lacks the big picture; customer experience encompasses much more than just customer service.

While customer service is important, and focus exclusively on customer service can look at the big picture. Here’s why:

1.Customer service is often only a subset of potential touch points: a receptionist, a call center representative, or a restaurant waiter or waitress. Each touch point, providing a significant contribution to how each customer is treated. Even the best customer service, but will not correct an error or customer experience. In contrast, the customer experience broad and includes all the touch points that extend from the customer’s first impression to their final defection.

2.Customer service often refer to human interaction with the customer. While human interaction is crucial, consumers are increasingly using self-service options via the internet, telephone response systems and automated kiosks. According to a survey by the Pew Internet Study, 73% of adult Americans use the Internet, a touch-point dimension that continues to grow steadily. Customer Experience initiatives must consider all take points and channels to capture the end-to-end scope of customer experience process.

While customer service is an important part of the overall customer experience, companies wishing to establish or improve customer experience capabilities should define its customer experience more broadly, customer experience should be defined as an end-to-end process that begins with customer attraction, runs through interaction, and ending cultivation – where the process begins again.

Myth No. 3: Each channel shall have a unique customer experience

Thanks to technology and multiple points of presence, business just keeps getting more complicated. Innovations in technology have brought new channels like call centers, Internet, and now mobile channels in many industries. Many companies, eager to stay in the game, jumping in with new channels without having to take an integrated view of the customer.

Admittedly, each channel has unique properties and can be used in different ways and for different purposes by the customer. Treating each channel experience as unique and independent, however, is a recipe for disaster. Each channel can actually be different; customer experience should not be.

Ever since the day Ray Kroc started McDonald’s expanding empire, he set the standard for consistency across every location. Wherever you are in the world, McDonald’s experience the same. Ray Kroc formula for consistency should be a blueprint for any company operating in a multichannel environment today. Managing each channel as unique and different should not be. Here’s why:

1.Customers is increasingly expect more channels options. According to Sterling Commerce Study, 80% of customers surveyed believe it is important to have a variety of shopping across multiple channels when you choose a dealer. Companies with only a single channel option, or channels that are discreet and offline, will probably miss the boat.

2.Customers expect the customer experience to be the same across channels. According to a survey conducted by Tealeaf, 85% of adults expect their online service levels to be the same as offline, an increase of 3% from the year before. Offer inconsistencies across channels will only contribute to customer frustration or confusion.

3.Customers likely to change channels. As the number of channels available to the customer continues to grow, so too does the challenge of providing seamless integration across channels. A customer experience that starts in a channel should transfer seamlessly and continue in another without interruption. Lack of consistency across channels will only spoil the overall customer experience.

Although each business channel has unique properties and can be used in different ways and for different purposes by the customer, each channel experience should not be designed or operated independently. Companies seeking to establish or improve their total customer experience should focus on cross-channel consistency and seamless channel handoffs regardless of the customer experience scenario. Put simply, maintaining discrete channels with separate customer experiences will not cut it for today’s demanding customers.

Myth 4: A centralized customer database Provides a 360-degree view of customer

Establishment of a 360-degree view of the customer has long been the holy grail of a CRM program. Many companies are consolidating their many customer databases into a centralized customer database and declare victory. Although the creation of a single customer database is fundamental to a 360-degree view of customer, a customer database alone often will not provide your company with a complete view of the customer. Here’s why:

1.a centralized customer database often contains only simple, static data such as name, address, account number, demographic and profile information. Although this core information is critical, it often will not provide historical information about transactions or changes of address, account or profile information. Without historical information, it is difficult to get a complete picture of the customer.

2.Customer interactions can take place in many forms, in several locations, and across multiple channels. Unless the customer database is specifically designed to store interactions, you are missing an important part of your customer’s behavior.

3.Customer databases are often designed to support operational activities such as transaction processing, order management and billing. Operational databases often lack a solid customer analysis that is required to unlock the secrets of customer experience.

4.Customer feedback is often collected and handled separately from the customer information. As a result, aligning their attitudes to specific customers or customer groups be difficult.

Although a centralized customer database is fundamental for a 360-degree view of customer, a database alone will not give the complete picture. Companies seeking to establish or improve their total customer experience should look beyond the customer databases to more robust data warehousing capabilities that include a display of historic changes, transactions, interactions and feedback that can provide a complete 360-degree view of the customer.

Myth No. 5: CRM = Customer Experience Solution

As the CRM concept has matured, it has the hype engines were thrown into overdrive. The result marketing can make it difficult to distinguish between CRM and CEM. But do not make mistakes, Customer Experience Management is much different as Customer Relationship Management. Choosing a CRM software solution to solve your customer experience problems may miss the mark. Here’s why:

1.CRM software is usually more functional (rather than process-centric) in nature. Many CRM systems are designed to provide specific point solutions to support the CRM functions such as call center support, eCommerce, marketing automation or loyalty reward management. While each point solution often works well, the CRM software solutions alone will not enable or help to manage end-to-end nature of the customer experience process.

2.CRM software is limited to the scope of its technology and can not support or affect all take points. While the CRM software has come a long way in the last decade, there is still the customer experience touch points that can not be directly influenced or controlled by the CRM software. Press the points that employee interactions aspects of direct marketing, and third-party touch points can have a significant impact on customer experiences, but may not be supported by CRM software.

3.CRM software is often implemented as a best-of-breed solution and lacks the level of enterprise-wide integration is necessary to develop and manage a true 360-degree view of the customer. CRM software solutions are good at managing customer information. The view of the customer can be limited, but if a complete set of customer interactions, behavior or preferences are not properly captured and analyzed. Interactions inbound and outbound communications, promotions, or customer care interaction is often not detected and managed by CRM solutions. CRM solution alone will not solve this problem, companies must take steps to engrain CEM concepts through all points of contact in their business.

4.CRM solutions provide a limited set of customer experience metrics. While CRM solutions often provide important functional calculations, they are often the transaction in nature and will not provide a comprehensive set of calculations necessary to analyze, measure and manage end-to-end customer experience.

While CRM software is an important first step for any company wishing to improve their customer relationships, it is not a surrogate for Customer Experience Management. Companies seeking to establish or improve their total customer experience should look beyond CRM software solutions and search customer experience solutions that extend the CRM software. Focus on specific functions should include Business Process Management, sophisticated customer experience analytics, and enterprise-wide visibility to customer interactions, covering the total customer experience.