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My one CX superpower...

This is a response to Jeremy Watkin's #CXQOTD for today.


His question: if you could have one CX superpower, what would it be?


The one CX superpower I would love to have is the gift of articulation. Despite my poor memory, I can recall a number of conversations where better articulation would have saved a ton of time and effort for everyone involved.

Story - Where I messed up I once tried to give specific feedback to a telecom company about its network coverage. Their coverage was wildly fluctuating within the same city. They had licensed infrastructure from other, much larger, telecom companies, so my operator name would change every now and then (sometimes even multiple times while walking along a long road). Instead of articulating the problem and my feedback with the appropriate detail, I had to get on multiple calls with the company's service team. They were nice to me and tried to be helpful, but my poor articulation made it hard for them to capture all the information they needed. The result was a series of phone calls with a telecom company about their poor network coverage, while suffering through that poor connectivity! I think we all (the agents and myself) suffered through that interaction! Story - Where someone else messed up

Another time, I was speaking with a service executive (not a call, he sat right across from me!) from an insurance company about modifying some terms of a policy that was underway. His articulation, although very polite, was so poor that I somehow ended the conversation with lesser understanding than when I began! I patiently listened to him go through his "recital" for about 15 minutes, then smiled at him, and told him in a steady voice that I had no idea what he was talking about. Then we went through all of the paperwork, one step at a time, like a good old Windows troubleshooting wizard! Today, as I look back, I'm able to laugh about this, but I clearly remember being exhausted that day!

Better articulation could've saved me exhaustion in both of these situations. It would've gotten the right message across, with all of the appropriate details, in a manner that was simple enough to process for the recipient. And the recipient could've then acted on the message to make progress. These are not uncommon situations at all. I've been through quite a few similar cases and I know plenty of people who have as well. If I was a Marvel comic, I would've been ArticulateMan, the superhero who saves the day using the right words at the right time!

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