Have you come across people talking about Total Experience (TX)?
It’s a holistic approach to business which encompasses how an organisation is experienced at all levels. It encompasses:
Customer Experience (CX) - considering all customer touchpoints and interactions with a brand.
Employee Experience (EX) - the interactions an employee has throughout their time with a company.
User Experience (UX) - overall design and usability of specific services.
Multi-Experience (MX) - encompasses individual’s experiences with your brand across different channels and devices.
While working towards any, or each, of these areas of focus will provide real benefit to your business, it can be seen that developing a TX approach will ‘tick all the boxes’, but is that realistic?
Is Total Experience what your organisation should be aiming to develop?
Focus on the Big Picture
As a leader in your business, there is a clear drive to focus on the area for which you have direct responsibility - whether that’s people, place or technology. However, it’s clear that the best results for your business will be achieved when the focus is not on one element of the business, but on what is best for the organisation as a whole.
Organisations who have clear company goals and a vision shared throughout the management team are far more likely to succeed; and it is these companies who will see the benefits of a Total Experience strategy.
We’ve talked before about the importance of employee experience (including this article Improving Employee Experience). By recognising the impact of employee engagement on customer experience, and the import of both of these in your overall business success, it’s clear that pulling together the strands of that engagement will enable a smoother experience for everyone.
There’s More Than One Side
While a TX strategy may feel like a huge task, there are some straightforward steps to help you set your focus - or consider the suitability of new developments to the business whole.
VISION
Ensure the organisation has a clear vision, this should be a big picture aim which all areas of the business can commit to and see their place within. Whether you’re looking to achieve award-winning customer satisfaction levels, outstanding sustainability credentials or exciting financial goals, it’s essential that all your employees engage with this goal.
This vision will encompass aims which improve EX and CX, bringing together systems and processes to streamline solutions.
EXAMINATION
Across the business, current systems and processes as well as new opportunities, should be considered against this stated vision. Exploring customer and employee journeys will allow you to see any crossover and therefore areas in which combined solutions may work.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Exploring these common touchpoints - areas of interaction for both employees and customers - is your next step. Consider how these can be developed to enable a strategy focused on your clear goal as well as improving experience for customers and employees.
START
Once recommendations have been made, these should be reviewed against the organisation’s goals to ensure relevance. Plans can then be put in place to develop the total experience methodology and work can begin.
OBSERVE
As with any development, it is essential that ongoing monitoring is maintained. Your vision is to engage your users across the board, providing clear effective solutions and positive outcomes - where this hasn’t been achieved, it’s important to be aware as soon as possible.
Working Smarter
Let me share an example with you…
Pulling together employee experience services with user, customer and multi-experience disciplines, will provide intelligent shared experiences and comprehensive data to learn from.
Understanding these systems and how they are being used will enable the use of hyperautomation, creating exceptional customer and employee experiences.
Ensuring these systems provide 360° visibility of user, network and application behaviour, will allow for proactive support and optimisation.
Developing a TX strategy needs you to understand the requirements of your users as well as your systems and processes. By stepping back to look at the big picture, you’ll be in a better position to see the ways in which these are aligned.
About the Author
I'm Terry Chana. I am an innovation strategist that connects customer, employee and brand experiences. My passion lies in building ecosystems to solve business problems by combining creativity and technology.