My first exposure to the idea of designing the customer experience was in 2003 when I was a speaker at a conference. One of the other speakers was Ken Blanchard. He talked about the ideas in his book Raving Fans on stage and back in the green room. I had been a senior leader in multiple organizations by then, and his ideas on leadership, business, and even spirituality resonated with me. He described a customer relationship that I wanted to have. I went home from that conference and tried to apply his ideas to my work. This was met with some successes—but also some painful failures. I knew where I wanted to go but didn’t know how to get there.
Then, I had the chance to work inside a world-class engine, one that created raving fans on a regular basis: Chick-fil-A. For eight years, I served as a leader at the Chick-fil-A Support Center, assigned to work all over the company on strategic improvement projects. I worked directly with their top leaders, including the founder, Truett Cathy, before he passed away, and I spent my days neck-deep in a wide variety of engine parts, learning and working to help them build a better company.
Those were some truly great years. I learned a ton and I’m still close friends with many, many people in the Chick- fil-A family. But I kept getting more and more requests to help other companies, and after years of saying no, a series of small things combined to make me believe that God was calling me to step out of my comfort zone at Chick-fil-A and go back to serving other companies as a consultant. Thankfully, the first company to sign a contract with me when I announced I was leaving was Chick-fil-A, and I have continued to work with their leaders every year since then.
Since then, the Customer Experience Engine has been implemented by steel manufacturers and legal firms, in enterprise software and commercial roofing. I didn’t start with a theory. I just connected the dots and named the shape that emerged. And whether you use this engine or another, that’s the approach we recommend. Don’t guess. Start by studying the legends. Identify the principles behind the activities. Then, translate it to your situation.
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