A recent conversation with a local authority left me reflecting on a question that has been around for decades, yet still feels incredibly relevant today.


The organisation is embarking on an ambitious customer experience transformation programme. Like many organisations, they are investing time and energy into defining what good looks like and building the capabilities needed to deliver it. Teams spanning digital, organisational design, learning and development, culture, customer journeys, customer insight, complaints and performance are all part of the conversation.


On paper, it sounds exactly right. Yet one statistic stood out.


A significant proportion of customer contacts were repeat enquiries relating to existing requests. Customers weren't making contact because they had a new issue.


They were calling because they wanted an update, reassurance or confidence that their original issue was being dealt with. In many ways, this is where customer experience becomes visible.


Customers don't see departments, processes or reporting structures. They experience outcomes. 


If they need to contact an organisation repeatedly for the same issue, something isn't working from their perspective, regardless of where the root cause sits.


It made me wonder. As customers and citizens, are our expectations increasing, or are organisations finding it harder to consistently meet them? The reality is probably somewhere in between.


Through CCA research, member discussions and countless conversations with leaders across sectors, we know that customer expectations continue to evolve. People increasingly compare experiences across industries. A seamless interaction with one organisation quickly becomes the benchmark for another.


At the same time, many organisations are operating in increasingly complex environments. Economic pressures, workforce challenges, legacy systems, budget constraints and competing priorities all make transformation difficult.


What struck me about this particular conversation was that the challenges weren't really about technology.

 

  • At a time when much of the discussion focuses on AI, automation and digital transformation, many of the barriers organisations face still come back to people, leadership, ownership and culture.

  • How do you ensure everyone understands the role they play in delivering the customer experience?

  • How do you create shared ownership when responsibility sits across multiple teams?

  • How do you help colleagues connect their day-to-day decisions to the impact they have on customers?

  • And perhaps most importantly, how do leaders create an environment where everyone is pulling in the same direction?


We've been talking about customer-centricity for more than twenty years. Most organisations understand its importance. Few would argue against putting customers at the heart of decision-making. Yet embedding that mindset consistently across an organisation remains one of the biggest challenges many leaders face.


Perhaps customer experience isn't difficult because we don't know what good looks like. Perhaps it's difficult because delivering it requires alignment across leadership, culture, behaviours, processes and priorities.


Customers don't experience our organisational structures. They experience outcomes.


And when those outcomes fall short, they rarely see the complexity behind the scenes.


So here is a question. 


If customer experience matters so much, why do so many organisations still find it difficult to deliver consistently? And what role does leadership play in creating the alignment needed to make customer-centricity more than just an aspiration?

 

I'd be interested to hear what you're seeing within your own organisations.