Every year, the world's one of the biggest CX organizations Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), celebrates Oct 5th as CX Day. We decided to be a part of the celebration and organized an all-day-long webinar. We gathered CX professionals from Europe, MENA, and APAC regions to share their best practices in the area. Industry professionals from around the world have shared their experience on how to ensure customer loyalty. A great number of participants demonstrate the growing corporate enthusiasm for the subject. If you weren’t able to join the live webinar, you could find the recording here.
Nowadays, consumers have great number of choices. In such an environment, they prefer brands which connect with them. And this is only possible by analyzing customers’ needs carefully. Five main messages emerged from the webinar, which was organized by Pisano. The tips here will help you develop a strong bond with your customers and achieve your company growth goals.
In the first session, SabancıDx General Manager Doğuş Kuran stated that more than %50 of the consumers changed their brand choices during the pandemic. Budget concerns and health issues pushed consumers to try alternatives. This opened up new possibilities for the customers.
According to Bain & Company 80% of companies believe they deliver “super experience”. However, 8% of their customers agree with them according to the same research. Obviously, there is a long way to go.
Although CX is a team play, miscommunication within the organizations may prevent this. Customer facing employees see all issues and strive to create superior experience for customers. On the other hand, very few executives see these problems. Only leaders can break this iceberg of ignorance by humility, openness, inclusive leadership.
Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Customer Experience Strategy Manager Serra Karaca Tileylioğlu shared similar recommendations to make CX a focus area in the organization. Engaging other teams with workshops, make them interact with customers provided new insights. In addition, conversation with frontline teams, visiting CARE teams, designing customer journey with them, listening pain points directly from them, benchmarks from other sectors and award programs help overcome general barrier against CX.
People prefer buying from companies which know their name, their purchase history, and/or recommends items based on their purchase history. Companies like Big Five Tech Companies can use so much data to make suggestions to customers in line with this information. When people see too much of their data used for recommendations, they may also feel annoyed. There is a fine line between knowing your customers and tracking everything for marketing purposes.
Doğuş Kuran has also talked about major pitfalls companies fall into and how to overcome them. Companies should find their blind spots and intervene by flexible journeys, flexible personas, 360 view of the customer and automated management systems.
Shopping habits have changed with the pandemic. Customers have explored new and local brands. Increasing focus on health, a rise in conscious consumption, the desire to shop for local emerge as trends during this period. Thus, there are new things to incorporate in experience design.
New hybrid personas were born accordingly. CX professionals should make sure their personas, journeys be more inclusive and flexible. You may even reconsider the naming of your journeys or personas to make sure they address the current conditions of the market or behavior changes of the customer.
Siddharth Biswakarma from Aster Pharmacy and Serra Karaca Tileylioglu from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications were the panelists in the second session. Serra has shared how UAE is different from other markets embracing diversity. UAE’s diverse population in terms of culture, demography, technology adoption make it complex market. She has also mentioned key metrics used in the region. If you want to design or improve your CX strategy, you could review all of them here. You can find more about culture, people’s attitude, and dynamics of the sector in the region watching the video.
Siddharth Biswakarma representing Aster Pharmacy has talked about “guest experience” in healthcare sector. He states that good products, services are not enough and we live in experience economy. Healthcare is moving towards wellness, away from illness. Guests explore what solutions they offer in the store.
The company measures overall satisfaction/interaction. They would like to understand if they meet guests’ expectations. If the guest sacrifices and he/she is not content with the experience, they aspire to reduce this gap. Mystery shopping programs help them understand how the customer felt during the retail experience. SMS, WhatsApp, surveys, emails also help them to collect data. Social listening is the most critical, and the company invests in it. They are constantly listening and trying to build social reputation.
Jody Bauer from Eurail, a company in travel industry, expressed that they tried to stay in contact with customers and avoid “what if” situations during the pandemic. When a change or problem occurred, they involved customers as soon as possible and asked about their experience, what the company should do to help them. People want to be informed beforehand and they do not want to be surprised along the way for travel arrangements. Therefore, clear communication is key in crises.
CX Future CEO & Founder Faran Niaz stated good organizations use stories to connect with their customers and shared companies which use stories effectively.
Faran has been head of CX for companies in different countries and assessor in international award programs. According to him, CX is not driven by product/industry. It is a passion. Every person is part of the community therefore, CX is quite universal. Companies can offer same experience in different countries. It is about attitude of people and recruiting people with the right attitude in the first place. Culture of the organization is critical in CX. It is important you are able to explain your staff importance of experience and the role of each person for that ultimate purpose.
He added that customers receive so many surveys from companies. Surveys need to be quick, short and precise. Frequency of the surveys should be customized for each customer. If you have 5 transactions a week with a company, you shouldn’t receive the same survey 5 times a week. AI should customize the frequency, for instance one survey a month. Surveys need to pop up when one finishes a transaction, they should be immediate following the experience. Furthermore, it should be easy for the customer to fill the survey. If the customer is not happy with the experience, he/she should be called afterwards. That’s where companies can get detailed information i.e. post survey activity.
He expressed that technology is a just driver, it is not a CX when asked about the major technologies to be adopted in the sector. While chatbots will be widely used in call centers, virtual reality/augmented reality will become big for retail. Organizations need to give customer the choice to use technology also human being. Customer experience experts need to define CX journey with the mindset of customer and technology should provide that journey.
Ford Otosan Customer Experience Leader Gonca Sofuğlu Temiz and Letgo Sr. Business Development Manager Kübra Ören shared insights about automotive sector in Turkey. Gonca Sofuoğlu Temiz stated that they should be alert for customer suggestions and act proactively implementing them.
Kübra Ören stated that people did not use to buy specific products online in the past. This habit has changed recently. Now it is important to assure customers that they could return the car they buy within 15-20 days. This guaranty makes customer trust the buyer and buy online confidently.
Connectivity and mobility is the future of automotive for the speakers. However, it hasn’t progressed in the country recently due to regulations. Gonca Sofuoğlu Temiz stated this position will change and they want to be ready for it. The company invests in mobility and connectivity. The ecosystem will be wide and complex. It is about connecting entire city. All brands should communicate with each other, vehicles should communicate with the city and cities should be connected with people. Kübra Ören shared that parties which feed car design and dealer network with the collected data will be one-step ahead.
Kübra Ören stated that they can monitor how much time customers spend on the application, when they leave the path etc. CX professionals act upon that data. On the other hand, Gonca Sofuoğlu Temiz stated they measure everything. Combining them together as single data can be a challenge, though.
Last session focused on citizen experience. It is responsibility of all companies providing service to citizens. The CX community should be more visible to help the community and exert a positive impact for citizens.
This is CXDAY 2021 at a glance.