Customer experience project prioritization grid

According to the recent Return On Investment In Customer Experience: Trend Report by CX Network, just over a third of respondents believe their CX department needs to deliver returns to be taken more seriously in the business. Practitioners in this category need to prioritize CX projects wisely so they can win trust and buy-in from the rest of the business.

What are customer experience strategies?

Brian Hodgdon, head of insights at Dropbox, emphasizes the importance of being aligned with the objectives of the division and company as there are a lot of places that a company can invest in, with each having their own opportunity cost. He adds: “A choice to invest in one place may be a choice to deny investments somewhere else. Going with the flow and direction of the company is important. Investment outside of that dilutes your contribution.”

Hodgdon outlines a visualization strategy using four quadrants that CX practitioners can use to determine which CX projects should receive priority: “You need to assess the value you are bringing versus your ability to execute. You do not need to spend countless hours on a thesis for ROI especially if you are comparing how to prioritize particular projects. First, you look at high-value projects that you are in good positions to execute against – those are the ones you want to target.

CX Project Prioritization Grid

“If you look at the other quadrants there are the low value projects that are very difficult to implement. Those are the ones that you want to put to bed and forget. Often these are a pet project of someone’s on the team and they hang around for a long time and you just need to be explicit and clarify that we are not going to be doing this project.”

Regarding the things that are low value but easy to execute, Hodgdon states these tasks should be tackled opportunistically. “If you are aware of those there will be opportunities where you have extra bandwidth throughout the year to do those. Then over time, a combination of those will end up being pretty impactful.

“The last quartile are the tasks that are of high value but you are not in a strong position to execute against and those you can’t ignore. Your job is, in parallel with other projects, to understand what is limiting you and how you can get in the position to complete those trickier initiatives. Maybe you need to reduce technical debt, or invest in foundational capabilities so six months from now you are in a good position to address those projects.”

To uncover calculations for return on investment in customer experience and insight from the likes of Dropbox, American National and Wells Fargo, download the Return On Investment In Customer Experience: Trend Report