A case study for integrating EX with CX

Recently, on the way to an early meeting in the city, my colleague and I stopped off at a local car dealership so that he could collect his car which had just been serviced. This was about 8am.

While I waited for him, I went to get a coffee from the machine, and after waiting in line behind the queue of sales consultants also getting their first coffee of the day, I then hung around reading some material on the latest model while drinking my coffee. 15 minutes later my colleague came out and we left.

All very normal and pleasant, but what struck me was that not one of the sales consultants spoke to me, or even acknowledged me. I suspect their working day hadn’t started. Personally, I am not too fussed, I am not actively looking to buy a car. I am however starting to think about it, and had they engaged with me, it may very well have led to a sale, not then but in the near(ish) future.

Now I suspect that if they measured CX (and maybe they do), these consultants would get a great score, they are probably very good at their job. EX scores may however tell a different story. An engaged employee goes above and beyond for the organisation they work, they won’t strictly pick up and down tools by the clock. I suspect if these sales consultants were better engaged, then they would have taken note of my presence (and interest in reading their material) and at least asked me if they could help. If I owned the dealership, that is what I would want them to do.

Assessing and reporting on non-financial risk

For executives dealing with non-financial risk, a three-minute read could save you from 300 pages of boardroom boredom.

In a recent presentation, ASIC Chair James Shipton discussed some issues that boards face when addressing non-financial risk.

One of the more significant issues he raised was the length of reports and how they were simply too voluminous for a risk committee to deal with. He pointed to the average length of a risk report being about 300 pages.

Instead of sifting through reems of data, calculating risk indices or getting bogged down in risk-reward arguments: simply measure, report and act on Trust. Awareness of a risk and its magnitude will impact the degree of trust people have in an organisation.

This trust is measurable among the relevant stakeholders, be they customers, employees, suppliers, lenders or investors.

A trust audit and report will be far easier to work through and will point to how to deal with risks.

Here are two examples: 

One type of risk is customer flight. While traditional market and customer research identifies when customers know there is a better offer, this is far too late. These customers could already be on their way to a competitor. A trust audit can provide early warning signals of the magnitude of this risk. In addition to asking customers, by asking employees and suppliers whether they trust that your company is providing goods and services that do what they should, at a fair price, and will be here in the future, then a leader can be more confident that customers are getting what they need.

 Another type of risk is employee flight. Existing engagement surveys are useful to identify whether people are thinking of leaving, but not great at indicating why. By conducting a trust audit and understanding the degree to which an employee trusts an employer to act in their best interests, pay fairly, and provide development opportunities, a leader will better understand why people are thinking of leaving and what to do about it.

For executives who want a risk report to be something they can use, a well-managed trust audit could save a great deal of time, money and boardroom boredom.