In this insightful discussion, Stacy Sherman, a renowned customer experience and marketing speaker and host of "Doing CX Right," shares her expertise on inclusivity. She emphasizes the importance of creating accessible experiences for diverse customers and the need for empathy in understanding various abilities. Stacy highlights actionable strategies to foster an inclusive culture and showcases how small gestures can significantly enhance engagement. She also encourages professionals to prioritize feedback and dialogue, ensuring every voice is heard.
Creating inclusive experiences requires understanding diverse needs by incorporating feedback from individuals with varying abilities and demographics.
Implementing accessibility in design is essential, as it ensures that environments—both physical and digital—are usable for everyone, regardless of their abilities.
Deep dives
Understanding Diverse Needs
Designing customer experiences must consider the diverse needs of individuals with different abilities, as not everyone interacts with the world in the same way. Stacey Sherman emphasizes the necessity of including voices from various demographic segments to understand their unique challenges better. For instance, organizations are encouraged to talk to employees and customers with disabilities, allowing them to share their experiences and perspectives. By fostering a culture where these discussions are open and constructive, companies can develop more inclusive experiences that cater to everyone.
Creating Accessible Environments
Incorporating accessibility in design is crucial for accommodating individuals with varying needs, including mobility, visual, and cognitive impairments. Companies must ensure that their physical and digital environments are accessible, which includes providing necessary aids like ramps, braille, and easy-to-understand language. For example, an accessibility audit of a website could reveal problematic color combinations that hinder readability, while physical spaces like stores should be evaluated for usability by individuals with disabilities. Awareness and intentional design are essential to make every customer touchpoint inclusive and functional.
Engaging in Continuous Learning
The importance of continuous education and empathy in customer experience design is highlighted as a means to evolve organizational practices. Companies should engage in user testing, gather feedback, and involve customers in the design process to better understand the impact of their services on diverse users. This may also involve bringing in team members with disabilities who can provide insight directly from their lived experiences. By investing in ongoing learning and testing, organizations can significantly improve the way they serve every customer and enhance the overall experience for all.
Producer's Note: This podcast was originally released on April 4, 2023. As always with our encore episodes, please note that some details might be different, but the advice from Stacy Sherman regarding inclusiveness in CX and EX is still valuable.
People in general want to do good things for others. But it’s easy to assume that everyone sees the world with similar eyes. We live in a diverse world with people that have different needs, so it’s important that CX professionals plan and accommodate so the experience is accessible and meaningful for all their customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stacy Sherman, a customer experience and marketing keynote speaker, content creator, and host of the podcast "Doing CX Right", for a discussion on creating inclusive experiences for customers and employees with different needs and abilities.