In the July 2024 Newsletter
  Customer Delight / Events

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Delight Your Customers to Build Revenue and Profit

The most important element in a successful company is growing revenue that exceeds expenses so there is a profit in the first place. You can have good technology and products/services. But if people or businesses do not buy it, it won’t generate revenue.

The most important people, after you, are your CUSTOMERS. The most successful firms are passionate about serving their customers — keeping them, listening to them, providing them exceptional value, helping them become your champions, and attracting more of them. Customers provide sales revenue and, without revenue, no amount of cost-cutting or expense management will make you profitable.

Happy customers buy more and more of your products/services. They become repeat customers. Repeat customers generate the most profitable business because the expenses to sell to them are low. They spread the word to others who try and then buy your products/services. And they will give you feedback to help you expand and enhance your product/services line.

How do you generate happy, repeat customers? Through the right product/service which offers a fantastic customer experience and by providing outstanding customer service.

Why Improve the Customer Experience?

There are external pressures that can force a company to improve their customer experience.

COMPETITION. More competition helps companies improve their customer experience. Here’s why. Customers see innovative approaches from other firms. They then begin to demand and expect that from all competitors. If a firm doesn’t offer that experience, or better yet, deliver an even smoother, faster, better experience, that firm will lose out. The customer will go elsewhere.

TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENTS. Other external pressures that force a company to improve the CX include technology enhancements. For example, with the introduction of Visual IVR (interactive voice response) solutions that have a much better CX, firms with painful, frustrating IVRs will experience more customer attrition and unhappy customers. The firm I co-founded, Radish Systems, invented Visual IVRs and Visual Live Agents to ease this pain.

FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. Another pressure to improve CX comes from an increased focus everywhere on customer satisfaction. Net Promoter Score or NPS is one increasingly popular measure. NPS is based on one simple question to ask your customers: “How likely are you, on a 1 to 10 scale, to refer your family member or good friends to this firm? Why?” We want happy customers with high NPS (average 9 or 10) who will promote your firm and brand.

Case Study of a WOW Experience

	CHALLENGE. As Chief Information Officer of the State of Colorado, one of my wildly important goals was to develop a platform for digital transformation that would allow the 5.8M residents to have access anywhere, anytime.
	THE SOLUTION. The myColorado mobile app with the Colorado Digital ID™ became the solution. With the app, Coloradans can also renew their driver’s license, receive notifications about important state news, securely store personal and payment information, and easily search for online state services in one place. Since the initial launch of myColorado with Digital ID, new features have been added.
	ACTION. The Digital ID enables Coloradans to create an electronic version of their Colorado driver’s license or state identification (ID) card that can be displayed on smartphones for proof of identification, age, and address within Colorado. It’s a secure, unique visual representation of what has traditionally been the legally accepted official physical format of a person’s identification. It provided great value by allowing residents to interact with government services and businesses in new virtual workflows.
	RESULTS. myColorado app with Digital ID received a warm reception from residents, creating customer delight. The residents were WOWed!
	LONG-TERM IMPACT. After the initial introduction with 50,000 downloads, there are now over 1M copies of the app downloaded. Its functionality keeps evolving over time, now providing a wallet, storage of fishing and hunting licenses, and links to other government services. It makes it EASY for Coloradans to do business with the state. And it WOWed others too, as evidenced by winning an Innovation Award from the National Association of State CIOs. It was one of the first state digital IDs and other states followed.

HOW to Create a WOW Customer Experience

Summary

Improved customer experience leads to a firm’s success. Listen to your customers, set the intention and plan to create a WOW Customer Experience, gather feedback, and then keep working to get even better. Don’t try to do it alone — ask for help.

As an example, I conduct competitive analyses for firms. Going to a trade show is one way to get insights about competitors. However, inputs directly from a customer’s mouth are best. In the focus groups I run, I ask participants about their impression of the firm’s customer experience (CX), what in their mind does the CX include, what is working to provide a great CX and what is not, what are other firms offering that customers would like to see or don’t care about and why. I can also test different user interfaces of a product. I can refer to a certain part of the CX, such as customer support, technical support, or even an interactive voice response system.

Learn More

Check out my complete article in Authority Magazine on 5 Ways to Create a WOW! Customer Experience.

Selected Events

August 20, 2024. The Private Directors Association of Colorado is having a July Social. 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM MT in Denver. Register now and learn how this group can help you in your board journey. Members and guests are welcome. Register here.

September 10, 2024. Join me at the 50/50 Global Summit in NYC sponsored by 50/50 Women on Boards. Leaders come together to spark meaningful discussions on the influential role women play in the boardroom and beyond, shaping global agendas and catalyzing positive change. Register by July 31 for early bird rate.

September 19-21, 2024. Join me in Gunnison, CO for the Western Colorado University board meetings and homecoming events. Register now.

September 23, 2024. SIPA (Statewide Internet Portal Authority) User Conference in Denver. Join me and learn more.

September 26, 2024. 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM MT. “How to Turn your Transition into a Transformation!” Join me at this free Boulder Business and Professional Women event. It will feature Donna Roe Daniell, author of A Midlife Voyage to Transformation, a memoir about her midlife and a guidebook for midlife women. At Boulder Rural Fire Rescue, 6230 Lookout Road, Boulder. Let me know if you’re interested. Registration has not yet opened.

Theresa M. Szczurek, Ph.D.
C-Level Executive, Certified Corporate Director, Certified Management Consultant®, Executive Coach, Speaker, and Colorado CIO of the Year

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