Discussion around customer relationship management strategies, and what is best for the customer and the business, usually seems to avoid what Ingrid Lindberg likes to call “the elephant in the room,” or rather, the actual issues that cost organizations money, time, and resources. (Multiple elephants?) These issues include the fact that many decisions are made by middle management officials who do not have a hand in direct customer service, plummeting employee satisfaction, improper measurement tools, etc.

During a recent webinar conducted with Vivisimo, Lindberg, former customer experience officer at CIGNA, shed some light on how organizations can best go about remedying the notion of “The B Squad” in employees. In an anecdote, she told listeners that “The B Squad” is the employee-held idea that “I was here before you, I will be here after you, and I will be ignoring you,” in reference to new team members and managers.

While a seemingly hostile way to go about approaching new management, The B Squad mentality indicates a poisonous attitude that can run rampant in large organizations – one that will necessarily trickle down to the customer level to jeopardize customer retention. Lindberg emphasized “You have to be able to rally your troops. You do that by getting your employees knowledgeable and engaged.”

Lindberg underlined the notion of “measuring what’s important” such as ease of use, helpfulness of information, and “enjoyability of interaction.”

The webinar also hosted Stacy Leidwinger, senior director of Product Management for Vivisimo, who emphasized that there are hard-and-fast ways to empower an organization’s customer-facing professionals to enable them to best represent the brand and be a part of the strategic focus.

To get the rest of the scoop and hear what Leidwinger and Lindberg offered up, check out the webinar to learn how to effectively maintain a superior and consistent customer experience.