What Really ROX

Return on Experience offers a new way to measure success. Written by: Damien Martin

- Damien Martin

“The customer is always right” might be a relic of a different era of commerce, and anyone who's dealt with some pretty demanding and ill-informed purchasers knows the sentiment was never strictly true. But organizations do find themselves struggling to strike a balance in doing right by customers while still delivering the ROI shareholders expect in an era that emphasizes constant growth.

To deliver sustainable profits over the long term, advises Sujay Saha, the founder and president of strategy and transformation firm Cortico-X, businesses would do well to remember the old adage that if you serve your customers well, you serve your business well. To do that, Saha suggests they place a renewed emphasis on ROX, return on experience that builds loyal customers – and employees – for sustained success.

THE VIRTUOUS CYCLE

ROX, Saha explains, starts with pride. In evaluating their purpose, organizations need to make emotional commitments to the values they hold dear.

Next, they need to instill this pride in the influencers within the organization and among their customer base. These brand ambassadors internalize that pride and spread the message far and wide.

As a result, this pride begins to influence behaviors toward customers from within the organization, and by customers who connect with the values the organization is putting forth. Employees buy into the newly re-established organizational pride and treat customers accordingly. Seeing this, customers feel a sense of loyalty to the brand, and public perception improves.

This turns into drivers of value such as customer and employee satisfaction, proxies of things like a Net Promoter score that indicate the direction the company is headed.