Is there such a thing as a Customer Experience Ceiling?

Having been to my share of industry events over the past year, one question keep coming up.  How, when you are already winning awards for your customer experience, do you take it to the next level?

Good question.. is there a ceiling? Can you truly look up one day, dust your hands off and say "well that was fun!  What's next?"  I don't think so and it's not just for self preservation reasons I say that.  I really believe that we can always be tweaking, improving, and expanding.  Here are a few things that I see some of the seasoned customer experience teams focus on.

Rewarding Extraordinary

A sure sign that your customer experience program has become first nature is that you are not rewarding on being great but that you are rewarding on being extraordinary!  You no longer have to show people how to give great service. It's part of the hiring process, it's part of the culture, and frankly, it's a very basic expectation from each person in your company. The cultural revolution has happened- Congrats!

Empowered Employees go rogue - in a good way!

So you have a bunch of wonderfully empowered employees running around turn everyday things into memorable experiences and a few are going rogue!  You've heard through the grapevine that Rita used her lunch hour to drop off a customer's power brick at their office.  Or that Jim serviced a dishwasher on Friday night because the customer was having a huge part on Saturday.  Awesomeness is percolating to the top! It's pretty freaking exciting!

But is there a next level?  Could there be a holy grail?

Your Customers are now your Virtual Sales Team!

I definitely let people know when I have had great service and I am none to shy to let them know when I have had crap service.  Yes, social media makes this easy and it also speaks to the success of Amazon Reviews. However, if my girlfriend had a wonderful experience at a particular restaurant - I want to go, with her!  Let's make a date of it.  This is where the true power of your experience program speaks volumes.  

How many of your Promoters are actually promoting?  Still trying to figure out who your promoters are? Software Companies should look to their beta testers, Service Companies to their customer tenures, Customer retention programs?  Loyalty programs?

The ultimate priority could be "What do our advocates need from us today?"