Have You Solidified the Foundation of Your Customer Experience?

“Customer experience is about leadership. It’s about the blueprint for how you run your business, and how you want to show up in the marketplace,” says Andy Schulkind, the vice president of customer experience at Domino, North America. Domino is a B2B company which specializes in the development and production of various printing technologies used for coding and marking.

Domino North America prides itself on its customer service, and it’s this commitment to customer experience as a whole that has helped Andy succeed in his role. Andy is no stranger to the world of CX, as he has spent a majority of his career in customer-focused roles, even having worked at the beloved company, LL Bean.

In our conversation, Andy and I chat about setting the foundation in order for the work to be successful.

Fix the Cracks and Solidify the Foundation of Your Customer Experience

Andy shares that Domino North America’s printing services are necessary for the commercialization of items, as they print expiration dates, serial ID numbers, and other codes onto many of our medications, everyday products, and more.

“Our customers are depending on our machines to keep them up and running,” says Andy, “because if we’re not printing accurate code on their equipment on their products, they may have to scrap it and they lose money that way.” Recognizing the value of this exchange is what helped set Domino up for success with their customer experience. There is the understanding that customers need to save costs, trust their relationship with Domino, and receive quality service.

Fortify Your Team from Within

“I think the first thing is to get the foundational things down in terms of, what is NPS? And explaining what that is and how we’re measuring it,” says Andy.

In order to understand his customers’ needs, there was a time where Andy spent almost three months in the field visiting with customers in order to understand the specifics of what was being done for that business, analyzing the feedback, and then identifying some improvement opportunities that his team could focus on. These focus points centered around customer experience and improving their NPS touchpoints.

It was also important for Andy’s team to be trained and get regular feedback about their performance, frontline employees were upskilled and also received regular feedback along with goals to work towards. He shares that they also introduced a rewards and recognition program around customer experience.

––Analyze customer feedback and then identify improvement opportunities that your team can focus on. ––Andy Schulkind, @domino_na #CX Share on X

Ensure That Everyone Is Clear on What Customer Experience Is

Andy says, “We had activities that were our learning sessions around, what’s customer experience, what is improvement, and anything that we could do to sort of get everyone’s mindset around customers that center what we do. Everything that we need to do drives to that, and using that framework is how we’ve managed the three phases of the project.”

The three phases of the framework that Andy mentions are: improve the customer work stream, develop an efficient processes work stream, and a maintain a specific work stream around productivity, mindsets and behaviors.

Gain the Support of Your Leadership & Colleagues

As many of you may know by now –– when you have the support of the C-Suite, you’re able to get more of your CX work done. Andy explains that not only has it been beneficial for him to receive assistance from the C-Suite, but also among his peers. He sees this support in team daily and town hall meetings.

The customer experience is the focus of the town hall and through these discussions, folks across different departments are able to understand what’s in it for them. Once they see the benefits, they’re usually ready to jump onboard and help facilitate the change. It is with this understanding, that he is able to receive the investment of time and finances.

What Do You Know Now That You Wish You Knew Then?

Andy Says:

“I think the key thing that I think I know now is that you really need to have great sponsorship for any customer experience program, and there also has to be a degree of investment. And you need a commitment on the investment before you go in. Too many organizations are underinvested in technology and people in the process. And if you if you’re gonna dip your toe in this, you need to make sure that you have great sponsorship and a financial commitment to go with it.”

Too many organizations are underinvested in technology and people. If you're gonna dip your toe in CX, you need to make sure that you have great sponsorship and a financial commitment to go with it. ––Andy Schulkind, @domino_na #CX Share on X

About Andy Schulkind

Andy has led operational CX Teams and crafted Customer and Brand Strategy across many industries, launching new technology and re-engineering service teams that saved millions and dramatically improved Client and Employee satisfaction and retention. He delivers customer-centric solutions that drive business growth and achieve ROI for brands that are cementing their market position; evolving; re-examining strategy; or shifting course.

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