If you’re involved in CX initiatives and want to prove your ROI, understanding two powerful concepts will help: The Theory of Constraints and The Point of Maximum Leverage.

Imagine we run a factory that uses 3 machines to make a widget. Two machines make 30 widgets an hour, the 3rd only makes 15. The only way to increase productivity is improving the 3rd machine because it’s the constraint. Improving the others has no impact because they’re behind the bottleneck. That’s the theory of constraints.

The same is basically true in business. If we want to grow, we need to focus on constraints — the things limiting our growth. The slight difference is that there may not be a single bottleneck — there may be many opportunities, but they all have different potential — you need to find the point of maximum leverage.

It makes no sense, for example, to improve retention if lowering adoption barriers, increasing acquisition, charging more, lowering cost to serve, etc. have greater results.

This sounds obvious, but most CX programs are based on arbitrarily improving CSAT/NPS and hoping for ROI, not systematically uncovering constraints or leverage points, then using the CX skillset to address them.

Use these concepts instead and success will follow you around like a lost puppy.

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