Mary Poppen is President and Chief Customer Officer of HRIZONS Employee Experience and Professor of Practice at Michigan State University, teaching in the Customer Experience Management (CXM) Master’s Degree program. She is also a CS Angel investor. Mary has experience building world-class teams and processes for early startups including SuccessFactors, Glint and Involve.ai, as well as large organizations including SAP and LinkedIn. She is also the author of a book entitled “Goodbye, Churn. Hello, Growth!”
Key Takeaways
(00:00-08:15) Linking Employee and Customer Experiences for Growth
(08:15-17:18) Fostering Collaboration and Empowerment
(17:18-23:44) Creating a Culture of Transparency and Empowerment
(23:44-31:06) Embracing Mistakes and Balancing Customer Needs
(31:06-38:12) Introducing customer segmentation and automation
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Empowering Employees, Delighting Customers
Mary Poppen argues that companies that strategically focus on improving both simultaneously witness significant gains in stock prices and retention rates for both employees and customers. The discussion emphasizes breaking down departmental silos and fostering collaboration between HR and customer-facing teams to understand the employee journey in delivering customer service. Creating a shared vision centered on the organization's mission and customer impact is crucial for cultivating a culture of ownership and accountability. The conversation also highlights the importance of transparency, empowering employees to share ideas, and establishing effective feedback loops where contributions are valued and acknowledged, even when not immediately implemented. Leaders play a vital role in setting clear processes, providing resources, and fostering an environment where employees feel safe to voice their opinions and actively contribute to customer success.
1. Linking Employee and Customer Experiences for Growth
Mary Poppen emphasizes that organizations often overlook the significance of both employee and customer experiences, despite the immense benefits of focusing on both. Companies that prioritize both experiences simultaneously see increased stock prices and higher retention rates for both customers and employees.
The speakers discuss how unhappy employees can negatively impact customer satisfaction and business growth. Mary suggests starting by bringing HR and customer leaders together to understand the experiences of employees delivering customer service. By involving all relevant teams, including product creators, in understanding customer needs and delivering value, businesses can foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
They also explore the importance of humility and feedback loops in product development, emphasizing the need for all departments to focus on customer success rather than simply answering questions. Successful organizations create a culture where everyone is aligned with the goal of delivering value to customers and improving the overall experience.
Companies that focus on both employee and customer experience in parallel and see the synergies and the linkages have incredible results: stock prices increase, retention of customers and employees goes up. There's just so much goodness from having a focus on helping employees feel engaged and important. Helping the customers feel like they're getting a lot of value and that they're an important part of the company as well. (Mary Poppen)
2. Fostering Collaboration and Empowerment
Mary highlights the common issue of departments operating in silos, leading to a reactive culture where individuals may dismiss tasks outside their designated roles with the refrain, "That's not my job."
She emphasizes the necessity of cultivating a shared vision among employees, focusing on the organization's mission and its impact on customers. By helping individuals understand their role in achieving this mission and recognizing the interconnectedness of their work with others, organizations can foster a culture of accountability and collaboration. The conversation delves into practical strategies for creating customer-centric processes and empowering employees to take ownership of customer success. Mary emphasizes the importance of leadership in defining clear processes and providing the necessary resources and tools for employees to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
If you can build that shared mindset around ownership and accountability and help people understand how they need to work with others in the organization to deliver the outcome, it becomes a “help me — help you” mindset instead of “this is my role and this is what I deliver”. (Mary Poppen)
3. Creating a Culture of Transparency and Empowerment
Mary highlights the need for organizations to be transparent about their priorities and to encourage employees to share their ideas freely, creating an environment where everyone feels heard and valued.
She emphasizes the significance of following through on promises of openness and ensuring that employees feel safe to voice their opinions without fear of repercussion. Mary shares a successful example from her past experience where employees were encouraged to suggest cost-saving measures, resulting in innovative solutions that benefited the company.
Furthermore, Mary explores the importance of feedback loops, where leaders acknowledge employees' contributions and provide transparent explanations when certain ideas cannot be implemented. Mary suggests that leaders should express gratitude for employees' input while also being transparent about how ideas align with the company's vision and priorities.
Alex reflects on personal challenges in balancing active listening with problem-solving and offers insights into navigating these situations. Mary advises leaders to acknowledge their own limitations and to encourage open dialogue with their teams, empowering employees to speak up when they feel their voices aren't being heard.
It's really important to follow through and for leadership to be transparent, over-communicate and give that sense of “You're in it with us, we're all in it together, so your voice matters”. (Mary Poppen)
4. Embracing Mistakes and Balancing Customer Needs
Alex emphasizes the importance of debriefing and learning from mistakes without resorting to blame. He encourages his team to openly discuss failures and collaborate on finding solutions, fostering a culture where everyone feels empowered to contribute. Mary expands on the concept of intelligent risk-taking, emphasizing the importance of defining boundaries and providing employees with the freedom to explore innovative ideas within those parameters. She underscores the value of learning from experimentation and adapting strategies based on feedback and outcomes.
The conversation then shifts to the challenge of balancing resources and priorities when serving different types of customers. Alex raises the dilemma of pleasing all customers while also prioritizing those with the greatest impact on the business. Mary offers insights into developing scalable solutions to support smaller customers while also providing personalized support to larger clients. She emphasizes the need for clear communication and strategic decision-making to ensure that resources are allocated effectively.
If you have a better idea, let's explore it. And if you happen to go outside of this process and it doesn't work, let's regroup, debrief, learn from it and just not do it again, right? So it's that feeling like they're not going to get in trouble but we're going to look at it as a learning opportunity. (Mary Poppen)
5. Introducing customer segmentation and automation
Mary discusses the transition from a high-touch, hands-on approach to a more segmented and automated model as companies expand. She emphasizes the importance of understanding customer success metrics and tailoring services to meet varying customer needs.
As companies grow, Mary explains the necessity of introducing customer segmentation and automation to streamline processes and enhance scalability. It's important to communicate with employees about these changes and ensuring they understand the benefits for both customers and the company.
Furthermore, Mary addresses the issue of customer selection, acknowledging that not every customer is the right fit for every business or product. She talks about the importance of nurturing customer relationships and evolving with them over time, while also recognizing the need to prioritize resources for customers who align best with the company's goals and values.
The challenging customers are the ones that are pushing the boundaries of what you've built. They're mature, they're forward-thinking and they're ready. They need your solution today but they're using it at kind of maximum complexity. (Mary Poppen)
Check the episode's Transcript (AI-generated) HERE.
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