How to Overcome Cross-Functional Collaboration Obstacles in CX
In the field of Customer Experience (CX) management, one of the most significant challenges that organizations face is ensuring that their CX initiatives run smoothly across various departments and teams. While cross-functional collaboration is essential for delivering exceptional customer experiences, it can also become a hindrance if not managed effectively.
In this article, we will explore common issues that arise when cross-functional collaboration hinders CX initiatives and provide actionable tips that help professionals overcome them.
Table of Contents
The Importance of Cross-Functional Collaboration in CX
Before diving into the challenges, let’s underline the significance of cross-functional collaboration in CX. In today’s competitive business landscape, providing a seamless and delightful customer experience is a key differentiator. It involves multiple touchpoints, from marketing and sales to customer support and product development. Effective collaboration across these functions ensures that the customer’s journey is consistent and satisfying.
However, despite its importance, organizations often encounter obstacles that impede this collaboration, leading to CX initiatives being hindered. Here are some of the most common issues:
1. Lack of Alignment on CX Goals
One of the primary challenges in cross-functional collaboration is the misalignment of goals. Different departments may have conflicting objectives or priorities, which can lead to a disjointed customer experience. For example, while the marketing team may focus on acquiring new customers, the customer support team may prioritize retaining existing ones.
2. Siloed Communication and Information
Siloed communication is a notorious roadblock to effective cross-functional collaboration. When teams work in isolation and do not share information seamlessly, it can result in a fractured understanding of customer needs and preferences. This can lead to inconsistent messaging and service delivery.
3. Resistance to Change
People are creatures of habit, and resistance to change is a common human trait. When new CX initiatives require changes in processes or workflows, teams may resist these changes, fearing disruptions to their routines. This resistance can slow down or derail CX improvement efforts.
4. Lack of Accountability
Accountability is crucial in CX initiatives. When no one takes ownership of the overall customer experience, it becomes challenging to identify and address issues promptly. This lack of accountability can lead to customer dissatisfaction going unnoticed.
5. Insufficient Cross-Training
Cross-functional collaboration often involves employees from diverse backgrounds and expertise. Without adequate cross-training, team members may not fully understand each other’s roles and responsibilities. This can lead to misunderstandings and inefficiencies.
Where Cross-Collaboration Hinders CX Initiative – A Case Study
I had the opportunity to work with a prominent financial institution in West Africa where we embarked on an ambitious initiative. Our goal was to enhance customer engagement by offering personalized financial advice through our mobile app. To achieve this, we needed seamless collaboration between the technology and product teams to integrate customer data from various departments, spanning Operations, Sales, and Investments. However, these departments had been operating in relative isolation, each with its unique priorities and project deliverables. This fundamental lack of alignment on overarching goals created significant hurdles to effective collaboration.
The challenge of fostering collaboration among the teams was further compounded by the fact that resources were predominantly allocated to what were perceived as “larger” projects, often driven by management directives. Consequently, the CX initiative to provide tailored financial advice received only meagre resources and attention, despite its transformative potential.
As a result of this disjointed collaboration, we struggled to create a comprehensive view of the customers’ financial situation, a crucial element for generating tailored financial advice based on their transaction activities. The situation was further exacerbated when the highly anticipated “Financial Advisor” feature was rolled out on the mobile app. Unfortunately, due to the limited resources and the lingering lack of alignment, this feature was plagued by numerous technical issues and bugs.
Unsurprisingly, customers were quick to voice their dissatisfaction, reporting various usability issues and errors in the financial advice provided. Consequently, this CX initiative failed to deliver the personalized and seamless experiences it had promised. Customers, frustrated by the fragmented advice and technical glitches, were hesitant to adopt the “Financial Advisor” feature, as a result, we failed to achieve the desired CX improvements and customer engagement goals.
What Do You Do When Cross-Functional Collaboration Hinders CX Initiatives?
To ensure this article empowers you with sound advice we reached out to some thinktanks in the CX industry to ask them for their advice for professionals who are having challenges collaborating with cross-functional teams in implementing CX initiatives. Here’s what these industry leaders recommend:
Jim Rembach – President, Peer Roundtables
Every CX initiative is hindered by cross-functional collaboration. No one is immune. The problem is how difficult it will be.
At every level of your organization and in every area of your business, you should consistently ask four questions.
What’s the most successful collaboration you have been involved in and what did you appreciate about the situation?
- What did you value about your own contribution to this collaboration?
- What did you value about the other collaborators?
- Looking to your next collaboration, what will you most look forward to contributing and paying attention to?
Protect the respondents’ personal information unless they give you permission when collecting responses and sharing stories.
By sharing these stories, you can encourage positive collaboration, craft communications, and reduce the resistance often associated with changing how people work.
It is more important to focus on what people appreciate about cross-functional collaboration than on improving the customer experience if you are trying to reduce resistance. An improved customer experience is not the reason for cross-functional collaboration, but rather the outcome.
Jim Tincher – Founder & CEO, Heart of the Customer
While most in your organizations would prefer if customers have a great customer experience, they care far more about doing things that will help them be successful in their role. That’s where most CX programs fall short – focusing on the experience rather than the implications of that experience. The truth is, that nearly every company outcome can be traced back to the experience your customers have with you.
Whether it’s service costs, the length of time it takes to implement your customers’ software, employee turnover, or inventory turnover, these all flow from the experience your customers have with you.
If you want to transform passive support to active involvement, it’s your job to first understand what your internal stakeholders value, and then to connect an improved customer experience to that outcome.
To accomplish this, start with a stakeholder map. Document your stakeholders’ location on a 2×2 showing levels of influence and support. This will show your current environment.
Once you know which stakeholders are supporting you and which aren’t, connect the customer experience to your challengers’ KPIs. I recommend brushing up on the ADKAR change model to help build the skills needed to bring challenging stakeholders into the fold.
Annette Franz – CEO, CX Journey Inc.
It sounds like leadership and culture is a problem, to begin with. I think that if these teams don’t want to collaborate, they’ve been seeing this happen at the top. And the culture certainly isn’t customer-centric because, by definition, a customer-centric organization is a collaborative one. It has to be.
So the root of the work needs to be done at the leadership level.
But your question is about what CX professionals can do. Here are a couple of suggestions:
- Understand – What are the goals and priorities of the other teams? What are their objectives and KPIs? And how can you align the CX work with that?
- Build – Take the time to get to know the other teams. Build trust and understanding. Build relationships.
- Update – Offer updates about the work that is being done, the why, and the desired outcomes – for the customer and for the business.
- Discuss – Talk about how we’re all working toward a common goal and, especially, talk about how each department impacts that goal.
- Share – Share customer data and insights in real time, further supporting how each department impacts the customer experience.
- Teach – Help colleagues understand who your customers are, what their needs are and problems to solve, and how each department contributes to a customer’s outcomes – together – to ensure a consistent and cohesive experience.
- Celebrate – When there are wins and successes in the work, celebrate with the teams and recognize/reward members for their contributions.
Mohamed Latib – Executive VP and Co-Founder, PeriscopeIQ
It is imperative to understand that collaboration means being able to do more together. Period. Why is it that initiatives are resisted?
Many personal and structural reasons hinder CX initiatives, but we will explore three influential variables to consider overcoming to promote collaboration.
Create a Common Agenda across Functions
I’ve often encountered discussions about the challenges of rallying resources to align with a CX (Customer Experience) Vision that supports all aspects of a business’s strategies. These resources, including marketing, operations, finance, HR, and IT, can be challenging to coordinate due to their specific mandates. However, CX practices present an opportunity to forge connections among these distinct entities, as customer experiences influence all of them. Creating a common agenda- customer and employee obsession- is a powerful, unifying influence.
Outdated Policies, Procedures, and Practices
Many organizations cling to ineffective policies and practices that stifle innovation. These outdated routines may provide a false sense of security. For example, during one of my workshops when I proposed a new approach to strategic decision-making, a senior executive from a global textile company sternly objected, citing the precedent of a “King” who had adhered to a particular way of doing things but had passed away two decades ago. While this example might be extreme, it illustrates how past routines can continue influencing thinking and behaviour long after those who initially established them are gone.
Mindset and Habit Change
Let’s start with the basics. We instinctively glance both ways before crossing streets. We extend a handshake when meeting new people. Daily bathing is a routine we hardly think about. These are habits—established patterns of behaviour we follow without thinking. Can behaviour change? And even more challenging, can we alter our habits?
Our perspective suggests that we should focus on cultivating new habits rather than attempting to fix existing ones, as that can be exceptionally challenging. The real magic lies in understanding how to foster new habits. Research supports the idea that meaningful work (purpose), upgrading capabilities (mastery), and autonomy (independent decisions) will drive employees to collaborate.
Shep Hyken – CAO (Chief Amazement Officer), Shepard Presentations
As a company or brand recognizes the opportunity to be more customer-focused, they typically start with a focus on the front line. Very quickly, they will (hopefully) notice the need to go deeper, often recognizing that CX is an organization-wide effort that everyone must embrace.
When we work with our clients, we start the process with leadership and identify a customer service/CX vision.
This is communicated to the entire organization and then becomes an essential part of the transition where some companies fall short. They see the need for training, but most of that is directed toward the front line, leaving almost every other employee out of the effort.
For cross-function collaboration to work, everyone must be properly trained. Even people in non-customer-facing roles must understand how they impact CX. Their training will be different than people who interact directly with customers. An essential first step is creating a journey map that lists every interaction point a customer may have with the organization. Then, looking at those interaction points, you drill down and recognize what department or person helps impact those interactions.
Every department, and therefore every person, will see how their roles and responsibilities affect the customer. So, recognize that CX isn’t just a strategy; it’s also part of the organization’s culture. Leadership defines the vision, communicates it often to everyone, and ensures all employees are properly trained for their unique responsibilities.
Finally, when it’s working, celebrate success and recognize employees for delivering on the vision. The right culture is how a powerful CX initiative begins and successfully continues.
Conclusion
Effective cross-functional collaboration is the cornerstone of successful Customer Experience (CX) initiatives. It has the potential to enhance customer satisfaction, drive business growth, and distinguish your organization in a competitive market. However, it can also be a double-edged sword, as various challenges that can hinder CX efforts.
To mitigate these challenges and ensure that cross-functional collaboration strengthens rather than impedes CX initiatives, it’s essential to foster a culture of alignment, open communication, and accountability within your organization.
When done correctly, cross-functional collaboration becomes a driving force behind CX excellence. Organizations that master this art not only meet but exceed customer expectations, earning loyalty and setting themselves on a path to sustained success in today’s customer-centric business landscape.
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