Understanding CX maturity models: CX Mini Masterclass – E78

This CX Mini Masterclass explains CX maturity models, what they are and how to leverage them. As organizations work towards their customer-centric objectives, they need to find ways of measuring, evaluating and charting their progress. Show host and customer experience expert, Julia Ahlfeldt, demystifies CX maturity and shares practical ideas for how CX maturity models can be used by CX professional to help drive change. If you’re interested in learning more about a tool that is fundamental to customer-centric evolution and goes straight to the heart of the CX profession, then this episode is for you.

Why CX Maturity is matters

Truth be told, when the Age of the Customer arrived, most established businesses were ill-prepared. They were inward-looking and had been set up to solve business problems, not customer problems. The process for companies to change, adapt with the times and become customer-centric was just that, a process. And generally speaking, the larger the business, the longer that tends to take.

There isn’t a cut and paste solution for customer-centric transformation. This will be a unique journey for each organization, but if a leadership team wants to achieve a particular goal, it’s helpful to understand where things are and the work that awaits them to get to where they want to go. CX Maturity models help business leaders and CX teams understand the typical mileposts along the way.

Demystifying the models

As more and more businesses began responding to the new market conditions of the Age of the Customer, CX professionals started to see patterns and similarities within these business transformations, which gave rise to the development of CX maturity models. These models normally track the different phases of CX evolution from outright denial of customer experience as a strategic imperative to a fully integrated customer-centric business utopia. Some of the most popular models out there have been developed by the likes of the Temkin Group, Forrester, Gartner and other big name research houses. Many of the popular models are conceptually similar and vary mostly in their terminology. The magic is in how you use the model, not which one you pick.

Bruce Temkin’s CX maturity model is one of the most popular and a great example

How to use CX maturity models

A CX maturity model might sound like some sort of convoluted strategic thing at first, but it’s actually incredibly useful as a means to move from goals to action.

• CX diagnostic – evaluate where your organization stands in terms of its CX evolution. Use this as a conversation starter with leadership.

• Understand your strengths (and weaknesses) – most CX maturity models assess different competencies. CX leaders can use this level of granularity to evaluate what might be holding them back from progressing towards their customer-centric goals.

• Chart the course – There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for customer-centric evolution, but understanding the common competencies and milestones helps CX leaders manage expectations within their organization and plan for the big chunks of CX work. 

Want to keep learning about CX?

If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast.

Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in customer experience management. To find out more about how Julia can help your business achieve its CX goals, check out her customer experience advisory consulting services (including CX strategy, voice of customer and culture change) or get in touch via email.