Customer Experience Workshops: Getting Started

How to set up and lead customer experience workshops so your team can provide the best experiences for members.

According to HubSpot, a customer experience workshop is a highly interactive, live or virtual program that a company runs to boost an organization’s customer experience. These kinds of workshops are focused on optimizing a customer’s experience from their first interaction with your business to post-purchase support.

Additionally, these workshops can help put your team in your member’s shoes. These experiences will be helpful for your team to understand how a customer might feel at differing touchpoints while using your facilities. These workshops can also reveal gaps in the member experience and provide the opportunity for everyone to brainstorm solutions.

To get started, here’s everything HubSpot recommends to set up a successful customer experience workshop:

Preparation: Define your objectives and make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely). During this step, you will also want to determine the length of each workshop session, break times, who the facilitators will be and additional logistics.

People: Divide your team into manageable group sizes, such as six-to-seven people, with a moderator for each group. HubSpot recommends anyone who is a part of any touchpoint across the customer journey should be in the workshop, whether they’re in sales, marketing, customer support, content, or other departments.

You should also include senior leaders as part of the workshop. Having their buy-in to implement changes and improve customer experience after brainstorming solutions will make the workshop a success. Lastly, consider including members in the workshops as they can give the most accurate idea of what it feels like to use your facilities.

Learn More: Customer Service Best Practices with Lori Metz

Supplies: For in-person workshops, items like seats, screens, wall charts, colored Post-its, pens, tables, water, snacks, sound systems and the like will be needed.

Expectations: All participants should have common goals and outcomes and realize what is asked of them. Before a workshop, HubSpot recommends sharing resources with all participants. These can include reviews, podcasts, videos, revenue numbers, and any information to help them understand what is required so it will be easier for them to fully participate.

Creativity: A favorite industry tool to implement is the classic ice-breaker. Simply start by asking team members to tell a short story about themselves. Other ideas to spark creativity is to share a fun quiz, play a video or a brief game of trivia to get your team ready to walk in the member’s shoes.

Visit HubSpot to learn more about hosting customer experience workshops, including workshop ideas, and suggestions.