Inspiring Creativity in Customer Experience
If you’ve worked in Customer Experience (CX), you’re well aware that there’s a high turnover rate. It’s not surprising – the work is hard and often thankless. CX professionals spend their days talking to upset customers; they’re listening to complaints, trying to diffuse frustrating situations that are totally out of their control, and they’re expected to wake up the next day and do it all again with smiles on their faces.
Often, people in CX roles find that there’s a general lack of professional development and growth opportunities, and they worry that their roles essentially lead to nowhere.
A successful CX organization has to keep its team engaged, provide further learning opportunities, and encourage each employee to be creative in their roles.
So, how do we make this into a reality? Let your team experiment.
Why Experimentation?
Give your team members the support they need to explore in their roles. Studies show that in order for people to be more flexible problem-solvers, they need to explore diverse concepts.
New ideas come from connecting old knowledge with new experiences. Psychologists call this “broadening” and it stems from the pursuit of knowledge-rich experiences. It keeps our brains innovative and creative - two things you really need to be great at Customer Experience.
We need to give our teams the room to explore areas that have nothing to do with Customer Experience. The more we encourage our people to explore and learn, the more they have to pull from when they experience challenges during the course of the work day.
Start Block Scheduling.
Let’s face it – we’re busy. Finding time for our team to do anything other than their essential work-related duties is just plain hard if you’ve got a high volume of tickets. Managing your team members’ time is the key to giving them the gifts of experimentation and knowledge-seeking.
If you aren’t already, make sure you have a shared calendar that includes everyone’s breaks and lunch times. This will allow you to block out time for the opportunity to explore. At times of low volume, your team should be trying something new.
With predetermined “explore hours,” your team can claim that time to pursue their own interests and work on projects.
Another benefit to these explore hours is that it gives your team a break from their day-to-day activities. They’ll return to the queues feeling refreshed, inspired, and ready to work.
Take notes from other successful companies:
At 3M, every engineer gets an hour of time each day to do what they want, whether it's a side project or a hobby.
At Maddock Douglas, the team is allowed between 100 and 200 hours a year to pursue anything of interest.
Software company Atlassian gives employees the opportunity to take “FedEx Days" which are paid days off with an expectation of value delivered one day later.
The maker of TurboTax, Intuit, also awards employees with time: three months of “unstructured time” can be allocated all at once or spread over six months for innovators to explore new ideas.
After the invention of Gore-Tex in 1969, WL Gore & Associates, Inc. decided to prioritize experimental innovation with “dabble time,” which allows employees to spend 10% of their work week on self-selected initiatives. Founder Bill Gore liked to say, "Communication really happens in the car pool."
Shadow Other Departments.
One of my absolute favorite perks of any company is the opportunity to shadow other departments. Giving your CX team the visibility into other departments, and vice versa, is the key to creating a more harmonious workplace.
A company called Ziba sends their employees out for three months to work with different “tribes.” Allowing them to use different skills, and experience new specialities. This kind of diversity in thinking makes your team see different perspectives and understand other aspects of your business.
Who knows – maybe you just inspired the kid you hired straight out of college with a liberal arts degree to pursue a future career in engineering!
Offer Classes.
Invite your people to thrive by giving them meaningful opportunities to grow, wherever that may be.
At Etsy, they have “Etsy School,” where employees can teach and attend classes on topics ranging from 3D printing to tap dancing to jewelry making.
Pixar offers screenplay writing, drawing, and sculpting classes at Pixar University. They believe this helps reinforce the mindset of “We’re all learning and it’s fun to learn together.”
Twitter encourages their employees to take improv classes together, teaching them some valuable life lessons about the importance of listening properly, why creativity can only come from taking risks, and why the greatest ideas evolve from saying yes to average ideas and building on them.
Let your team run the show.
One of the most wonderful aspects of working in Customer Experience is that everyone comes from a unique background. In reality, no one goes to college thinking that they want a career in Customer Experience. Instead, one way or another, they find themselves in the role. Each member of your team brings a diverse perspective and set of skills that they can share with others. You could have a prolific poet, or a black-belt in karate master on your team - let them share it!
Offer the opportunity for your team to create special interest groups that meet during the work week. A quick 30-minute block where your team can get together and share the comic books they’ve been working on will bring joy to their day - and your customers.
Fostering creativity in Customer Experience is key to creating high engagement in your workforce. Encouraging your team to learn, explore, and be creative empowers them to gain new skills and grow professionally. If your company encourages you time to explore, I’d love to hear more about it in the comments below!