“How do we get executive support for customer experience?” Someone asks me this question at least once a week, and my advice is always the same: Stop asking for support. “Support” is what I call a Vague Verb – too conceptual to drive concrete action. People are more likely to act on specific requests than generic … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday – Support
Word Nerd Wednesday: Great
I’ve typed “great customer experience” more times than I can count, but I have a confession. It makes me cringe a little every time because it’s too vague a phrase to be useful. What constitutes greatness? According to who? These aren’t trivial questions. Every CX strategy should include: Whose definition of “great” you’re aiming for … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday: Systematic vs. Systemic – What’s the Difference?
Last week I shared what it means to be systematic. This week, let’s look at a word that sounds similar but has a different meaning: SYSTEMIC Both words are adjectives. One describes a way of *doing*.The other describes a way of *being*. Systematic things follow a clear plan or method. That method is the “system” … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday: Systematic
I was talking to a new customer experience (CX) leader yesterday about what her job is and how to explain it to the rest of the people in her organization. “My job is to improve customer experience ,” she said. Wrong. Her job, like all CX leaders, is to help the company take a systematic … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday: Role
We use words like customer, user, buyer, and influencer to describe the people a company serves, but those labels aren’t really about the people. They are about the role that person plays in their relationship with us. The role may matter most to you, but it’s a tiny fraction of who they are as a … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday: Opposite
The opposite of big is small. The oppposite of open is closed. Not every word has a clear opposite, though. I’m wrestling with one such word now and would love input from my logophile tribe. Here’s the situation… Lack of clarity is a barrier to customer experience transformation. Having a 1-word label for this issue … Read more
Word Nerd Wednedsay: Retronym
On last week’s Word Matters podast I learned “retronym.” A retronym is a word or phrase we make up to distinguish the old version of something from a newer version or form. People didn’t say “rotary phone” until there was something other than rotary to choose from (i.e., touch-tone). We didn’t start saying “landline phone” … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday: Declined
Data is supposed to spur people to action, but it rarely does. Why not? It’s because numbers, on their own, are boring, and the words people use to describe numbers tend to be boring, too. Boring numbers + boring words = tuned-out audience. Thankfully, there is this thing called a thesaurus.* In between overly flowery synonyms … Read more
Word Nerd Wednesday: Detox
Today I heard a CX leader refer to their culture change initiative as a “detox.” It’s the perfect word. Culture = a set of shared beliefs that drive behavior patterns in an organization. Toxins = things that poison or harm a system they infiltrate. Few things are more harmful to an organization than misguided beliefs … Read more
