Workbook: Secure a Sponsor & Budget for Customer Experience Innovation

Next up in our enterprise strategy series, we walk you through a reference workbook that helps you organize your team to quickly secure an executive sponsor and budget for nearly any customer program or change project.

Earlier in our customer experience (CX) transformation series, we explored how innovative brands are adopting remote strategies to leap-frog their competition, digitize traditional workflows, and deliver the experiences today’s savvy customers expect. 

A vision for your team, coupled with the right tools can focus the customer experience on what matters most, while delivering powerful enterprise results. Use this short 4-page workbook to guide your project discovery and to quickly align your project with a supportive executive sponsor and budget.

A sample letter to request funding and executive support 

Use this sample letter and workbook to quickly summarize your project team, goals, and tactics with a sample letter that requests funding and support from executive management. This succinct format addresses three areas:

• Introduction linking the project to the executive vision.
  For example: “In response to your goals, we have prepared the following analysis and recommendations for a priority customer project for Q1 of 2022.”
• Proposal summary that covers the “5 Ws.”
  For example. “In order to boost customer satisfaction, this proposal will dramatically improve first-call resolutions by using video diagnosis for repair claims in US call centers.”
• Call to action and a specific request for support from management.  
  For example: “We ask for your executive support for this phased
 plan for customer journey enhancements.”

Executive buy-in is crucial to CX transformation.

Clearly defined goals and a vision for transformation must come from the C-suite. To ensure your efforts have the most impact—as program lead, your biggest challenge is to solve for customer pain points that also align to the business leaders' core goals.

To get Executive support you’ll need to prove you’ve done your homework and share your proposal in a compelling and concise presentation.

When your CX transformation program is focused and aligned to management’s vision, teams can more easily break down internal silos, build new capabilities, and deliver the winning customer experiences that represent your brand promise. 

Start building your strategy, today. Get the workbook.

Step one: Define your project team & stakeholders. 

By engaging with future partners early in your discovery and planning steps, you leverage one of the most powerful truths in business: People support and advocate for work that they’ve helped to build.

Start your project from a position of curiosity and learn about all the teams that may touch or impact your project. Ask for details, dependencies, and their collaboration. This early team-building and negotiations are worth it. Be thorough. You’ll build valuable trust and rapport with advocates who can stand up for your strategy when you’re not in the room.

You may find that even people who don’t want to be included in your planning will be thankful for your proactive approach and discovery work to unite teams before work begins. 

Use the workbook 

Think through your program’s stakeholders, customers (internal, external, front-end, back-end), and other impacted participants—then document your core working group and their roles in the spaces provided in your workbook.

Remember to address:

1. Which teams will need to support this project in order for it to prove value quickly?
2. What are their roles and responsibilities?
3. What additional goals or requirements do these teams add to the project? 
4. What’s the minimum viable product (MVP) scope that helps everyone win the quickest?

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