How far behind the scenes of your operation should your customers see? The answer is tougher to determine than most brand leaders realize. But striking the right balance between what customers can and can’t see is an important step in providing a customer experience (CX) that keeps them coming back. Here are the secrets to finding the right line of customer visibility to provide the best CX possible.
What is a Customer Line of Visibility?
Optimizing customer visibility (also known as the line of visibility) means determining which processes and experiences to show customers, which moments to hide, and what to showcase.
So, what does it mean to set a line of customer visibility?
A restaurant example helps illustrate what seems like a complicated topic. Most restaurants wall off their kitchens from the dining areas so patrons don’t have to see gazpacho-splattered walls, cooktops swaddled in tin foil, and sweating chefs who look nothing like Bobby Flay or Giada De Laurentiis.
But a few don’t draw the line there. Chains such as Gordon Biersch and Romano’s Macaroni Grill open the kitchen for all to see. Some restaurants go a step further and offer a chef’s table in the kitchen itself. Those dining experiences are different from what most other restaurants provide, which is the point: Moving the line of visibility can create opportunities to differentiate. They can also help increase trust, avoid misunderstandings that frustrate customers, and improve the overall customer experience.
Still, pinning down the right line of customer visibility may be easier said than done. The only way to identify where to draw that line is to take a deep look at the customer experience. Oftentimes, companies have a hard time seeing their operations, business processes, and employees through the eyes of the customer. Without clear customer research and analysis, CX pros won’t have data or insights to guide their strategy—and they’re left making blind guesses at CX improvements.
How to Improve Customer Visibility
Here’s the multi-million dollar question: Once the business maps its entire CX ecosystem, how can it determine the best place to draw the line of customer visibility?
Our perspective on that question is that any modifications to the line of visibility should consider how the changes benefit the experience and the company. As an example, after mapping out the customer journey, we typically find numerous focus areas. Some of these are smaller quick wins, while others are larger initiatives. To help with prioritization we use the value compass, which helps us narrow the objective. For instance, if a company wants to sell more to existing customers via cross-sell or up-sell tactics, then we may prioritize those strategies over acquiring new customers through awareness efforts.
How Optimizing Customer Visibility Looks in Action
A recent case study illustrates how optimizing customer visibility leads to tangible gains. A nationwide electronic security services organization asked us to help improve its CX. On the surface, it was keeping up with customer experiences, but it wasn’t impressing customers.
Our team used customer interviews, surveys, and omnichannel analysis to peer into our client’s customer’s journey. When we analyzed the full omnichannel experience, we saw several key processes were hidden from new customers—and it was causing billing mistakes, scheduling problems, missed appointments, and lost revenue.
Ultimately, digging into the customer’s experience allowed us to develop 39 opportunities to enhance customer experiences. Several involved hitting the sweet spot in customer visibility. For instance, one initiative included adding support apps to alert customers when security issues arose and allow them to take action on their own. Another let customers check their security health status, and a third laid out a quick start guide showing customers what to expect during their first billing session, at account registration, and on installation day.
Perfecting the customer line of sight and focusing on CX paid off. By increasing transparency at important moments, our initiatives eliminated surprises that were damaging the customer’s experience and transformed costly friction points into seamless experiences. All told, our analysis delivered an estimated $100 million and is creating opportunities to open completely new revenue streams.
How to Use Customer Visibility Enhancements to Improve CX
Improving customer visibility is critical for brands that want to enhance the customer’s experience. But if CX leaders want to identify opportunities and create a CX strategy that moves the needle, they need to master customer journey mapping. Customer journey maps can help shine light on customer pain points, predict future customer needs, and showcase high-ROI CX improvements. Read our Ultimate Guide to Customer Journey Mapping to learn how to use these powerful tools to elevate CX—and boost customer loyalty.
