#WordNerdWednesday
I had never heard the term “watermelon” in a CX context until recently. Someone at the CXPA Leaders Advance conference used it to describe CX metrics – watermelon metrics look green at the top level but red as soon as you peek below the surface.
I loved that, and it made me think of another scenario where the term applies:
“Watermelon Journeys”
Imagine a customer journey that is green as far as customers are concerned. It’s easy, things work, no problem. But below the surface, the employees delivering that experience are miserable. They spend all their time navigating internal confusion, deficiencies and dysfunction so customers don’t have to feel the pain.
Employees who do this are often passionate customer advocates. They don’t mind “taking one for the team.” But they’re also human. They can only take so much, eventually getting fed up or burned out and looking for work elsewhere.
One astute CXO put it this way: “Our employees are absolutely heroes, but we force them to do heroic things more often than we should. If we had it together on the back end they wouldn’t have to take extreme measures to do simple things.”
“Watermelon journeys” are extremely common and entirely un-sustainable.
They are also a great opportunity for #CX and #EX to work together to find solutions.
How can make it easier for employees to do the things that customers need them to do?
Has your organization dealt with a “watermelon journey”? I’d love to hear how you handled it!
