#86 – New NPS training course, how I landed in CX, the customer experience factory, customer advisory boards

A new NPS ‘All hands’ training course is available. How I landed in CX. Welcome to the 86th edition of my customer strategy newsletter. The five topics this week are:

1. Richard Owen and team launch new ‘all-employee’ NPS course
2. How I ‘landed’ in Customer Experience
3. Latest blog posts
4. Notable items from other sites – Customer Advisory Boards and a CX Factory
5. Looking forward

Richard Owen and team launch new ‘all employee’ NPS course

I am a big fan of training, and an even bigger fan of what is often called ‘all-hands’ training that targets an entire company. When we implemented NPS across HP we designed our own training course. We did not make it mandatory, but it was by far the most-taken voluntary course. On top of the knowledge I believe the establishment of a common vocabulary is important. When people use a particular word, they should have a common idea of what it means. Company-wide training courses provide this.

Richard Owen was CEO of Satmetrix up to their merger with NICE. He and his company, OwenCX, have now launched a new NPS course. I have taken it, and you will see that you can too, without charge for individual use. Here is what they say about it:

Owen CX’s NPS Training for all employees was designed from the ground up to engage, educate and align every member of the organization, no matter what their functional role is. Based on the same foundations as the certification program, it takes the core concepts and explains them in a fast paced and clear fashion, without talking down to the participant or baffling them with jargon.  For larger companies, the training can also be customized with video messages from their leadership and localized with multiple language subtitles.

The outcome you can expect from All Employee Training is every member of the organization with a common understanding of the program and how they can positively affect it.

The link to access the free trial is: here

It’s all online, and I liked it. Why not give it a try? Note that I have no commercial arrangement of any kind with Richard Owen or OwenCX.

How I ‘landed’ in Customer Experience  

Many customer experience leaders have entertaining stories about how they wound up in their jobs. I had the job in two different companies and got it by chance both times.

At Blue Bell Apparel, the parent company of Wrangler Jeans, I was the ‘Quality and Engineering’ manager for France, the Benelux and Italy from 1981 to 1983. As we were innovating by bringing stonewashing to the market, I decided to do something nobody had done before. I went to the most important customers in Paris and asked them what they thought and what they would like us to improve. The results were totally different to what my boss and I expected, and surprised relevant people across the company. That is how I learned that the only way you can know what customers want is by asking them.

The second time was of course at HP. It was in about 2007, I think. My job title was Director of Strategic Initiatives and I was the Chief of Staff for the Enterprise Business in EMEA, and for the overall HP EMEA leadership team. A leadership team member to who was in charge of the customer experience team reported left the company. I approached the head of the company in EMEA and said, “Here is how quality and customer experience work is managed today. Here is how I think it should be managed. These are just suggestions for when you appoint the new leader.” His reply: “OK, you are in charge.” Oops. That was in addition to the work I already had at the time.

What an experience! I never looked back.

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