How to Prove CX ROI to Win Funding in 2021?
The challenge of proving CX ROI and gaining funding for customer experience is more difficult than ever. Budgets have been cut, projects are on hold, and the uncertainty across many sectors as they recover from COVID-19 pandemic means that CX is under interrogation.
We look at how you can prove CX ROI to win funding and support from your colleagues and senior team and partners.
Identifying the ROI of CX investment can be difficult, but it doesn’t mean you can’t prove value. CX professionals need to have the confidence and expertise in proving the hard evidence of CX return on investment (ROI) and win over senior executives, stakeholders and decision makers to gain funding post-pandemic.
We have 5 top things you can ‘Do Now’ to put you ahead of the game in winning CX funding in 2021:
A strong business case
This seems like a no brainer, but you need a strong CX business case which excites and speaks to your senior executive team.
Find out what’s important to the decision makers and organisation – what are the business objectives? Then align your CX priority improvements and CX sprints to them.
Metrics, both financial and business, will be key in winning funding – choose the stand-out metrics that will show the correlation of customer experience vs customer-impact.
Wow them with metrics and stats of reduced spend on customer-activity, but an increase of revenue. Share the benefits to customers and the business, at what cost, and what will be the return.
Make it real
What will get their attention? Speak stakeholder language – talk in a way that your senior executives understand and use the stats and key priorities they work with every day. Give them the full picture – the do now, do next, do later. Make it relatable and engaging to paint the true picture of how CX investment can drive change within the business.
Tell the whole story
Don’t sugar-coat expectations around CX – there are positives and negatives, success and risks to consider. It’s easy to only show the positive ROI, but it’s not realistic. Use true costs, not averages when talking financials, it shows confidence that you know the detail.
Use storytelling techniques to communicate, using examples to bring your story to life. Don’t make your business case a process. Start with the big picture, outline the problem and fill in the outcomes expected. Then close with ‘the ask’ … the support you need from the business.
Gain deep insight and evidence
Look at the evidence of customer-related activity vs customer experience to show movement on key drivers of ROI. This can be sufficient to support the next priority improvement(s) for your business plan.
Frontline customer activity is not the only evidence you have. Gain support and deeper insights and feedback from other departments within your organisation.
Ask questions and listen to employees in marketing, technology, call centres, customer support, as well as partners and suppliers, health and safety, and regulators. Showcase how CX can increase customer and organisation satisfaction, as well as decreasing spend in high priority areas that are aligned to your desired customer experience (North Star).
Prioritise
Not everything can be done at once, which is why we encourage a ‘Do now, do next, and do later’ approach when pitching priority improvements.
If spending is cut back, think about, discuss and gain backing on what needs to be done now and why, and what can be done at a later date, making sure to show the short-term and long-term benefits.