For any enterprise, there is one question that is always omnipresent, ‘How do we acquire new customers and retain our existing ones?’ The answer to that is quite simple, but we often miss out on doing what’s necessary. We need to be involved in the customer’s experience. We need to listen to what they want to say and empathize with them, whether it is happy or frustrating. It’s important to show them how much we care.

To do this, anybody in a customer interfacing role, from sales to support and contact center agents need to upskill. It’s all about learning and developing the art of empathy, seeking incidents and stories from customers, having a genuine interest in listening to them and more.

Therefore, one must understand the customer experience ecosystem and carefully analyze the sentiments. That’s the first step in being creative and thus being innovative. And this is how products and services are co-created for customers.

Keith Schorah, founder and CEO of a customer intelligence enterprise says that it is vital that CX is designed for and measured by what customers actually experience. To do that, businesses must adopt a strong customer experience program that helps create customer loyalty and retention.

The workplace is constantly transforming

Employees gain more confidence when they are close to their customers. It is even more evident when they add value to their business and lives. Fluid intelligence and fresh thinking is the key to adding value. Fluid intelligence is not crystallized intelligence. It is the knowledge of the future whereas crystallized intelligence is the knowledge of the past. To develop fluid intelligence, one should upskill and cross-skill.

In the current VUCA era, where most things like technology and products are Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous, it has become even more important to upskill oneself to meet the ever-changing customer demands. It isn’t about what you already know, but more about the curiosity, interest and willingness to learn.

At the workplace, skills are considered one of the most valuable assets. It doesn’t just make a business more profitable and productive, but can also lead to greater advancement opportunities for employees. Thus, it has become a mission for employees to be future-ready.

What upskilling can do for you?

For enterprises who want to lead in the customer experience ecosystem, it is critical to imbibe and develop a culture of continuous learning. This is because a learning culture increases employee resilience, productivity and improves innovation. Thus, it can be beneficial for you in the long run.

• Opening a new door to challenges and opportunities can lead to a discovery of passions. Very often when employees are placed in such situations, it helps them grow professionally and works well for the business too.
• In the customer experience industry, one thing that is certain is uncertainty. So, make yourself future-proof by taking responsibility for your learning and upskilling in the variety of areas that are applicable to your domain. This could even mean offering services in-house that were previously outsourced in the light of losing valuable business from customers. Hence, investing in existing staff could help you meet your long-term goals.
• Lastly, what would make any customer feel reliable towards any product or service? It’s all about adapting to the speed of change. Speed comes from every individual working with products or services who have adequate or more knowledge on the process, technology, domain, and behavioral skills. And it’s one of the ways to stand out in a crowd.

Upskilling has become a buzzword among enterprises. It is more relevant for employees who are in customer-facing roles. So keep looking out for opportunities to use automation and robots in creating dynamic systems and interfaces and even learning management systems that will help any customer interfacing role to learn and upskill.