Customer Experience Innovation: Does Innovation Require a Framework?

Recently, I shared an interesting article, on one of the social network sites, that I had read about Customer Experience Innovation. Among the comments that I got, one was regarding organizations going about customer experience innovation by requiring employees to simply "do it". Without a framework or a business plan or strategy behind it.



Now, where I believe that any interaction with the customer should be consistent with the brand statement/strategy, there is an argument to be made of the success of such business process independent approach to innovation as well.

I have written in an earlier post about Business Processes Strangling Creativity, where I have shared what the probable future holds for us in terms of the unpredictability of customer conversations. In light of that argument, it is important to nurture the individual creativity and not tie it down with archaic business processes.

With that said, I want to reiterate, that there is a place for processes and frameworks. The key term in my statement above is "tie down". It is a fine balance for organizations to define customer experience strategies which do not strangle individual innovation. To ensure accountability, businesses may define more specific processes and prevent individual creativity, while a more fluid approach may not always provide individual accountability.

The need is to balance the two forces pulling on either side of the wheel such that the wheel moves forward in the desired direction rather than falling over on one side.

Look at your strategies from a customer's perspective as well as an employee's perspective. Do they prevent new unpredictable conversations? Do they have a good balance with your overall brand image and business strategy? Most importantly, do your employees believe in and talk about your organization values the way you want them to. At the end of the day, for a customer the organization that they are doing business with is sometimes as important as the features of the product they are buying.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Where does your balance lie?