RACHEL TERLAU
Your partner to success, providing unbiased guidance that delivers real-world results
ABOUT ME
Results-driven change leader with two decades experience building, leading and advising on transformative customer growth strategies that optimize customer experience, increase productivity, improve organizational culture and deliver measurable value
RELATIONSHIP OPTIMIZER
Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to build trusted relationships with senior leaders across multiple industries, from startup to midscale and many of the largest brands in the world.
SEASONED ADVISOR
I leverage a value-forward, client-first advisory framework, helping clients develop and execute solutions that fuel customer relationship health and deliver on mutually shared value.
EXPERIENCE INNOVATOR
As a Certified Customer Experience Professional and CX practitioner, I develop and implement strategic initiatives that equally deliver improved experience and business performance outcomes.
CHANGE ACTIVATOR
As a Prosci Certified Organizational Change Management Practitioner, I have hands-on experience implementing effective change solutions that break through the barriers to realizing change value.
COMPLEXITY SYTHESIZER
I possess an innate ability to break down complexity and construct collaborative work streams to encourage creative ways of thinking and doing.
PEOPLE LOVER
I build diverse, collaborative team environments founded on transparent communication and feedback, continuous learning, optimism, integrity and trust.
CURIOUS PATHFINDER
I ask thoughtful questions, encouraging others to push past conventional thinking, define problems and develop creative, effective solutions.
LIFELONG LEARNER
I embrace challenge and apply a growth mindset to everything I do, personally and professionally, and encourage those around me to do the same.
MY EXPERTISE
& STRENGTHS
CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Executive Sponsorship
Change Impact Analysis Communication Strategy
Employee Adoption
Operational Governance
Prosci Certification
ENTERPRISE SAAS SOLUTIONS
Partner Ecosystems / Value Chain
Customer Success Management
Strategic Advisory Services
Digital Transformation Strategy
AI Workflow Integration
Agile Project Management
EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Experience-Led Culture
Voice of Customer Programs
Net Promoter & CX Metrics
Feedback Design Best Practices
Customer Journey Optimization
CCXP Certification
STRATEGIC EXECUTION & VALUE DELIVERY
Business Case Development
Value Realization Modeling
C-Level Presentation
Stakeholder Consensus
Strategy Development
Advisory Frameworks
MY
PERSPECTIVES
THE CURRENT STATE OF
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
MANAGEMENT
Over the past two decades, particularly with the introduction of NPS® in 2003, companies around the world have made significant investments in various tools and technologies to gain a better understanding of customer perceptions, needs and wants. Yet, most organizations still struggle to translate customer insight into prescriptive actions that improve both customer experience and the bottom line.
THE
GAP
Many companies proudly proclaim a customer-first, experience-led approach to business but most fall short in the ability to consistently deliver on customer expectations.
THE
MISSED MARK
Conceived as a solution to closing down ‘The Gap’ and a path to business growth, Customer Experience has been diluted to customer surveys, CX scores, analysis paralysis, and flashy marketing jargon.
What about actions that actually improve the experience?
THE
CATCH
The CX arena is influenced by tech vendors and large consulting firms. The advice from these companies, while perhaps valuable and shared with best intentions, comes alongside a primary goal of positioning additional products and long-term engagements.
THE
IMPACT
CX initiatives have become expensive and overly complicated, prompting business leaders to question investment value. CX leaders are now faced with the pervasive challenge of constantly validating efforts and operating within increasing budget constraints.
THE
COST
1
2
3
4
Accelerated customer churn & revenue loss
Increased marketing & sales spend
Weakened competitive position
Compromised brand promise & reputation
Interested in learning more about Customer Experience Management and the specific capabilities and practices that deliver experience excellence and business value?
The imperative to adapt, evolve, and transform is clear
Day-to-day business operations can be overwhelming, particularly when compounded by economic challenges like inflation, industry regulation and continuously evolving employee, customer and stakeholder expectations. With so many internal and external factors at play, it can be difficult for leaders to prioritize and resource broad-scale transformation.
Yet, the key to a thriving organizational future depends on the ability of leaders to understand, predict, navigate and strategically lead through the complexities of change and do so in a way that fosters transformational growth.
According to McKinsey & Company, organizational transformation efforts fail at an alarming 60-70%. More notably, even for transformation efforts deemed successful, organizations are still leaving money on the table as 20% of intended value is lost, post-implementation. Why?
At its core, transformation is about people. The likelihood of transformation success increases 3.2 times when the full organization is focused on the right priorities, including a thoughtful approach to challenging the status quo and creating a culture that is nimble, embraces cross-enterprise collaboration, and executes transformational change with speed.
Interested in learning more about managing Organizational Change and the key differentiators that deliver transformational growth?
PROJECT
SHOWCASE
CREATING A SEAMLESS, OMNI-CHANNEL EXPERIENCE
LARGE PERSONAL & BUSINESS INSURER
THE CHALLENGE
A large insurance firm deployed newly automated self-service capabilities across multiple lines of business and core functional areas. They wanted to understand two things. Firstly, were the new self-service capabilities realistically making it easier for customers to do business and secondly, how could they improve cross-enterprise alignment focused on creating a seamless, omni-channel experience.
THE APPROACH
The recommendation was to facilitate a tailored, cross-functional CX maturity assessment spanning 7 CX success domains and ~50 Key participants, organized into cohorts defined by seniority and functional responsibility. Cohorts shared assessment scores and participated in a facilitated group discussions, upon which an in-depth analysis was applied both quantitative and qualitative assessment inputs. Key improvement recommendations were identified, distilled into distinctive projects and prioritized based on impact and effort
THE OUTCOME
The primary deliverable was a comprehensive 24-month CX roadmap complete with the initiatives and actions required to optimize self-servicing experiences. The secondary deliverable, although perhaps most important, was improved cross-functional alignment, executive-level advocacy and secured budgeting approval directed to the specific improvement projects required to optimize experience outcomes and elevate cross-enterprise CX maturity.
MAPPING CX EFFORTS TO MEASURABLE IMPACT
FINTECH VOICE OF CUSTOMER PROGRAM
THE CHALLENGE
A growing FinTech company was seeking to mature CX efforts, focused on three primary areas of improvement opportunity:
- Understand current state maturity in contrast to the industry
- Advance issue resolution efforts leveraging both automated processes and human-led capabilities
- Identify and prioritize the specific efforts required to enable support teams, improve support experience and deliver measurable improvement to operational & business KPIs
THE APPROACH
The recommendation was to facilitate a 5-part workshop series leveraging online collaboration tools. The first session guided participants to zero in on the true state of CX maturity, aligning on ‘current state’. Additional sessions enabled the working group to first align on KPIs and work backwards to brainstorm on technical and change management work streams required to deliver measurable improvement. The last working session focused on the roadmap, to which all participants validated priority projects and aligned upon a collaborative, sequenced approach to roadmap execution.
THE OUTCOME
The primary deliverable was a finalized strategic roadmap identifying sequenced, priority projects further categorized into 3 primary areas of focus: people, process & technology, Post-execution, call volume began to decrease and first-call resolution increased. Post-support customer feedback indicated a positive trajectory of timely issue resolution alongside improved CX metrics.
OPTIMIZING THE ONBOARDING JOURNEY
FAST-GROWTH B2B SAAS ORGANIZATION
THE CHALLENGE
A fast-growth enterprise SaaS company had deployed advanced mechanisms to capture client feedback across critical points of customer interaction. Over time, they observed that there was a significant drop in satisfaction scores shortly after the onboarding experience. It was further observed that for many customers scoring low post-onboarding, future relationship satisfaction scores either continued to decrease or remain stagnant. Upon further analysis, it was determined that the trend was isolated to a smaller, yet high-value/high-spend segment of accounts. Drawing heightened attention, leadership wanted to quickly understand how to repair existing relationships and ultimately, how to improve the onboarding experience for future clients.
THE APPROACH
The recommendation was to, firstly, examine the insight captured from closed-loop feedback activities which revealed a number of improvement areas. It was learned that high-value clients entered into the relationship with expectations for a more streamlined, white glove onboarding experience. Upon sharing feedback, high-value clients further expressed the need for swift action to resolve lingering onboarding issues, particularly after multiple, frustrating attempts to escalate through various support channels and processes. Through ongoing advisory support, the organization stood up a cross-functional tiger team to design and implement improvements for three critical customer journeys - onboarding, support and post-feedback follow-up.
THE OUTCOME
- A newly formed group of Customer Success Managers dedicated to high-value clients only, responsible for overseeing an optimized onboarding experience through consistent client-facing communication and improved internal hand-off processes
- Revamped post-feedback follow-up processes in addition to automated escalation capabilities, directly connecting clients to their dedicated CSM while simultaneously escalating issues to Support
- A dedicated, 24/7 ‘Tier 1’ support team on the ready to action escalated technical issues and complex client requests as well as a newly automated approach to communicating ticket status
HOW MAY I
HELP YOU?
Your partner to success, providing unbiased guidance that delivers real-world results
CHANGE ADOPTION & LEADERSHIP
Delivering on the intended value from any type of transformation initiative hinges on an effective approach to organizational change management. Understand change impact and execute across the 5 change management pillars to proactively address organizational resistance, foster executive advocacy, increase employee adoption and accelerate time-to-value.
EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS
New to Customer Experience Management? Accelerate the learning curve by understanding the foundational capabilities, practices and skills that deliver quick wins, showcase value, drive leadership buy-in and foster organizational adoption.
VISION, STRATEGY & ROADMAPPING
It all starts with vision, and yet more often than not, Customer Experience Management efforts start, and end, with surveys. Craft your organization’s CX vision and strategy. Map CX goals and key initiatives that will align teams, specific activities, and the customer-centered behaviors required to deliver successful experience outcomes.
MATURITY ASSESSMENT & GAP ANALYSIS
CX leader or laggard? CX leaders consistently meet or exceed customer expectations, realize stronger financial performance and achieve differentiation based on a consistent, predictable and enhanced customer experience. Understand the organization’s current state of CX maturity, identify gaps and improvement opportunities and prioritize activities that will strengthen your CX toolbox and foster an accelerated path to market differentiation.
PERSONA DEVELOPMENT, JOURNEY MAPPING & STRATEGY REFRESH
Is leadership increasingly questioning the value of CX? Are there recent changes to business strategy or external shifts within market? Are there notable changes in customer behavior impacting business performance? It may be time for a refresh! Understand key customer personas and critical make-or-break experience moments to optimize CX strategy and identify the specific activities required to effectively move the needle on experience outcomes.
METRICS, IMPACT & VALUE
Effective Experience Management efforts should positively influence customer choice and behavior which should in turn deliver measurable improvement to operational and financial KPIs, such as increased retention rate, spend, repeat transactions and customer lifetime value (CLV). Pull the thread though to tangible impact, KPI improvements, increased leadership advocacy and secured program funding.
Seeking a more personalized approach? As your partner to success, I provide tailored consulting solutions that address the unique and nuanced needs of your business across all areas of Experience Management, Organizational Change Management, Customer Success & Growth Strategy, Strategy Development & Execution and Value Realization Methodologies. Connect with me to learn more!
