IT/Technology

Customer Insights & Feedback: Specific, actionable user feedback on digital touchpoints, including bug reports, usability issues on the website or app, and friction points in online processes (e.g., login, checkout, search).

Journey Mapping Contributions: Clearly defined customer journey maps that highlight all digital interactions, helping IT to understand the context and criticality of each system's performance from the user's perspective.

Advocacy for Customer Needs: Act as the "user champion" in technical discussions, ensuring that decisions on system architecture, platform choices, and feature development are weighed against their impact on the end-user.

Process Improvement Suggestions: Clear, well-documented business requirements for new CX tools or system enhancements. This includes defining the problem to be solved, the desired user outcome, and any integration requirements.

Data & Analytics: Quantitative data that demonstrates the business impact of system performance (e.g., linking slow page load times to increased bounce rates or cart abandonment) to help IT build business cases for infrastructure investments.

Regular Communication Channels: Establish a dedicated channel (e.g., a shared Slack channel or a recurring bi-weekly meeting) to discuss ongoing performance of customer-facing systems, prioritise bug fixes, and review upcoming technology changes.

Joint Initiatives & Projects: Act as a primary stakeholder in any project involving customer-facing technology. Collaborate on writing requirements, provide user stories, and lead User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure new systems meet customer expectations before launch.

Data Sharing & Reporting: Provide the IT team with dashboards and reports on digital experience metrics (e.g., error rates, rage clicks, conversion funnels) and share qualitative feedback from session recordings or surveys to give context to the numbers.

Cross-Functional Training/Workshops: Invite IT engineers and developers to "voice of the customer" sessions or to shadow support agents so they can see firsthand how system issues impact customers and internal teams.

Attending Their Meetings: Request to be part of key technology governance meetings, such as project kick-offs, sprint planning for customer-facing systems, and Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings to represent the customer's interest.

Active Listening & Empathy: Understand the pressures IT faces regarding security, compliance, technical debt, and resource allocation. Be a collaborative partner, providing clear priorities and being flexible where possible.

"How can we effectively translate qualitative customer frustrations with our website/app into clear, actionable bug reports and feature requests for the IT backlog?"

"What is the IT department's current process for prioritisation, and how can we best articulate the business impact of our requests to ensure they are addressed appropriately?"

"How can we create a formal feedback loop where CX is involved in testing and signing off on changes before they are deployed to customers?"