If you ask someone which companies provide great experiences the usual names come up, Amazon, Apple, John Lewis and so on. What usually follows is a snippet of an insight on how those companies operate. Usually this insight doesn't need qualifying, people have had a great experience personality with one or all of them recently, so, the insight is qualified as one of the reasons they are so good.
The premise is usually that the insight is accepted and it should be replicated it is your own company as quickly as possible.
However, its good practice to question the insight you have received. Will one of those companies really release the things that have made them so successful? In small bytes, yes, probably, but all the many things together, probably not, and it's the totality of all the things together that have had the impact and enabled the experience.
With that said, can you be sure that the single insight you are following will have the same impact in your company?
Let's say all the signs in a successful companies head office are the same height, and that company has a great reputation for getting the word out to its colleagues. Signage height is a factor worth considering, as the result has been qualified. Or, is it that the height of the signs has been defined by the height of of step ladder the person putting up the signs had been given, or indeed the height of the person themselves.
Clearly a tongue in cheek example, but the theory is one to consider when you next receive an insight about why a CX leader is as successful as they are.
Next time you are looking at best practice that publicly available, might be worth just asking yourself if that best practice is actually an end result or the actual best practice.
About the author
James Scutt | JamesScutt.com
James is an eminent Customer Experience XM leader and strategist with a unique value proposition spanning sales, operations, technology, culture change and the hospitality industry. A Non-executive Director and keynote speaker, James is the founder of CustomerXM.org & CXaccredited.com