522 Managing the Customer Experience

Unit Overview

522 Managing the Customer Experience is a unit within the CMI Level 5 module that focuses on improving the ability to handle customers effectively. The organisation has a binding obligation to its customers. These customers include the external and external customers of the organisation who need to be served effectively. For an organisation to successfully meet its goals and obligations, it must focus on the customer experience, which involves being able to maximise the satisfaction of the customers through the service they receive from the organisation.

As such, it becomes critical to ensure that the activities implemented for the organisations are aligned with the needs to establish customer satisfaction and maximise customer experience, which is important in achieving the desired market share as well as meeting the competitive levels developed within the organisations. Leaders must develop the relevant skills and knowledge that are involved in handling the customers to maximise their experience. They should be able to set up strategies and mechanisms within the workplace which contribute towards meeting the desired levels of satisfaction among the customer.

522 Managing the Customer Experience is, therefore, a critical unit for new and aspiring leaders within the workplace. The unit helps the leaders to understand the principles they should use in evaluating the need and expectations of the customers. By understanding these needs, they can be able to provide quality services that are aligned with meeting expectations and maximising the customer experience. Managing customer experience also requires the leaders to understand the specific tools and strategies that they can use to interact with the customers, which forms a critical area of learning within this unit. The unit is taught in 22 hours of guided learning and contributes 5 credit values towards the completion of the module.

Suitability of the Unit

Leaders must have the capability to ensure that the organisation, in its areas of operation, is able to fulfill its obligation to the customers. This involves being able to effectively understand the customer needs and expectations and ensuring that the organisation delivers on these expectations. While all stakeholders are responsible for ensuring that they successfully complete their responsibilities, it is the leaders who have the biggest tasks in setting up systems and structures which aim at guaranteeing and facilitating customer satisfaction. As such, 522 Managing the Customer Experience is a unit that is significantly suitable for the leaders within the organisation. It helps them to develop the understanding and skills that they require to ensure that the organisational activities are customer-centered, which ensures the customer experience is effectively managed.

The unit is designed with the learning needs of the middle managers in mind. It helps them to make operational and tactical decisions that are aligned with the needs of the customers. By improving the ability of middle managers to handle customer experience, the unit streamlines activities within the departments and lines, which translates to the overall organisation. The unit is also suitable for other stakeholders, including senior managers, team leaders, and external consultants who contribute to making decisions in the workplace.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Understand the factors that influence the relationships of the organisations with the customers

Assess 

• key features of the customer-focused culture within the organisation setting

• Examine the benefits and challenges associated with the process of managing customer experience within the workplace

• Examine the impacts of organisational and legal requirements on the management of the customer experience

• Analyse the customer journey within the organisation setting to ensure that they are able to receive the desired levels of satisfaction

• Evaluate the role and responsibilities of different stakeholders in supporting the customer journey in the context of the organisation

• Understand good practices in relation to customer experience and relationship management

• Evaluate the use of technology in effectively managing the customer experiences

• evaluate the methods that are used to monitor and measure customer experience within the workplace

• Recommend approaches that could be implemented to achieve the desired levels of the customer experience through continuous improvement in the context of the organisation.

Key Learning Areas

Customer relationship is a critical factor in influencing the ability of the leaders to develop desired performance in customer satisfaction.t this unit, therefore, covers critical units that focus on understanding approaches to improve this customer experience. Some of the main units covered within the area of learning include:

Concept of Customer Relationship 

This area of learning ensures that the learners understand the features within the workplace that could influence the management of customer experience. The learners are guided to build an understanding of the different factors which influence the development of the relationships between the organisation and their customers, including quality of services offered, level of customer service, and focus on customer needs.

Customer Journey

This area of learning helps to understand the features of the customer journey within the organisation. They are guided to understand the stages of the customer journey, which includes awareness, consideration, purchase, and loyalty. The learners are also guided to build the ability to effectively engage stakeholders in developing the desired customer relationships.

It ensures that all stakeholder understand their roles and responsibilities in the process of instilling the desired levels of customer satisfaction and setting the desired customer experience levels. Lastly, learners are guided to understand approaches that they can use to influence the monitoring and evaluation process that ensures all processes of improving customer experience are evaluated to determine their efficiency in meeting the intended goals and objectives.

Evaluation

On completing the unit, the learners are guided to complete the evaluation process. This process of evaluation comprises a written assessment where the learners are required to complete a template on the unit, supervised practice and simulated exercises. These methods help to evaluate both theoretical mastery of the concept and the ability to practically use the information in organisational settings.