The beginning of another year. It's the perfect time to start executing your Experience Vision. Take advantage of renewed focus as your staff return after the hard-won successes.
Might we be getting ahead of ourselves? For starters what's an Experience Vision? Most companies haven’t even got an Experience Vision, let alone know how to execute one. Why should they and what would it even look like?
Glad you asked.
An Experience Vision helps align teams so that everyone's working in the same direction. Staff can see how their work improves the customer’s experience. Most importantly, as well as seeing their individual contribution, each staff member understands how the team interests are connected. They realise exactly where and how they need to support each other’s objectives.
Defining and explaining the Experience Vision clearly keeps teams motivated and focused when problems and distractions arise. And simplicity and efficiencies naturally fall out of this clarity.
The effect is palpable.
When you come across someone who can describe the Experience Vision their team is delivering for their customers, their deep understanding of what they do and why is truly inspiring. Vitality Insurance, for example, lives up to their name because their Experience Vision is so clear that just talking to them makes you feel better!
Establishing an Experience Vision puts your organisation well ahead of your competition.
But whose job is it to develop an Experience Vision? Is it the remit of the CEO? Or the C-suite?
Actually, the answer is that any leader or manager should be developing their own Experience Vision for their current product or service - or the next launch (or relaunch). And if it’s for a new launch, it should be thought about well in advance, rather than just before lift-off.
So, if you’re ready to begin crafting your Experience Vision, there’s a simple process to follow. It involves just five questions. The important thing is to avoid getting caught up in exact answers; it’s better to scope an overview of your Vision first and refine the details later.
Here are the five questions:
- What's the current Experience we deliver? Make sure that you base this on real customer feedback and not just on internal views of how you think you’re doing - these two are rarely the same!
- What Experience do we want to deliver in the future? If you’re not sure how an ideal future experience looks, you can do two simple things. Firstly, take the things that you know are not quite working now and flip them so that you’ve removed the drag you know about. And secondly, step outside your Manager role. Think about what you want as a customer, a person, someone’s son or daughter. Think about what your parents want, your partner, your peers, your children. Make it human. Add some soul.
- How does the Ideal Experience fit with what the business wants? This is a hugely pragmatic step in the process - and without it, infighting is almost certainly guaranteed. There is “ideal” and then there is what the business can afford and logically embrace. A whole pile of blue sky that will cost too much and has no clear ROI is a whole pile of empty air.
- How are we going to deliver our Experience Vision? Another thing to consider is “Can we do this?” Some ideal experiences are perfectly envisioned and wonderfully articulated, but miss the fact that the current staff need to be tasked to deliver. Do they have the skills, experience, time and operational support to meet the brief? Have you really scoped out the battle plan?
- How are we going to think and behave differently to make this stick? Your job is to inspire and lead. To win hearts and minds. And to keep winning them day after day. Can you lead your staff away from their old views and entrenched mindsets? Can you help them see things afresh after every customer interaction?
Which brings us back to the power of January.
This is the month when you can harness the best ‘psychological calendar’ of your whole team. It’s also when you are most likely to be able to take advantage of your own clear vision and fresh perspective.
We can help you design outstanding experiences that people love. Get in touch to find out how. It’s a perfect time.
Contact experience@protopartners.com.au or call us on (02) 8379 6600
