Cx Conversations

Steve Jobs once said, "Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works." While organizations do focus on the look and feel, unfortunately, the 'how it works' part is ignored. And from the customer's perspective, this is a pain point that needs to be worked upon. The concept of customer shadowing can help overcome these pain points and design robust customer service. Customer shadowing is like being the fly on the wall while a customer goes through his/her journey. To discuss customer shadowing and how to use it to improve and innovate customer service design, I have with me Andrew Gallan, Assistant Professor of Marketing and the Director of The Centre for Services Marketing and Management at FAU School of Business, Florida. Among other things, Andrew and I discuss: What exactly is customer shadowing? How is it different from mystery shopping? What insights can one expect to derive of a customer shadowing exercise? How can customer shadowing impact customer experience? Honestly,

There is no denying that the end goal of any business is growth. And the one definitive way of achieving more growth is focusing on customer experience. Hence, for any organisation, its business strategy must go hand in hand with its CX strategy: the CX strategy must actualise the business strategy. However, many times, this does not happen and there is a significant gap between the CX and the business strategy. To discuss how organisations can bridge this gap, I am joined today by one of the best and the brightest in the CX world - Adrian Swinscoe. Adrian is a veteran customer experience consultant and advisor. He is also a best-selling author, Forbes contributor, blogger & podcaster, frequent conference speaker, panel participant and chair in various reputed CX conferences around the world. Among other things, Adrian and I discuss: Why do misalignments between business and CX strategies occur? How can organisations bridge the gap between business and CX strategies? What challenges do organisations

Very often, we hear that the one mantra organisations must follow for success is to ensure that customer centricity is the DNA of an organisation. And this is an obvious idea. However, surprisingly, many organisation tend to lose sight of this idea as they grow. And that is when the downfall starts. The silver lining, though, is that organisations can redesign themselves to become customer-centric and attain sustainable growth. To help you with how to do so, I am joined by Heidi Beets, a serial enterprise business architect and a passionate growth advisor, who has worked with multiple brands across sectors to help them achieve sustainable growth through becoming customer-centric. She is currently an Enterprise Architect at Flight Centre Travel Group, a business travel consultant group. Among other things, Heidi and I discuss: How business architecture helps build customer centricity in an organisation? What kind of businesses require a business architecture? What tools and frameworks are used to design a

While we have, very often, seen brands make tall promises to court customers, we have also seen them fail on delivering those promises often. Why does this happen? Why is the customer's perception of a brand significantly different from the company's? Why do these conundrums occur? And how can brands avoid such pitfalls? I am delighted to be speaking with Neil Sharp, an expert on developing and delivering customer experience transformation programmes that place the customer at the heart of the organisation, who will answer these questions. Neil is currently Partner at PEN — a management consulting firm focusing on Customer Experience, Operational Excellence, and Change Delivery. He is leading the CX specialism within PEN that's dedicated to transforming CX for brands. Among other things, Neil and I discuss: What is a brand promise? What companies overlook when they develop their brand? What steps are required to develop a brand promise from the customer's perspective? How should brands make the best use

Today's customers are demanding. The retail, banking, and hospitality sectors have realized that CX is the only differentiator today and have upped their game considerably to provide the best possible experience to their customers. Naturally, customers expect the same from all brands across all sectors, including healthcare. And why shouldn't they!? Healthcare is perhaps the only sectors where customers need the most love, empathy, and compassion. Right? Strangely, not many healthcare brands understand this fact. I wouldn't be wrong in assuming that most of us have been through one or more not-so-pleasant experiences at hospitals. Healthcare brands today must do all that they can to improve and enhance patient experience. But how do they do that? In this podcast, I talk with Rohit MA, Co-founder and Managing Director at Cloudnine Group of Hospitals - India’s leading chain of maternity, childcare and fertility care group of Hospitals, to help understand what healthcare brands can do to enhance the patient expe

People often conflate 'simple' with 'plain', and 'plain' has, well, a plain connotation. Nothing special about it. But, simple, as Da Vinci reminds us: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." When it comes to organisations, complexities are discouraged and simplicity is favoured and the reason for that is: simplicity is hospitable to adaptability and the efficacy of an organisation. Think of it this way: complexities within an organisation are inadvisable for they contribute to poor customer experience. Still not satisfied? Thankfully, I have one of the top professionals in this field to walk, you and I, through it all. In this podcast, I talk with Ricardo Saltz Gulko about how to deliver simple and simplified experiences to your customers and employees! Ricardo is the Managing Director and Co-founder of Eglobalis, a boutique consulting agency dedicated to enabling global tech companies to become more agile and adaptable to change. An MBA from Kellogg School of Management and a CCXP, Ricardo **is also a

The thought of visiting a government office, for most of us, is often followed by an exasperated sigh. Generally, that reaction is rooted in the poor experience that government offices are infamous for. CX improvement in government is often stymied due to its agencies' culture, shortage of staff, and / or dearth of technological implementation and adoption. These factors, among others, lead to an unsatisfactory experience. Fortunately, there are individuals and organizations out there, helping the governments improve their customer experience around the world. My guest on this podcast is among the leading Government CX Professional. I talk with Stephanie Thum, Founding Principal at Practical CX, about how to improve CX in government. Before starting Practical CX, she was Chief Advisor and Subject Matter Expert for Federal Customer Experience at Qualtrics. She has also served as an advisor for President Obama’s cross-agency task force on customer service. Stephanie and I discuss: Who is a customer

At a time when the world is going bonkers over chatbots, what would you think if I said that live chat with an actual person at the other end is more effective? It might come as a surprise to you, right? Well as a business it might not make as much sense as it would from the customer's perspective. People like to talk to people, not with bots. Interestingly, in this podcast I talk about exactly that. In conversation with Nelson Bruton, President, Interchanges - a leading live chat solution provider. We dive into everything live chat. From the differences between live chat and chat bots to discussing the best practices in implementing any chat solution on a website. With over a decade of helping brands use live chat more effectively and as a result generate $1.4 billion in revenue for clients, Nelson knows this subject in and out. Among other things, we discussed: Differences between live chat and chat bots. How live chat can improve a customer's experience? How does live chat compare when implementing in

Founders need to strike a balance between product, go-to-market, customer experience, and business discipline to ensure sustainable growth for their startup. Often, sorting through the array of goals in each of these areas will cause a certain degree of palpitation. Sometimes, as Rohit puts it, even existential crisis. The art of successful business growth from infancy to a formidable organisation then lies in a founder's ability to walk a tight rope while using customer feedback as the balancing pole. This conversation with Rohit Sen, Founder and CEO, Nira - a FinTech dedicated to solving credit accessibility in India - is one of the most thought provoking podcasts I've done. It's partly philosophical but, interestingly, anchored on real practical lessons of entrepreneurship. Rohit and I talk why customer feedback is probably the best measure of how well you are doing as a business. Rohit tells some very interesting accounts of how, as a foreigner, he learnt about India and the Indian consumers and how he ha

A nod from leadership on CX strategy might not translate into an allocation of resources for executing that strategy. Setting up a Customer Experience team is a challenging and arduous process. A process, if done right, yields tremendous value. A CX Management Team, just like other functional teams in an organisation, bring focus and accountability to customer experience. Setting up the right CX Management Team will put you on a fast track to realising your customer experience goals! In this episode with Thomas Linton, Strategic Growth Advisor at Care Sherpa, I discuss the process of setting up a customer experience team in your company. While there's plenty written on setting up a sales or product management team, this is perhaps the first time you'd get to learn about how to organise a winning CX team. Thomas and I discuss the following in detail: - How to create a CX team in service of achievement of not just CX goals but the overall business goals? - Organisation structure of a CX management team: roles,

What's common between iPhone and Slack? Along with them being amazing products, both iPhone and Slack delivered great customer experience and altered the market in a big way! It's not like smart phones didn't exist before the iPhone - remember Blackberry? Surely there were several other office communicators before Slack was launched. Both these products massively enhanced the customer experience. Interestingly, both iPhone and Slack gave birth to a new product segment and we've all seen how the market got crowded with competing products within a year or so. The role of customer experience is undeniable when you study the history of any pathbreaking product. In this episode with Apoorv Gawde, CIO and Head of Products at Finzy, I am discussing how design thinking and customer experience focus can be used to create products that carve a new market segment. We dive into the product design process and customer experience strategy that helped Finzy build a market defining product. Among other things, we talked abou

eCommerce didn't just change the way we buy stuff, it has changed consumer psychology and has completely transformed our expectations as customers. When you compare the traditional customer journey of a retail shopper with that of someone shopping on Amazon, you realise the massive leap in customer experience. From the ease of product search to almost zero wait time at billing and finally the product showing up at your doorstep without even stepping out, it is nothing less than magical! It however takes a well oiled offline engine that makes this seemingly online-only experience so smooth. Perhaps the online web-experience, although not any less important, is the smallest piece that impacts customer experience. Everything that happens offline after the order is placed is the biggest chunk that can make or mar a customer's experience. In this episode with Wouter van Bockel, Founder at Furniturespot.co.za - South Africa's first scalable online made-to-order furniture store - I break down the online and offline

As much as your CEO may talk about customer experience, the true test of his/her commitment is whether he/she would invest in it. Even if you get the budget, we know that you'd need department heads to be onboard if you wish to achieve your CX goals. It is surprising that many organisations still struggle to get senior management buy-in for CX improvement. The reality is that you'd find yourself manoeuvring conflicting priorities and struggling to achieve your CX goals without the buy-in from the heads of various departments in your organisation. It is perhaps the biggest plight of CX managers and consultants. Delighted to be breaking this challenge down with someone who has successfully established and rolled-out a multi-year customer centricity transformation program in one of the biggest pharmaceutical brands in India. I am in conversation with Sonia Bhatia Salmin in this episode of CX Conversations. We talk about: whether getting management buy-in is really a challenge? what are some of the signs that

With almost everything being automated in SaaS, bringing the human touch to the experience is challenging. In this episode I am in conversation with my dear friend and partner in most of the ups and downs of a startup journey - Vikas Jha, Founder & CEO at Alore. We lay out the different aspects of managing CX in SaaS and ways to deliver the best customer experience. From using unique ways to connect to your customers, to creating extensive methods to improve the experience, we have covered them all. Among other things, we talked about: - The different aspects of managing customer experience in SaaS - When must a SaaS startup start thinking about CX and investing in it? - What are some of the ways a SaaS startup can deliver delightful CX? Tune in to know how it's done! Connect with Vikas Jha on: LinkedIn  |  Twitter  |  Website Register here to get updates in your inbox: http://om1.cc/cxcon Looking for an NPS solution? Check out omoto.io

As a founder I've learnt the importance of culture the hard way. Through painful mistakes and less than happy outcomes, I realised the importance of paying attention to cultivating the right company culture to build a thriving business. However, there is no playbook on how to build the right culture. You are essentially learning from experiences and implementing in retrospect. It is the first time I came across a systematic way to craft a unique company culture and thereon deliver a unique customer experience. In this discussion with Karen Jaw-Madson, Principal at Co. - Design Of Work Experiences, Author of 'Culture Your Culture: Innovating Experiences at Work', I discuss a step-by-step approach to building a unique culture and customer experience for your organisation. Among other things, we discussed: Karen's DOWE - Design of Work Experience - framework for Step by step process of crafting a company culture How country / ethnic culture plays into company culture and how must businesses approach diversi

In this conversation with Rajan Bajaj, Founder and CEO at Slicepay - one of India's leading credit solution for young consumers - we explore what it takes to meet and exceed the millennials' expectations. Millennials are an important bunch – and for good reasons: they’re an exclusive club of 1.8 billion people, a quarter of the world’s population! With the millennials constituting a major part of every brand's consumer base, it is imperative for businesses to understand this young tech-savvy digital-native demography in order to sustain growth in the coming years. Interestingly, Rajan, a 20 something entrepreneur, understands this quite well. You'll definitely learn a great deal from this talk. We discussed about: Why a credit solution for the unbanked youngsters is a good business idea? Challenges in meeting and exceeding the young millennials’ expectations. How Slicepay uses customer feedback to improve its customer experience? If you are not thinking about how to win the millennial's heart, you may a

Delighted to be talking with Sachin Rao, Head Digital Transformations, KIMS Healthcare Group - a leading chain of hospitals and medical centres across India and GCC region. In this conversation, Sachin and I unfold the various aspects of digital transformation initiatives in healthcare. Sachin lays out the requirements from both ends of the spectrum - the patient's and the doctor's - in healthcare. This is a must listen for anyone working in healthcare. We discuss the following: The various kinds of digital transformation initiatives being taken up in Hospitals. How to identify and prioritise what needs to be done to improve patient experience? How to use patient feedback as a guide to improve patient experience? The biggest challenges in digital transformation initiatives in healthcare today. Connect with Sachin on LinkedIn Register here to get updates in your inbox. Looking for an NPS solution? Check out Omoto!

Net Promoter Score®(NPS®) has become the go-to metric for organisations to measure and manage customer experience. Although it has been around for over a decade now, many brands are just getting started with NPS. In this conversation with Hemant, I dive deep into how NPS is being used at NiYO Solutions, a venture backed FinTech startup in India. Along with collecting NPS feedback Hemant has ensured that there is a dedicated team working on closing the loop with customers and keeping internal stakeholders up-to-date with key points from the feedback. NPS has become a metric that's being tracked and reviewed by top management at NiYO within just a quarter! In this podcast we discuss: How and when to capture customer feedback? What to do once feedback is received? Setting up the right team structure and process to manage the closed-loop feedback process. Relevant communications around NPS to keep everyone informed about and close to the customers. This discussion really demonstrates how to use NPS to bec