Need a customer experience budget? Here's how to convince your management!
2 February 2023
Without a customer experience budget, you won't get anywhere.
I repeat: without a customer experience budget, you won't get anywhere. Certainly not if you want to engage in structural customer experience management. Perhaps not pleasant to read, but a much-needed reality check.
Are you thinking, 'Oh no, we don't have a pre-set budget'? Then know that you are not alone at all. On the contrary, many organizations have realized by now that customer experience is important, and often already run multiple standalone initiatives. However, with the exception of CX kings like Coolblue and truly large corporations, there is often a lack of a pre-set budget to execute customer-centric initiatives.
This is partly due to the fact that customer experience is somewhat everyone's (and therefore no one's) responsibility, but sometimes also to the person responsible for customer experience themselves. After all, the latter must ensure that they can secure a customer experience budget from the board in a convincing and decisive manner.
My management is not yet convinced; what do I do about that?
For me, part of the answer to this question depends on your own position within the organization. After all, depending on your role, you have different opportunities and options to put customer experience on the agenda.
I am part of the management in my organization.
Are you a board member or middle manager? Then you likely have experience drafting budgets, or you have already had to create, read, and/or review a business case. In that case, the key is to properly implement the tips further in this article and thereby convince your fellow managers. Because you already have a mandate, you can also ensure that 'the customer' is regularly discussed during management meetings. Use that mandate!
Moreover, ensure you are well aware of what is going on within the organization. Make regular time to listen to employee stories and translate these into relevant insights for your executive committee. And finally: ask how much customer experience budget is currently available, and what the results are. In short: start by putting customer experience on the agenda yourself, even if it is not immediately your ultimate responsibility.
I am NOT part of the management in my organization.
In that case, I advise you to first convince your direct supervisor of the necessity. Summarize a few concrete problems and action points within your department, and provide a first step towards addressing or resolving them. Talk to colleagues from other departments. Are they facing the same issues? Can you already come up with some ideas together? Focus on the matters that are important for your department and the customer, and from there discuss with your supervisor how he or she can place customer experience higher on the agenda.
I want more customer experience budget; how do I go about that?
Before I share some practical tips and tricks with you, I want to draw your attention to what you better not do. Avoid anything that is 'woolly', 'fluffy', and 'out of love for the customer'. Although I and all other CX experts will agree with you that improving customer experience is simply something you have to do—effectively out of love for people—this turns out particularly badly in most budget meetings.
So how can it be done? Let me be your virtual customer experience budget guide.
Make the problem painfully clear and palpable.
Avoid generalities and tell things that customers and employees actually experience. Share real stories, real reviews, and real conversations. Statistics and numbers are good for understanding orders of magnitude, but putting “14% dissatisfied customers” on a slide deck feels particularly dry. However, if you flesh out your figures with customer stories, you get a completely different story.
Practical tip: yours truly once started the bi-weekly board meeting by reading out the last 5 good and bad reviews to everyone. And suddenly, the customer is very palpable in the meeting room. I bet your customer experience budget request will immediately receive more attention.
Know your numbers and know what you want.
In other words: build the business case. Even for smaller investments. I often see and hear all kinds of customer-oriented profiles 'complaining' because they don't get a budget for improvements. “It would be better for the company, too,” they say. That is probably true, but have you actually quantified it? How many fewer phone calls will you receive due to a better help function on your website? How many fewer complaints do you estimate you will receive when you improve your service? And what is the impact of that on your service employees? So make sure you actually have and know the figures to substantiate your case.
Practical tip: there is bound to be more data available than you think. Just drop by IT for a coffee and you will be surprised at how much data your organization has at its disposal without extra investments…
Also, be clear about what you want. Ensure you have a clear understanding of your objective, what you want to achieve, when, and why. Do not just emphasize the benefits, but also discuss the potential damage if you do not receive a customer experience budget and are therefore unable to solve the problem.
Make new friends.
Look beyond the walls of your own department and discover what keeps others awake at night. Discover who, just like you, is a customer-oriented thinker and doer.
Practical tip: Stand by the coffee machine more often during your break and find out which of your board members or managers are already on board with customer-oriented thinking and acting. Is the gap wide? Or do you have no idea where to start? Becoming friends with the management assistant can also help gauge exactly where you need to be.
Be realistic.
Take into account the general economic situation and the state of the organization you work for. Have you had a 'bad' year or a super year? Base your customer experience budget partly on the answer to that question. A small side note: I am not a big fan of the classic "just ask for way too much, you'll always get less" saying. On the contrary: I think there is a lot to be said for a realistically estimated budget, and that management is learning to appreciate that more and more.
Finally: I have a limited customer experience budget, so what is the priority now?
You can probably see my answer coming: That really varies from company to company. Investigating where you stand today and what your areas for improvement are by means of a Customerry scan is always a good idea. And be sure to also read our vision on the customer experience trends of 2023.
Need help getting money from your boss?
Do you also have tons of customer-oriented ambitions for which you could use some extra budget, but find that securing those funds doesn't always go smoothly? Feel free to give me a shout; I'd be happy to share some extra tips and tricks with you.
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