Mission-Driven CX: An Improved Guide
I just talked to a highly respected customer experience (CX) executive in the healthcare space. His first question, after “How are you doing,” was, ”Do you think the practice of customer experience is on life support?”
The answer is yes—if we continue our current approach. Customer psychology has changed significantly in recent years, and businesses have become wary of CX promises. If we are to earn customer loyalty and generate clear results for the business, we must adapt and dig deeper. We must anchor the work to the things that matter most.
Historically, the concept of convenience has been a significant focus for most CX professionals. By making things easy, we rise above the competition. While this is still certainly very important, other factors are rising to the forefront that have an even greater impact on customer loyalty. The most notable of these factors? “Personal values alignment.” According to Katherine Haan writing for Forbes,
“A striking 61% of respondents indicate that their loyalty is affected when a company’s actions and ethics align with their own values. Customer service is no longer just about solving problems; it’s a cornerstone for building long-term relationships.”
In this Yotpo study among 3,800 respondents, 84.3% reported greater loyalty to a brand whose values align with theirs.
Kobie’s 2024 Consumer Research Study mirrors the results. “When a brand authentically embodies its values, it fosters emotional connections that lead to loyal customers.”
Enter “Mission-Driven CX.” This is the principle that customers are going to do business with organizations that actively embody the core values most important to them.
The bottom line is that many consumers have a “human-like” relationship with brands. We gravitate towards those we can trust and who act in a manner consistent with our own values. Many companies, having seen an aspect of this trend, have slapped a promise statement up on their website, proclaiming to the world who they are and what they believe. This is no longer enough. CX is what makes these proclamations more than just marketing copy …it turns the promise into a reality that is seen and felt.
My wife and I recently wrestled with several purchasing decisions. Everything from what to get for our kids’ teachers as gifts, to which robot vacuum to buy, to should we keep our internet provider. She made a statement that shut me right up with the reality of it. “It’s just so hard to know what to do with our life, our time, and our money.” Isn’t that the truth? As consumers, we have an overwhelming number of options—a myriad of organizations offering essentially the same thing. How is an organization supposed to break through all this noise?
There is a proud truth in the order of my wife’s statement: life, time, and money. She just summarized the mind of the modern customer! In descending order of importance:
Life: Does this brand encourage me and give me life by treating me like a person? Do they encourage a type of lifestyle among their employees and customers that aligns to my values? Do they give life back to the community in meaningful ways?
Time: Does this brand care about my time and make it easy for me to do business with them? Can I trust them to deliver without making me jump through hoops?
Money: Is this a good value for the resources I’m investing? Could I get the same thing elsewhere for a better price?
For today’s consumers, “life” is replacing money and even time as the thing that matters most.
Feather is an organization on the forefront of “mission-driven CX.” When I first met Jinal Shah, their VP of marketing and growth, I was blown away by her knowledge, enthusiasm and sincerity. She quickly made me care about a term that was brand new to me—“fast furniture”—and the harm it was causing to all of us:
“City renters move, on average, every 1-2 years. Tastes evolve, living arrangements change, budgets fluctuate, and many can’t afford or don’t want to commit to quality furniture so they end up resorting to cheaper alternatives that aren’t built to last. As a result, 20 billion pounds of furniture end up in landfills annually (that’s about the same amount of plastic that ends up in the oceans every year). This pattern isn’t sustainable.” – Livefeather.com
Feather has made a way for people to live their core values and rent beautiful furniture pieces. Young me could not fathom spending hundreds of dollars on furniture I didn’t even own. Currently, I cannot imagine spending hundreds of dollars on furniture that will be in a landfill in two years. What a difference these past fifteen years have made.
This generation has strong convictions and is willing to act on them. Not just as consumers…but as employees. The data featured by Korn Ferry is staggering:
- 71% of professionals would take a pay cut to work for a company with a mission they believe in and shared values
- 61% of job seekers choose employers based on values and beliefs
- 59% of people who left jobs said the most compelling reason to leave was finding a better “values fit” (which was twice as many people who chose compensation or career advancement).
Tom Smith is one such dedicated customer. “I’m a huge fan of Chipotle because of their commitment to serving #FoodWithIntegrity. I’ve been eating Chipotle six days a week for 14 years. I had burrito bowl #3,878 today.”
I inquired of Murphy Fraser, a CX leader for TTEC Digital, if organizational values ever enter into her purchasing decisions: “Oh goodness—so many! Both from a values perspective and an identity perspective. What I value & who I am go hand in hand… so I’ll always be more inclined to support businesses that are a reflection of me.”
There are few people who know as much about the “why” behind purchasing decisions as Mary Drumond, Marketing Executive and recognized CX thought leader. I asked her to weigh in:
“When it comes to emotions driving customers’ purchase decisions, most believe that ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ are the main emotions that affect the experience. However, our research has found that this is not entirely accurate. The emotions behind social proof and brand identification have a much stronger correlation with customers’ decisions to pick one brand over the other.
Brand identification is how we connect with the ideals and moral stance of a brand and its value proposition. A brand’s decision to deviate from these standards can be a make-or-break. In the past, companies have shied away from firm positions on socio-politics, and picking a side has previously been associated with corporate suicide. But the winds of change have brought about a mindset shift—brands now deliberately position themselves with their audiences in mind. When done properly, with detailed research and a brave executive board, the decision tends to pay off.”
“What doesn’t seem to pay off is an inauthentic, wishy-washy ticking-off of corporate boxes. Customers tend to view this as dishonest manipulation, and this can quickly invalidate their brand identification and social proof, causing a mass exodus of customers to competitors who empathize with their values on a deeper level.”
This is hard for most executives to reconcile. It means that not everyone is “your customer.” There will be people who are turned off by the stance you take—and they will leave. The positive reality is these will be replaced by others who are drawn to you for the right reasons.
Examples include Harley-Davidson with values of freedom and strong community. Patagonia with values supporting environmental conservation. Lululemon with values tied to wellness, mindfulness, and healthy living. Microsoft with strong commitments to trustworthy computing and innovation. Zoom only has one core value, but it speaks volumes…”care.”
Consumers of these brands will do far more than simply stick around…they will act as ambassadors and co-create with you towards a shared purpose.
Taking Action On Behalf of Your Organization
A fine concept, but how can you help your teams to practice mission-driven CX? These three steps will pave the way:
This is the part where you activate your executive team. From the dozens of companies I’ve worked with, the odds are that most of your senior leaders have a “mission-driven” that’s still inside of them. It’s so easy for this to become dormant to varying degrees along the way. It’s likely time to wake them up and bring them back to the core of what your organization does and why. These are the questions leaders must align upon:
- Why did the business get started in the first place?
- What is “the promise” your organization has made to its customers?
- What are the mentalities, values, and behaviors that are “non-negotiable” in defense of this promise?
There may have been a clear identity in the beginning…but time, distraction, and revenue pressure can tarnish it quickly. Polish it back to a shine that cuts through the noise. Wrestle through the big questions of who you are and what you really believe in. In the absence of this foundation, compelling and consistent Customer Experience will be impossible to achieve.
Leaders must adopt this identity for themselves and model it authentically for the organization. There is no room for employees—especially leaders—who are backstabbing one another and trying to create their own cultural fiefdoms. The organization must have the fortitude to remove these individuals, or they will inevitably sabotage the transformation initiative. Trust is the soil required for any cultural transformation to take root.
This work cannot be done in isolation. The world’s most customer-centric companies are those that are speaking a common language of change, and making experience a universal priority. The establishment of a strong cross-functional CX change coalition is required for long-term success.
As an example, marketing and CX must be connected at the hip. As China Louise Martens said for CMSWire:
“In today’s customer-centric world, the two practices are increasingly intertwined. One thing experts agree on is all digital marketing activities should be conducted through the lens of customer experience.”
Marketing forms an impression about who your company is, generating a host of expectations. CX must be ready to deliver. If these two groups are not evolving together, you have a brand that is “unrelatable.” These organizations behave one way in part of the customer journey and act completely different in another part of the journey. This is not a company with whom we can develop a strong relationship, and mission-driven CX goes out the window.
Mission-driven CX is something that must be earned over time. A conviction that is lived out and reinforced 1,000 times in a 1,000 ways by 1,000 people. This is what brings it from a statement on a slide in a town hall meeting, to a reality that your customers and employees can count on.
I believe that every company has a group of customers (and employees) that belong to you. Our goal is to capture the attention of the right audience and draw them in for the right reasons (reasons anchored in personal value alignment). Gone are the days of trying to be all things to all people. Even if you earn their business once, there is nothing sticky to bring them back.
This realization comes with an enhanced sense of purpose and freedom. All you’ve got to do is to be you. Be unapologetically you in everything from marketing, to service delivery, to corporate culture, to product development. The power of this consistency is enough to awaken your tribe and activate a loyal following. With how fickle the concept of loyalty is to achieve for most industries today, it’s likely the best of only a few viable methods.
“The fact is, we cannot love a logo, a jingle, or a piece of branded content. But we can love a person.” — Mark Schaefer
Are you a part of a “lovable” organization? If not, this is the moment to create the type of connections with customers that will earn your future.
Welcome to a world where people choose brands because of who they are and how this aligns with their core values. To recognize this will be your greatest strength. To ignore it places your organization on the slippery slope to irrelevance.
