Four Customer Experience Lessons from Star Wars

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… a space opera about humans, aliens, and droids engaged in an interplanetary war captivated, and continues to enthral, millions of people. It’s storytelling at its best, with relatable characters, a classic good versus evil tale with plenty of action for the whole family, and compelling life lessons and wisdom. Some of this wisdom, contained in numerous quotes from popular characters, can be applied to all aspects of life. We took some of these quotes and applied them to customer experience.

“Your focus determines your reality.” Qui-Gon Jinn, The Phantom Menace

More companies are differentiating themselves from competitors through customer experience (CX) management. However, if CX isn’t institutionalised and a strategy isn’t put into place, organisations find themselves trying to support a plethora of CX initiatives, with varying levels of success. A CX strategy is the approach your company takes to create a unique CX experience and contains proposed plans to manage the customer experience at each touchpoint along the customer journey. Implementing a well thought out strategy, informed by VoC research into customer needs, will help focus efforts and yield benefits such as an improved reputation, reduced churn, and increased profits.

“You can’t stop the change, any more than you can stop the suns from setting.” Shmi Skywalker, The Phantom Menace

The CX landscape is dynamic as your customers’ needs and perceptions are constantly evolving. Contingencies and adaptability should be planned for in your CX strategy, along with continuous measurement. Consider implementing a real-time Voice of the Customer solution as it generates results that can be actioned immediately. It also shows you whether the CX changes you’re investing in are having the right impact. The benefits of continuous CX measurement far outweigh a once-a-year exercise.

“Never underestimate a droid.” General Leia Organa, The Rise of Skywalker

Having the right technology in place can be invaluable in improving and supporting CX initiatives. Organisations often fail to leverage technology and their VoC and CX programmes fall short. It’s important to find a technology platform that offers CX tools, integrates with existing infrastructure, and provides the full end-to-end functionality required for an effective programme. The power of a technologically driven CX programme lies in the ability to aggregate feedback across a variety of channels, overlay secondary data such as financials, and then integrate findings back into systems such as CRM platforms. Furthermore, the ideal solution should be agile and adapt to evolving customer and business requirements.

“We had each other. That’s how we won.” Lando Calrissian, The Rise of Skywalker

A team that is engaged, supportive, and works together towards the same goal is key to an outstanding customer experience. These teams provide a consistent experience at each customer touchpoint and are more likely to resolve queries/complaints in the first interaction. Cultivating this type of team starts with creating a culture of customer-centricity. Managers and employees from every company division must understand that they are all responsible for CX. It's also important to ensure that communication is open, transparent, and two-way and that you listen to the Voice of your Employee (VoE). Collaboration on results as well as frequent communication is essential to drive the right results.

The best VoC programmes help you understand where you are delighting or disappointing your stakeholders and how to make changes to get it right. We offer a ready-to-go VoC measurement toolkit suited to any environment seeking to measure performance, process, and overall customer experience through the Voice of the Customer. Eyerys is an omnichannel, real-time feedback platform that helps you to gather VoC data from across your business. Forget multiple systems and merging spreadsheets - with Eyerys your data is all in one place. What are you waiting for - check it out.