Customer Experience Management is not a brand new concept in business environment. For centuries companies such as retailers, who have had a direct relationship with their customers, have understood the importance of offering a good customer experience at the point of sale and competed each other at this part. But only during the eighties, when many companies began to realize that an excellent product or service was no guarantee for success, was the concept of Customer Experience Management (CEM) formalized. Many companies started to think that there is something more than just producing the good/service, that dealing customer is very sophisticated issue and special techniques should be applied in order to sustain the current success.
One of CEM’s pioneers was Jan Carlzon, CEO of SAS Airlines from 1982. Instead of viewing the business in terms of products, he saw it in terms of a series of contacts with his passengers. Specifically he identified key contact points which he called “Moments of Truth”, moments such as the check-in and baggage reclaim which could determine whether a business would be successful or fail.
In a customer-driven company, which is highly concerned with customer satisfaction, the distribution of roles is radically different from all other firms. The organization is decentralized, with responsibility delegated to those who until now have not gained any leadership and decision making power. However, it is not that simple – to become a very successful company in terms of customer-management relationships. In order to become a customer-oriented company, extensive changes will be required on the part of frontline employees. And the initiatives for those changes must originate in the executive suite. It is up to the top executive to become a true leader, devoted to creating an environment in which employees can accept and execute their responsibilities with confidence and finesse. He must communicate with his employees, imparting the company’s vision and listening to what they need to make that vision a reality. To succeed he can no longer be an isolated and autocratic decision-maker. Instead, he must be a visionary, a strategist, an informer, a teacher, and an inspirer. That was the idea supported and promoted by Jan Carlzon. To middle managers he must delegate responsibility for analyzing problems, managing