Accessible Experiences
Part of Customer experience governance
Keeping customer evidence visible in management decisions
Prepare decision papers that show customer accounts, service measures, sample limits, uncertainty and the outcome to check.
Put customer evidence beside the decision managers face. Show the affected task, what was observed, whose experience is represented and what remains uncertain.
Keep unnecessary personal details out of the paper. Give decision makers authorised access to supporting material when they need it.
Lead with the decision and consequence
A management paper should state the requested decision near the start. For example: approve an investigation into customers who receive no clear status after requesting an address change. This is a hypothetical case. Explain what the customer cannot do or know and why the decision is needed.
A vivid account may reveal a possible failure but cannot establish its frequency. A trend may show a change without explaining its cause. Choose evidence for the question the decision maker must answer.
Keep the evidence close to the request
Include / Purpose in the decision paper
- Customer task and affected point
- Shows the outcome at issue.
- Customer account or observation
- Shows what someone reported or did in context.
- Relevant service record or measure
- Helps check an event or its possible scale.
- Coverage and exclusions
- Shows whose experience is represented and who may be missing.
- Competing explanation
- Keeps a plausible cause from becoming an assumed fact.
- Next check
- Turns an important uncertainty into an action.
Use an accurate extract only where it may appropriately be shared. A paraphrase linked to its source in the authorised internal record may be more suitable than an identifiable quotation in a widely circulated paper.
Put the main limitation beside the conclusion it affects; do not make managers search for it in an appendix.
Customer Evidence Types and Their Purpose in Decision Papers
- Customer task and affected point
- Shows the outcome at issue.
- Customer account or observation
- Shows what someone reported or did in context.
- Relevant service record or measure
- Helps check an event or its possible scale.
- Coverage and exclusions
- Shows whose experience is represented and who may be missing.
- Competing explanation
- Keeps a plausible cause from becoming an assumed fact.
- Next check
- Turns an important uncertainty into an action.
Show where accounts disagree
Label a customer report, an observed action, an operational record and a team interpretation accurately. They may point in different directions. If a customer reports receiving no confirmation but a system records that one was sent, the issue might concern delivery, wording or expectations. Keep those explanations open until checked.
Show contrary cases when they could alter the decision. An average may conceal a group that could not use the route.
If the evidence excludes people who left before submission, say so next to the finding. The detailed calculation of a feedback figure belongs with its measurement record; the decision paper needs enough context for managers to understand its limits.
Advantages and Risks of Using Customer Reports vs. System Records
- Pros: Customer report
- Captures real-world experience, including expectations and emotional impact.
- Cons: Customer report
- May reflect individual bias or incomplete memory; not always verifiable.
- Pros: System record
- Objective, traceable, and scalable for large volumes.
- Cons: System record
- May not reflect user experience—e.g., a message sent but not understood.
Carry the evidence into the decision record
Record what evidence the decision maker considered, what was decided and why, who will act and what would reopen the decision. An approval to revise a message should identify the customer result to check. A decision to wait should identify the missing evidence, owner and return point.
At the next review, put the original problem beside the observed result. Include unresolved and unknown cases. Keep the earlier evidence accessible so a new summary does not silently replace the reason for the decision.
Process for Carrying Evidence into the Decision Record
- Record what evidence was consideredDocument all sources used in the decision-making process.
- State the decision and rationaleClearly explain why the decision was made based on the evidence.
- Assign ownership and actionsIdentify who will act and what steps are required.
- Define reopening conditionsSpecify what would trigger a review of the decision.
