Here we are everyone, just a few weeks ago we all had the amazing opportunity to watch one of the greatest World Cups unfold. And despite my Scottish roots, the public couldn’t be any prouder of England’s success and newfound talent. In honor of their over-achievement and hard work, let’s look at three customer and employee experience lessons we took away from 2018’s World Cup.
Great EX leads to even better CX
The English team was fresh, highly motivated, and ready to succeed. This spurred a winning mindset obsessed with reaching the top, and your organization shouldn’t be any different. As I wrote about after the shock exits of Germany and Argentina, talent is great, but a disconnected and unenthusiastic team will fail before it even hits the sales or service floor.
We at TTEC believe there should be a mindset from the very beginning to win at employee experience, similar to when these amazing young athletes were recruited. That means immediately designing, building, and operating captivating learning experiences at scale to create meaning and purpose. CX leaders need to inspire their associates to use their emotional intelligence as a way to enhance the overall customer experience. Remember, great employee experience reveals delightful customer experience, which leads to greater profits.
Think of it as instilling your employees with a sense of customer-centric purpose before they even enter the playing field. Or as the Dutch football star Johan Cruyff nicely put it, “You have got to shoot, otherwise you can’t score.”
Be inspiring
To say that culture was a big part of this year’s Cup would be an understatement. The England team put it all out on the field, and with their fans cheering them on it created a movement worth believing and being a part of.
When we highlighted some truly exceptional marketing campaigns before the tournament in June, we saw the supermarket chain Lidl release fantastic content around its “Dream Big” project, which funded English youth soccer programs. It shows that authenticity pays off in today’s workplace, as employees and customers alike increasingly demand that the companies they interact with are ethical and fair. And this isn’t just being felt amongst younger workers. A Glassdoor survey released in London found that three quarters of 18-to-24-year-old workers would leave an unethical company, and nearly half who are late in their careers would quit, as well.
From manager Gareth Southgate’s authentic leadership to the young men’s drive, there was a sense of purpose and value among the England players that let them accomplish great things. Whether big or small, companies that show their true values inside their company and represent those values to the market genuinely stand out and profit.
At TTEC, our purpose, vision, mission and values guide who we are and who we aspire to be, serving as the building blocks for the way we conduct business and build relationships. Our values are to Lead every day, Do the right thing, Reach for amazing, Seek to understand, Act as one, and Live life passionately.
The perfect mindset
A team and workforce that nurtures a great experience internally has a winning mentality that finds victory even in failure. England surprisingly made it to the semi-finals, but fell short and finished in fourth place. But even that was a win in itself. And England placing in fourth came from a willingness to reconsider what it takes to go further than ever before. "We don't kid ourselves at all. We know exactly the areas that we hope to get better in… We have to coach and develop and improve as a group,” said Southgate after their loss.
Similarly our experience at TTEC has shown that a combination of the right knowledge, skills, and processes form the best mindset for exceptional performances. This tactic comes down to the tools that you give your employees, and for us it’s pairing AI and people. Our RealPlay AI Learning in particular allows trainees to interact with dynamic chatbot simulations that prepare them to help real customers. To quote the former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, “An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
Think of it as a football player honing his or her skills before the season begins. Consider the investment England put in training for the dreaded penalty shot, and how much it paid off in the long run. AI tools and focus on training and mindset encourage our associates to focus on and improve their own weaknesses and turn them into strengths.
Reach for amazing and succeed beyond the championship
Fast forward, the Three Lions have celebrated, but now they need to focus on the future. Their success is built upon the investment in their players, their performance on and off the pitch, and how they can adapt for a game that may never go as expected. Your organization and employees must do the same, be prepared for anything and never be surprised if your hard work takes you to the top. With that, I cannot wait for the 2020 European Football Championship to report on yet more great football and customer experience on the ultimate stage.
