5c. Multiple Choice for Culture & Accountability

Question 1

Question #1: Several executives suggest ways to increase customer-centricity. Which of the following suggestions would have the weakest impact?

• Presenting negative and positive customer comments in town hall (all-hands) meetings
• Interviewing a customer as part of the CEO’s weekly blog post
• Revising all employees’ performance reviews to include criteria for internal or external customer satisfaction
• Training for the service and sales staff

Answer 1

Correct Answer:
Training for the service and sales staff

Explanation: It impacts only part of the company, whereas the other choices benefit the whole company.

Question 2

Question #2: At an association luncheon managers around the table share their proudest customer experience accomplishment. Which one most clearly reflects customer-centric culture?

• Marketing doubled customer engagement on social media
• Engineers reduced customers’ cycle time, a chronic customer pain, by 20%
• Customer churn decreased by 30%
• NPS increased from 12 to 46

Answer 2

Correct Answer:
Engineers reduced customers’ cycle time, a chronic customer pain, by 20%

Explanation: Because it benefits customers most clearly, whereas the other choices may or may not improve customers’ well-being.

Question 3

Question #3: Which of the following company cultures is most customer-centric?

• Every functional area is using customer experience as a context for their processes
• Every customer-facing employee is well-trained and paid according to customer survey scores
• Every all-hands meeting starts and ends with a customer story
• All director-and-above executives visit a customer at least quarterly and report their findings to the CEO

Answer 3

Correct Answer:
Every functional area is using customer experience as a context for their processes

Explanation: Because it’s about everyone’s thinking and doing.

Question 4

Question #4: Contests that encourage employee engagement in customer experience best demonstrate customer-centricity when they are based on:

• Number of customer webinars and podcasts employees download
• Revenue represented by successful customer issue escalations
• Reduced number of field-reported issues on a specific chronic pain of customers
• Number of customer survey alert cases closed within 24 hours

Answer 4

Correct Answer:
Reduced number of field-reported issues on a specific chronic pain of customers

Explanation: Because it most clearly improves well-being of the customer base.

Question 5

Question #5: What is the best way to develop customer-centric culture?

• Establish processes that modify every department’s thinking and actions with customers’ well-being coming first
• Assign the Human Resources department to lead the initiative
• Assign executives and employees to shadow a customer-facing employee’s conversations with customers
• Deploy a voice-of-the-customer program to identify strengths and weaknesses

Answer 5

Correct Answer:
Establish processes that modify every department’s thinking and actions with customers’ well-being coming first

Explanation: Because culture is about thinking and doing, and every department is interconnected (the other choices are more programmatic or siloed, and less strategic).

Question 6

Question #6: Which of these communication strategies reinforces customer-centric culture best?

• Annual report and promise to investment analysts that customers are top priority
• CEO letter to customers pledging ongoing high performance
• Webcasts featuring customers’ situations, available on the intranet
• TV ad explaining customer-facing staff’s commitment to customers

Answer 6

Correct Answer:
Webcasts featuring customers’ situations, available on the intranet

Explanation: It’s the only one that educates employees about what matters most to customers.

Question 7

Question #7: Your team researches best practices in rewards and recognition and presents the following options to you. Which one will best encourage customer-centricity?

• Executive panel judges teams’ reports on what they improved for customers
• Stock shares awarded monthly to employee who went above and beyond in helping a customer
• Perks all month for the team that increases NPS the most
• Peer voting each week for the employee who had the best customer-first attitude

Answer 7

Correct Answer:
Executive panel judges teams’ reports on what they improved for customers

Explanation: Teamwork is essential for customer experience, and a group of employees making a concerted effort to make a difference for the customer base is more impactful than a single employee.

Question 8

Question #8: What kind of messaging would best improve customer-centric culture?

• Ongoing publishing of customers’ comments in written, video, and audio formats
• Pocket cards describing customer segments (personas)
• Customer journey map on the intranet
• Net Promoter Score posters in every conference room and break room

Answer 8

Correct Answer:
Ongoing publishing of customers’ comments in written, video, and audio formats

Explanation: Customers’ stories in their own words is most likely to capture employees’ hearts and minds, influencing their thinking and doing for the long-term.

Question 9

Question #9: Kelly is a new Chief Customer Officer who asks you for advice on engaging employees to improve the company’s customer-centricity. Which advice would you give?

• Invite customers and employees to mingle at an event
• Make a contest for employees who know the most about customers
• Tie Net Promoter Score to every employee’s bonus pay
• Give prizes to the customer care agents who get highest ratings from customers

Answer 9

Correct Answer:
Invite customers and employees to mingle at an event

Explanation: Interacting directly with customers in a casual setting can teach employees a lot about what matters to them and why they should care. This can be applied to all types of employees. It can’t be “gamed” like the other options.

Question 10

Question #10: Which external marketing program would best demonstrate customer-centricity?

• Post a video on social media and email campaigns showing how your company helped a less-fortunate customer
• Give prizes to customers who engage with your brands
• Advertise your company’s progress in solving a chronic issue customers have complained about
• Announce your company’s new policies that put customers first: TV, print, social, newsletter, etc.

Answer 10

Correct Answer:
Advertise your company’s progress in solving a chronic issue customers have complained about

Explanation: It’s the most customer-serving in ways that customers would view as substantial to their experience with your company.

Question 11

Question #11: Which of the following would have the most impact on cross-organizational collaboration?

• Asking a top manager in each business unit to develop an action plan on key drivers of customer experience
• Comparing organizations’ customer survey scores side by side
• Using an automated tool that assigns and tracks actions of multiple organizations
• Showing shared consequences to different organizations that impact a broken process central to a major pain of customers

Answer 11

Correct Answer:
Showing shared consequences to different organizations that impact a broken process central to a major pain of customers

Explanation: Because it provides a shared vision and shared impetus for change.

Question 12

Question #12: Which of these actions would best motivate employees to take ownership of customer experience?

• Synchronizing legacy technologies and databases for improved self-service and contact center service
• Creating a digital experience strategy
• Posting NPS information on the intranet, in hallways, and in the employee newsletter
• Cascading corporate objectives for customer experience to department-levels and team-levels

Answer 12

Correct Answer:
Cascading corporate objectives for customer experience to department-levels and team-levels

Explanation: It makes customer experience objectives actionable for any employee.

Question 13

Question #13: Which scenario below best represents organizational adoption of customer experience?

• Awards received for best practices in your contact center
• The marketing organization leads monthly customer experience campaigns
• Every employee is aware of how their daily duties impact customers
• Industry-leading Net Promoter Score for customer-facing interactions

Answer 13

Correct Answer:
Every employee is aware of how their daily duties impact customers

Explanation: It weaves customer experience responsibility into day-to-day work.

Question 14

Question #14: An effective way to build ongoing collaboration and influence is:

• Establish a monthly customer experience meeting between two or more organizations
• Make an example of people who do not meet organizational goals
• Tie customer experience improvement needs to corporate values or objectives
• Establish an Employee of the Quarter Award for customer experience excellence

Answer 14

Correct Answer:
Tie customer experience improvement needs to corporate values or objectives

Explanation: Because it represents what people – regardless of their role – have already adopted as a higher purpose for their work.

Question 15

Question #15: Company-wide alignment to customers means:

• Cross-organizational collaboration is consistent and proactive in meeting customer needs
• Marketing messages do not overpromise what customers can expect
• Operational performance matches what’s promised in marketing messages
• All of these answers reflect company-wide alignment to customers

Answer 15

Correct Answer:
All of these answers reflect company-wide alignment to customers

Explanation: These are requirements for a 1-to-1 ratio between what’s expected and what’s received.

Question 16

Question #16: For strongest customer-centricity, you should:

• Focus customer experience efforts with customer-facing groups and customer touchpoints
• Reward customer-centric behaviors
• Train executives and employees in customer-centricity
• Hire people with a natural inclination toward what’s most important to your customers

Answer 16

Correct Answer:
Hire people with a natural inclination toward what’s most important to your customers

Explanation: Customer-centered job descriptions and charters attract and retain people most suited to customer-centricity. Hiring people who are suited to your customers will set you up for success now and in the future. This is true for both customer-facing and non-customer-facing roles, including alliance/channel partners, suppliers, and board members.

Question 17

Question #17: Failure to implement excellent CX improvement plans or designs reveals that [XXXXXX] is lacking.

• Risk aversion
• Customer-centricity
• Governance
• Agility

Answer 17

Correct Answer:
Governance

Explanation: Execution is missing, and that means poor accountability, or poor consequences or poor governance. Excellent use of the protocols indicates strong inclination for customer-first thinking and less strength in customer-first doing.

Question 18

Question #18: What is the ultimate goal of customer experience work?

• Growth through competitive advantages
• Gaining the top NPS ranking in your industry
• Modern business practices require CXM
• Minimizing churn

Answer 18

Correct Answer:
Growth through competitive advantages

Explanation: Differentiate your business based on customer insights that help you close gaps and manage your business better than competitors.

Question 19

Question #19: When you share CX data with employees, it is best to:

• Summarize findings in the all-hands meetings and/or Intranet home page
• Tailor your reports to every work group’s concerns, cadences, and duties
• Give everyone an app or desktop view of daily CX insights
• Select the groups whose ratings are lowest for deep-dive presentations

Answer 19

Correct Answer:
Tailor your reports to every work group’s concerns, cadences, and duties

Explanation: When you adapt VoC reports to each work group, they are more likely to adjust their thinking and doing in alignment with what customers need.

Question 20

Question #20: What is most effective in engaging employees in customer experience performance?

• Conduct customer-centricity training and coaching.
• Point out how their role can take action, exemplifying it on a customer story or survey finding.
• Display CX program goals and progress at an employee fair, cafeteria, bulletin board, or Intranet page.
• Add NPS goals to everyone’s compensation.

Answer 20

Correct Answer:
Point out how their role can take action, exemplifying it on a customer story or survey finding.

Explanation: When you make specific suggestions, tailored to each work group’s mindset, they’re more likely to do what you suggest, or even do something better.

Question 21

Question #21: When you see a definition of CX excellence that includes “Business processes are built and updated based on understanding and responding to customer needs”, you are reminded to:

• Suggest CX insights whenever process re-engineering is underway
• Influence minimization of execution silos and operational silos
• All of these answers contribute to world-class performance in this definition.
• Emphasize prevention of “faulty filters” or non-customer-centric workflows

Answer 21

Correct Answer:
All of these answers contribute to world-class performance in this definition.

Explanation: If processes are being re-engineered without awareness of customer needs for that process, you’re creating more headaches (silos, faulty filters) and costs.

Question 22

Question #22: What is vital to customer-centricity?

• Customer needs and gaps are discussed at the boardroom table.
• All of these answers are vital to customer-centricity.
• Senior leadership team understands what customers care about and builds the company around their wants.
• CX strategy is linked to corporate strategy.

Answer 22

Correct Answer:
All of these answers are vital to customer-centricity.

Explanation: Absence of any of these sends mixed messages to managers. Its absence dilutes customer-centricity and CXM ROI.

Question 23

Question #23: What is meant by “united quest for CX excellence”?

• All of these answers reflect a united quest for CX excellence.
• Issues are prevented rather than fixed.
• Employees have the tools and resources they need to deliver the customer experience.
• Cross-functional departments are connected to create frictionless experience.

Answer 23

Correct Answer:
All of these answers reflect a united quest for CX excellence.

Explanation: “Holistic alignment of systems and structures” means people, processes, and internal interactions are proactive toward excellent CX.

Question 24

Question #24: These are ways to maintain accountability for customer experience performance, EXCEPT:

• Swim lane diagram
• Gantt chart
• CX messaging
• Change management

Answer 24

Correct Answer:
CX messaging

Explanation: Showing people in a graphic how their behaviors affect everyone else is most effective. Analyzing stakeholders’ resistance factors helps you take proactive steps for follow-through. Messaging is too passive and general to affect accountability, in comparison to the other 3 choices here.

Question 25

Question #25: “Experience Leadership” adds customer-centricity to CX management because it:

• Aligns company-wide behaviors to customer expectations
• All of these answers reflect the need for Experience Leadership
• Is more culture-changing than engaging customers as allies for your brand growth
• Is more proactive than CRM, Service, Loyalty Marketing, etc.

Answer 25

Correct Answer:
All of these answers reflect the need for Experience Leadership

Explanation: Experience Leadership engages your whole ecosystem in preventing issues as the best path to maximizing customer lifetime value.

Question 26

Question #26: When employees are faced with adopting a change, your first priority is to:

• Minimize unattractive aspects of the change
• Leverage early adopters
• Build a shared vision
• Maximize attractiveness of the change

Answer 26

Correct Answer:
Minimize unattractive aspects of the change

Explanation: People are unable to fully appreciate the positives until the negatives are reduced.

Question 27

Question #27: When a stakeholder resists adopting a change, you should:

• Ask their supervisor to require the stakeholder’s adoption
• Exclude the stakeholder from your activities temporarily
• Abandon the change
• Arrange for early adopters to influence the stakeholder

Answer 27

Correct Answer:
Arrange for early adopters to influence the stakeholder

Explanation: When you work through others, good influence is expanded.

Question 28

Question #28: The most effective way to help managers and employees see the importance of customer experience is to:

• Show how much budget is at-risk due to poor customer experience
• Highlight your industry’s NPS rankings, industry awards, and financial growth rates
• Present the latest “State of CX” study findings
• Win awards for customer experience achievements

Answer 28

Correct Answer:
Show how much budget is at-risk due to poor customer experience

Explanation: Everyone wants more budget: to do more in better ways, to expand headcount, to raise pay, and/or to increase profit

Question 29

Question #29: Employee engagement in customer experience means:

• CX champions rallying awareness of CX in each business unit
• CX team’s productivity and enthusiasm
• Employees’ passion for CX, shown by engaging in CX fairs, contests, etc.
• % of employees making a difference for customers

Answer 29

Correct Answer:
% of employees making a difference for customers

Explanation: Every day is an opportunity for every employee to make a difference for customers. Preventing issues and creating value according to customer expectations are ongoing necessities among everyone.

Question 30

Question #30: A prerequisite to customer-centric culture is:

• Customer-first attitudes and technologies in Service
• Personalized Marketing, digitalized Service, and CRM-based Sales
• Above 80% closed-loop VoC within 48 hours
• All internal groups using CX insights in their roles

Answer 30

Correct Answer:
All internal groups using CX insights in their roles

Explanation: Almost-automatic CX excellence is the epitome of customer-centric culture. It requires everyone in your ecosystem creating value and preventing issues in alignment with customer expectations.

Question 31

Question #31: When a friend says “it’s impossible for a CX manager to increase customer-centricity”, you say:

• Yes, culture can never be changed.
• Any time I influence customer-first thinking and doing, I’m strengthening customer-centricity
• You’re right. Only Human Resources can adjust our culture.
• We will have strong customer-centricity as soon as we digitalize the customer experience.

Answer 31

Correct Answer:
Any time I influence customer-first thinking and doing, I’m strengthening customer-centricity

Explanation: See slide 14. When people adjust their thinking and actions toward customers-first, the culture is becoming more customer-centric.

Question 32

Question #32: What does customer experience accountability mean?

• Recognizing employees who demonstrate strong customer-centricity
• Ideal customer journey maps are fully deployed
• Bonus based on NPS ratings
• Follow-through on customer-related commitments

Answer 32

Correct Answer: Follow-through on customer-related commitments

Explanation: Accountability is trustability in the way a group does things. Do they say what they mean, and do what they say?

Question 33

Question #33: What does “adoption” of customer-centric culture mean?

• Contact center agents have excellent NPS ratings
• The senior leadership team talks often about customers
• Your customer effort scores are highest in your industry
• All employees’ daily decisions consider the effect on customers

Answer 33

Correct Answer:
All employees’ daily decisions consider the effect on customers

Explanation: Adoption means employees are embracing customer expectations and realities as their responsibilities.

Question 34

Question #34: What is the best definition of culture?

• Corporate values
• A group’s way of thinking and doing
• How people behave when nobody is watching
• How Human Resources shapes the employee experience

Answer 34

Correct Answer:
A group’s way of thinking and doing

Explanation: Customer-centric culture means customers are at the center of a group’s thinking and doing.

Question 35

Question #35: Why is customer experience management typically self-centered instead of customer-centered?

• We resolve issues at the instance, in place of preventing issues for everyone
• We ask how our company is performing, instead of how well customer needs are met
• All of these answers are examples of self-centricity
• We apply customer-focus to touch points, rather than to all employee groups

Answer 35

Correct Answer:
All of these answers are examples of self-centricity

Explanation: Audit your CXM practices to ensure customer well-being is first in your approach and in your application.

Question 36

Question #36: What can a CEO do to (a) immediately turn around non-customer-centric culture and (b) instill ongoing customer-centric culture?

• (a) Deploy cascaded objectives and (b) ask the CX team to conduct mandatory customer-centricity training for everyone
• (a) Present CX leader vs. laggard benchmarks in all-employee communications and (b) require directors-and-above to shadow a Service agent
• (a) Ask each senior leadership team member what they are doing to prevent pain for customers and (b) deploy cascading objectives with strong accountability
• (a) Present VoC to all employees and (b) require CX improvement action plans from every group

Answer 36

Correct Answer:
(a) Ask each senior leadership team member what they are doing to prevent pain for customers and (b) deploy cascading objectives with strong accountability

Explanation: Even if all employees strive for customer-centricity, the greatest roadblock to customer-centricity is senior leadership team’s absence of a strong shared vision for CX and/or lack of walking the talk. The CEO can influence this immediately by holding senior leaders accountable to it (asking, expecting, and creating consequences accordingly). Cascading objectives is a year-long planning and reporting effort, so it is most enduring.

Question 37

Question #37: Why is it more customer-centric to focus your culture on preventing issues rather than fixing issues for customers?

• It is not! Fixing customer issues is the best way to show we care about them
• Preventing issues creates CX annuities
• Preventing issues can only happen when everyone knows and respects customer expectations
• Preventing issues is easier than fixing issues

Answer 37

Correct Answer:
Preventing issues can only happen when everyone knows and respects customer expectations

Explanation: Fixing problems will always be urgent, but it is even more valuable to customers to prevent their worries, confusion, frustration, waiting, inconvenience, and so on.

Question 38

Question #38: From the CXPA’s examples of “Evolution of Business Practices through a Focus on Customer Needs & Engagement”, which has the highest strategic impact?

• Experiences strive to surprise and delight
• Customers engage as brand allies
• Business processes are built and updated based on understanding and responding to customer needs
• Customers are heard and responded to with empathy.

Answer 38

Correct Answer:
Business processes are built and updated based on understanding and responding to customer needs

Explanation: Almost-automatic CX excellence is more likely when your business processes are setup to minimize the gap between customers’ realities vs. expectations.

Question 39

Question #39: What is NOT a reason why customer experience management is often self-centric instead of customer-centric?

• VoC asks about your company instead of asking about your customer’s world
• Efforts from CX insights are focused on customer touchpoints rather than internal/external policies, processes, and handoffs
• CXM efforts on shaping customer thoughts and behaviors instead of company-wide thoughts and behaviors
• CXM strives to deliver on customer expectations and to surprise and delight instead of just following industry norms

Answer 39

Correct Answer:
CXM strives to deliver on customer expectations and to surprise and delight instead of just following industry norms

Explanation: It is ironic and hypocritical when CXM itself is not set up with highest customer-centricity. Today’s CXM strives to meet and exceed customer expectations. However, CXM today is guilty of the other 3 shortcomings.

Question 40

Question #40: What is the BEST reason why VoC self-service is a factor in weak customer-centric culture? (self-service = managers must take initiative to absorb and apply VoC findings)

• Managers’ follow-through on good CX intentions requires partnering and formal change management by the CX team
• Cross-organizational collaboration is needed to prevent recurrence of customer pain’s root causes
• All of these answers are reasons why self-serve VoC contributes to weak customer-centricity
• Managers need the CX team’s guidance in weaving CX insights into their roles

Answer 40

Correct Answer:
All of these answers are reasons why self-serve VoC contributes to weak customer-centricity

Explanation: Managers face overwhelming demands, so facilitation by the CX team is necessary for managers’ strong absorption, adoption, action, and accountability for CX performance. CX improvements require multiple groups to work together for an extended period (or ongoing) before they generate large gains.