What is the current state of play in the customer experience landscape, and how do you see it changing over the next 12 months? 

Organisations are struggling to understand that effective customer experience management means ensuring a genuine cultural transformation. CSIA is starting to see more and more small to large businesses and government organisations implement strategic programs to achieve a true focus on CX. While some organisations are getting it right, others are struggling to really shift mindsets to reorient the business around improving the customer experience in a genuine and meaningful way.

The number of companies who are appointing a CCO is growing, do you see this trend continuing? Why?  

The trend in businesses appointing a CCO will continue because organisations need to ensure that the management of the customer experience is supported and understood at the executive level. The test as to whether a CCO is doing a good job, or the right job, comes down to whether customer experience is simply a lip service tool for the CCO or executive group. The question that needs to be asked is how will CX be implemented within the business and to what degree. It’s all well and good having a CCO but is the business really supporting the individual to effect the changes that might be needed? A CCO needs to be carefully positioned within the business to influence all functions of the organisation. Their role is to have a bird’s eye view of customer experience execution across the whole organisation. To be effectively supported, the importance of the role must be understood by other members of the executive team and all functional managers. My view is that the CCO trend will continue dependent on how successful CCOs of today are in achieving a customer-centric culture from the top down.

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges for organisations who are wanting to become more customer centric? 

Having a single view of the customer has become the biggest challenge for many established businesses. By way of example, large banks have many products and services, and customers might take up multiple offerings from one bank (e.g. insurance, savings, investments, credit cards etc). Despite this being the norm, these organisations still struggle to obtain a single consolidated view of a customer. Big corporations often can’t see all of their customer’s information across departments in one go, yet this is exactly what the customer expects when, using the bank example, they phone through to change their personal information, check a direct debit, or set up insurance with the same company. A single view of customer is critical yet challenging for organisations who are trying to integrate old systems with new ones. That’s why start-ups are doing this so well as they are setting up the customer experience from a blank slate, have new technologies available to them, and are more nimble and flexible as a result.

What are some of the key considerations companies need to take into account when thinking about customer centricity?  

The focus should be on culture and how to create a culture of customer centricity in organisations usually focused on products and services. The question that business owners and executives should ask themselves is do the people in my business understand the importance of a true customer focus? Do they understand what it means to be a customer centric organisation? This is the single most important thing companies should consider and action in today’s digital and millennial world.

What does the future hold for customer experience?

The future of customer experience revolves around understanding customer emotions. Customer metrics are moving toward measuring what customers actually feel about an organisation as opposed to how satisfied they were with a specific interaction with, for example, a customer service representative. The future is about understanding the emotions that you are trying to elicit in your customers and devising ways to better manage, control, and measure that.

Author:

Anouche Newman, CEO, CSIA

As Chief Executive Officer of the Customer Service Institute of Australia (CSIA), Australia’s leading independent customer service organisation, Anouche is responsible for developing the strategic direction of the institute with a strong focus on working with companies to achieve certification to the International Customer Service Standard.

Anouche manages CSIA’s relationships with all key strategic clients across a broad range of industry sectors including, transport, government, financial services, health and property development.

Her areas of specialty include services marketing, service blueprinting and applying an academic lens to issues such as service quality

Join Anouche at Chief Customer Officer Sydney, taking place on the 1-2 November 2017.

For more information about the event and how to register visit: www.chiefcustomerofficersydney.com