A brilliant CX relies on me being able to hear and understand what your staff are saying.

What makes for a first rate customer experience when dealing with staff

This list looks as good as any.

Friendly - Instantly likeable, due to good voice tonality, open body language, smiling and good humour.

Enthusiastic - They love life, really enjoy their job, live the brand.

Professional - Well presented, articulate, knowledgeable and respectful.

Interested - Asking questions about the customer, listening to responses, making conversation that was not necessarily directly to do with the enquiry.

Attentive - Completely focused on the customer, making them feel as if they were their only one in the store.

Helpful - Nothing is too much trouble, genuinely interested in providing a solution, not just trying to sell a product.

However there is one thing missing and it is vitally important.

Before all of these nice skills one other thing must happen if staff are to deliver a brilliant, good or even a mediocre customer experience. They must be able to be heard and understood.

If you combine the hearing issues affecting older consumers, with the large number of frontline staff where English is not their first language, then you have a potentially big problem.

Bottom line - I cannot hear what you are saying. That is the starting point. Once that is fixed that then all the other clever stuff can take place. Dick Stroud