Start a CX Program Roadmap: 6 Steps for New CX Leaders

If you’re looking to start a CX program from scratch, it can feel overwhelming. According to Salesforce, 80% of customers now point to CX as a key differentiator when choosing one brand over another, with 67% stating that their standard for a positive experience is higher than ever before.

With stats like this, the pressure is ON.

To help take the pressure off, we pulled 6 steps to building a comprehensive CX Program roadmap so you can implement, knowing your plan will deliver an industry-leading customer experience.

1. Understand the current state of your customer experience

Therefore, no two contact centers being alike, it’s crucial to determine your specific needs from the outset. Start by asking yourself, what is your business trying to achieve?

For instance, consider these questions to generate ideas on where to begin:

• What are the pain points in your current customer journey?
• How do the experiences of different customer types vary?
• Is your communication with customers effective throughout their journey?
• Are transitions between channels seamless?
• Do you have a unified brand voice?

2. Develop a customer experience vision 

When starting a CX program, it’s crucial to outline your goals based on the pain points and gaps in the current experience and journeys. The vision for your program should describe the desired customer experience with your brand and how the program will run to consistently deliver it. In other words, it should detail what you want your customers’ experiences with your brand to look like and how your CX program will deliver that visionary type of experience.

3. Assign stakeholders to each vision goal

4. Develop your maturity model

Now that you’ve created your vision and established your board of stakeholders, it’s time to understand where you are and what stages need to be implemented to get to your current vision of an end goal. Your primary goal at this stage is to align expectations of the full project with key stakeholders across your organization, so everyone understands what is required to reach the full vision.

5. Analyze what CX will make the biggest impact

Not every touchpoint that you can tap with a magic wand to improve will have the best ROI for your organization. Ask yourself this:

• • Which experiences could you improve that are the most vital to your CX vision?
  • What experiences could you improve that are most aligned with your organization’s primary goals?

If you cannot easily answer these questions (and we understand how overwhelming it may be), there are several activities you can carry out with your stakeholder team.

1. 1. Create customer journey maps: Even if you considered your current customer journey maps in step 1, create more detailed customer journey maps that identify every step in the process and highlight areas that need to improve.
   2. Discover opportunities to stand out from competitors: Once you’ve identified the maps, compare this to what your competitors’ journeys are and do some creative brainstorming where you can cultivate truly cutting-edge experiences.
   3. Analyze business-critical issues: If your team notices the same concerns or issues being raised by customers or employees, this is probably a gap that needs to be addressed. Look in your CRM or support ticketing system or interview team members outside of your stakeholder team.

6. Build your roadmap

Now that you have collected the information for your CX roadmap, it’s time to:

1. 1. Analyze the inventory of potential projects and prioritize with overall business goals
   2. Communicate the goals with stakeholders, seek input from across the organization
   3. Choose a timeframe for each step in your maturity mode
   4. Launch