February 23, 2022 • 37 mins
Why you should be thinking about automation in your business's customer experience strategies!
Welcome back listeners, to another episode of the Digital Village Podcast.
In this episode, our resident host Paul Scott is joined by Robert Allman, Global SVP Customer Experience at NTT.
Today, we explore the depths of customer experience and automation. With NTT’s latest CX Benchmarking report for 2021 at hand, they’ll uncover how customer experience is evolving – driven by digital technology. For every business, a focus on CX is becoming a primary driver for customer retention and growth. So without further delay, let’s dive in and see what insights Rob and Paul can share with us.
So sit back and enjoy our kick-off episode for 2022!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to the new year and a new season of the
digital village show.
We've got some exciting storiesin store for 2022, as we focus
on digital trends, impactingbusiness and culture from the
influence of blockchain rightdown to processes and artificial
intelligence today's episode issomething special for me
personally, as an area I focusheavily on in my own business
customer experience, but with abit of a DV show, topical twist,
(00:27):
Paul Scott, our resident host isjoined by Robert Alman NTTS
global senior vice president forcustomer experience together.
They're tackling the topicaround automation and where it
fits into the customerexperience using data from the
later CX benchmark king reportsfrom 2021, Paul and Robert will
explore the levels of thecustomer from your own teams
(00:47):
down to the buyer, from thebenefits of CX and the value
that, um, that automation willbring to it and how businesses
can stay customer focus and thebenefits of doing so.
So sit back and enjoy as we kickoff 2022 together.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, hello, roll.
How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I'm very well, thank you.
Good morning.
Good evening, Paul.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Great to see you again.
And, and, um, goodness me, we goback a bit of a, a long way.
You and I, I think it's, um, itmust be 16, 17 years.
Um, and then merchants dimensiondata and now NTT.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
Couple of decades, I think in my
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Indeed.
And, um, we, we, I think we'veshare a passion, Rob, um,
besides sport obviously, cuz weboth share a passion for that.
Um, uh, for customer experienceand benchmarking.
I mean the, the topic of ourdiscussion today is really where
will automation benefit customerexperience and um, like you, I
(02:01):
mean working in a, in a tecompany, um, but having a very
strong sense of the purpose ofgreat customer experience and
customer service, it's alwaysbeen a challenge to get
technology, to align with whatwe actually want to deliver as
an experience.
Um, and it would be fair to say,I think that, um, the CX
(02:23):
benchmark and report, which Ibelieve is now in its 24th year,
um, that's right, has providedan extraordinary wealth of
insight and knowledge, um, forthe people who participate in
report.
And there must be, you know,several thousand companies who
participated in over the lasttwo, only four years.
(02:46):
Um, and also of course foryourselves within, within
dimension data and NTT now, um,the kind of insights that
presumably are helping you todesign and deliver great
solutions for your clients aswell.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Absolutely.
And the, the benchmarking reportorigins were very much our
clients at the outset of thecall center industry saying,
what does good look like?
Um, what, how do, what, whatdoes good look like in terms of
performance for top performers?
(03:23):
Um, what are peopleprioritizing?
What's the trends we should becognizant of?
Um, and how should we use thisto prioritize our planning.
Um, and it's never been morerelevant as it was then as it is
now.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Absolutely.
And, and, uh, the thing thatreally struck me about this
year's report was the, um, thefocus on, on this sort of human
automation interface.
Um, you know, I think there's,there's a long history and we're
gonna go into it in some detail,perhaps a little later on, um,
(04:02):
uh, of there's been evidence of,of the, the customer services
domain being in, in a little bitof conflict, really with the
technology side oforganizations, because it's
never quite worked out how tocombine the two in a way, which
is gonna deliver a greatexperience, but as you're going
to, hopefully to the second, the, the report is now talking
(04:24):
about the fact there is evidencethat this automation human
interface thing is beginning to,to actually work.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think, I think it's reallysimple when, when we look at the
, the, the customer experienceglobal benchmarking report, it,
it really is a stake in theground for organizations to try
and understand where they are,where their competitors are,
where people that they mightaspire to, or whether they just
(04:56):
want a sound check in terms ofhow they're doing.
And when we think aboutcustomer, it's something that's
quite easy for us to understandbecause we're all consumers in
one way or another.
But what the report does is itcreates a moments in time that
witnesses the industry globally.
And it's look, this is, this iswhat's happening.
(05:17):
This is what's looking like.
And one of the things that Ithink we've always, um, tr tried
to do, and I think I've beenapplauded before has been taking
a view on where we are andwhat's happening within the
industry.
And so, so to put it, I suppose,very simply the benchmarking
(05:38):
report creates a view of what ishappening in customer experience
and making sure all that wedon't lose the wood for the
trees.
And I think with the, thebenchmarking report and the
growth of automation, it it'ssimply that at its simplest form
customer experience is purposeshould not be lost.
(05:59):
And that's to make sure thatpeople, um, consumers have a
greater experience than they getwhat they want from, from their
engagement, with anorganization.
And really all, all we're sayingat the simplest level is, is do
not forget the customer.
If you get things right with thecustomer, many, many good things
(06:22):
happen easier said than done.
Um, but, but actuallyorganizations that absolutely
have that in their, in theiressence and their core.
Um, this year's benchmarking rereport shows that their three
sums more likely to demonstrategrowth and they're getting kind
of higher performance.
And that's why this year'sreport is saying crossing the
(06:45):
divide that I think manyorganizations have operated in
silos in terms of their channels, um, in terms of their, the way
that they see sales, marketing,different lines of businesses.
And this year's report reallysays successful organizations, a
new baseline for leadership,which is the other core theme of
(07:06):
this year's report is showingthat there's there's for many
years, we've chartered theprogress of, um, disruptive
innovators.
Now we're saying that that thatgroup has widened leaders.
Those leaders are, are showingthe tenants of what good
customer experience is.
And they've scaled to a pointthat, that now represents what
(07:29):
good customer experience is thatother organizations need to
aspire to.
The
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Last point is very, very interesting.
I wanted just dive into, that'salready interrupt you.
The, the report mentions thefact that there's CX
representation now at boardlevel at higher levels than
they've ever been before.
Do you think that's a factorthat has driven improvements in
this domain?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Absolutely.
I, when I, when I look, I thinkthree years ago were charted
slight dip in, in the boardroom,um, representation, which was
deeply concerning because it wasa point that we really saw a
massive growth and job titlesand LinkedIn of customer
experience, et cetera.
(08:13):
And so it seemed like the, therewas almost platitudes of a, of
an area that was being re, butthen we're seeing the strategic,
um, senior seniority actuallydecline.
And last year we saw a, a goodincrease, which we felt as
though was more representativeabout 35% this year it's risen
(08:34):
to over 70%.
Wow.
That feels right.
That, that feels a reflection ofthe times, because is this
year's report isn't meant to be,uh, another commentary on the
pandemic or a survival guide tothe pandemic.
We wanted to try and giveorganizations a view of what
they should start, stop,continue.
(08:55):
And what are the traits thatorganizations are going to kind
of stick with post the pandemic?
And the pandemic is really, youknow, through government policy
and health concerns has createdmore change or point in change.
That's accelerated mega trendsthat have been in the post, like
(09:15):
automation, the use oftechnology, um, the impact on
operating models that we'venever seen in terms of the, the
increased acceleration as, ascatalyst.
And, and what that has done isthat when things had to shut
down or people were sent home,it held a huge mirror and up to
(09:35):
executives all around the worldin terms of how good, bad, awful
brilliant, you know, theircustomer experience was.
Um, and, and that, that examinedevery facet.
Um, you, you know, the, have youused your own website?
Have you used your mobile app?
Have you used your IVR?
(09:57):
Do you know what it feels likewhen you get stuck on a web chat
and then you just give up andyou want to find a number, but
some like spark has hidden thatnumber somewhere.
All, all of those things yeah.
Came immediately obvious becausestuff either worked.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
And, um, and all of us son that also what this year,
what we started chatting acouple of years ago was
organizations because we sawlots of the tenants and
capabilities, whether it wastechnology, you know, the, the
increased maturity of managementtechniques and experience in
this, this area have all grown,but we haven't seen the see
(10:37):
change that would expect overthe last few years.
So, and, and we started asking,we're saying, look, you need to
change this.
You need to change that.
We highly recommend that youshould prioritize this.
Um, and, and it's difficult tobe a profit in your own land.
It was one of the things that wefound for, for are our clients
(10:58):
and participants, but what'swhat this has created is people
have said, we have to take thisseriously because it's not good
enough and we're losingcustomers or where all we've got
to, um, change our cost model.
All of those things come intobearing and people have
recognized the coal was toostatic.
(11:21):
It, it was too incremental.
And one of the biggest, um,emphasis particularly on leaders
, um, within this year's report,cuz we, we, we very much focus
on how we segment what leadersare doing and what followers or
lag guards are doing and, andcontrast those things.
And this year's report reallysays you, you've got to be able
(11:42):
to change quickly.
You've got to have a more agilemindset, not just in terms of
technology development, but interms of your entire management.
And I think that's one of thereally, really interesting
things because people have hadto change their operating model.
They have had to put muchgreater focus on self-service
the ambition of automation andself-service is almost doubled
(12:05):
in terms of the volumes andnumbers of organizations that
want to move things to thoseareas are big message in is, do
not sacrifice the purpose and donot sacrifice the quality double
down on the purpose and thequality.
And there's a simple, you know,there there's huge focus on
(12:25):
customer journeys and thematurity of work.
The way people are beginning tolook at those as, as grown in
terms of this science, the, the,the purpose is quite simple is
make it easier and stayrelevant.
So people are desperately tryingto keep up with these, um, the,
these new evangelists of the,the new customer experience,
(12:47):
but, but simply put the, thebest way to do these things.
Under half of organizations areactually trying to understand
what their customers want and,or, or actively trying to
consult with customers to thinkabout design, et cetera.
Um, so that one bigrecommendation, the, the big one
(13:07):
is really the mindset though.
Um, if we think about technology, um, being used for good, then
that's a really great place tostart if we think about and
empathize, which is a, a hugeword that can really resonated
out of, of the report of what itis like, because people, many
(13:28):
people have lost connection with, with communities, with family,
um, with, with theorganizations.
But, but they've beenparticularly, it, it, it really
exaggerates how good or bad, um,you are when you're isolated.
Um, sure.
Um, and, um, really what, whatwe're saying here is that if you
(13:51):
really think about that personand you think about the cons,
the context of why they'recalling and you give them choice
of how they want to do thingsand make sure that you're trying
to understand what it is likefor them within, within their
customer journey, within theirengagement.
Yeah.
Um, what, what are thefrustration points, um, how do
(14:14):
you make it seamless?
How can you do you more topractically understand how you
can reach out rather than tryand avoid, um, how you can be
proactive if you see, um,challenges, should you be
reaching out to engage?
But I think the big thing thatwe encourage is that the mindset
of leaders, um, and the clearrecommendations we make, look at
(14:37):
engagement as a positive thingto, um, retain, grow, um, create
, um, positive repeat businessand, and have a growth mindset
as opposed to cost minimizationone, because do those things
well, um, you, you will be moreefficient.
You will empower employees.
(14:58):
If we look at there was a, theother huge shift that we saw was
that there was a ma the, thebiggest prioritization in terms
of the next five years.
Um, sorry, in terms of the next12 months, is the enablement and
focus on employees to be moreeffective in their engagements
around CX Employees.
(15:20):
Who've got that line of sight toa strategy.
You need to have a strategy tocreate line of site strategy,
um, are far more engaged and farmore effective and, and engaging
and, and working and doing theirjob effectively with customers.
So really emphasizing thatconnection between the customer
experience and the employeeexperience and giving both the
(15:44):
customer and, and your people,the tools of the trade, whether
that's automation at the correctpoint that's appropriate, um,
whether we're managing thingslike automation, anxiety with,
with our employees and makingsure that they understand that
automation can help take awaythe mundane and, and create, um,
(16:06):
give them the right informationat the right time to really add
value and, and complete things,or create opportunity with
things.
That's a far more positivemindset for the customer and
employee to have where data useof intelligence to help enrich
things, um, in that real time isused.
And that can be seamless acrosswhether it's self-service
(16:29):
assisted service or, oremployees using information at
the right points and at theright times in a designed way,
rather than conky way.
So I think that that's probablythe essence of have just touched
Speaker 2 (16:43):
One of the, one of the things that, uh, I find
strange here though, Rob, isthat, um, NPS schools generally
are not improving significantlywith all the, the insight that
we're getting from the datathat's being gathered now, and
the ability to apply, uh,digital to the customer
(17:06):
experience, you would expectthat organizations would get
better at actually understandingwhat their customers want and
the way that they want itprovided.
But the, the evidence from Neboschools does not back that up.
It actually suggests thatorganizations are, are either
not getting any better or insome cases actually getting
(17:28):
worse at delivering reallyoutstanding customer
experiences.
I mean, to what extent do youthink, um, that's because of
this kind of, uh, disconnectbetween strategy and execution,
cuz I know that, um, that thereis something in the report as
well, that talks about this,that you've got, um, people are
(17:48):
getting better at doing thestrategic thing, but then there
isn't the same improvement inhow they then execute.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah.
I, there's a few points inthere.
So around the net promoterschool, um, one of the things
that we introduced in thisyear's report, there is 1,300
hundred and 59 participants,roughly.
Exactly,
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Roughly,
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Which is our biggest, um, participation ever, which
we're really, really pleasedaround the seniority of
participation from CEOs todirectors was really high, much
higher than previous years.
So that's great.
And I think that in itself as anindicator that people are taking
customer experience moreseriously.
Yeah.
The, the other, um, vector thatwe added into the data this year
(18:38):
was 1400 consumer surveys in,um, 13 countries.
And, and really what we wantedto do was, um, you know, drink
our own champagne, um, and, andmake sure we were getting that
balance of what the organizationwas saying.
Looks like good, versus whatconsumers or customers were
(18:59):
saying, looks like good.
And only 17% of consumersactually said that they saw, um,
uh, customer experience from, ata, at a net promoter level at an
advocacy level.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
So, so your point's absolutely spot on.
Um, and it was interesting whenyou compare that to things like
the, the experience of digitalchannels, et cetera, it's a very
similar story, slightly worse.
So, um, one of things I think iswe shouldn't lose heart because
there's definitely organizationsand leaders who created a new
(19:38):
normal, sorry, I Bann myselffrom saying that word,
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Sorry, we'll edit it out.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
The, the, the key thing is though that there,
there is lighthouse for peopleto see what good looks like.
That's also risen.
Um, you know, that's given lightto, um, an increased
expectation.
We, we expect things to bedelivered the next day.
We might actually select, um, athing where we don't consider
(20:13):
any other products.
So yeah, the, the expectationhas risen, but sadly, there's
also some absolutely terribleexperience that's still out
there.
Um, and I think key things thatwe see one is we, we see that
organizations who have astrategy in that's commonly
(20:33):
understood there's line of sightthrough the organization.
And they're executing on that,um, show far higher customer
experience, satisfactionresults, and that they have far
more engaged.
And boys, as a result of that,the employees are the people who
mobilize your strategy without,without execution strategies to
(20:54):
solution.
So, so I think there's keythings that we're seeing that's
in place there.
The, the other piece that we'reseeing in terms of the
customers, it it's when we lookat some of the key decision
points that the consumers werestating, they want quality of
products and services.
Um, they want trusted brands.
(21:16):
They want to see things likecustomer reviews, customer
reviews, and open and honestcommunication, um, with number
three or four, in terms of the,the buying choices, the, that
they make.
Mm.
So, so there's clear, you know,there's, there's not just a
wisdom of crowd, but there's,there's actually a, a dead set
(21:36):
judgment on those things can addall the complexity we want, but
if people aren't really alignedand able to have open and honest
communication, because they'vegot the right culture, um,
they've got the rightinformation and data in front of
them, then, you know, those keythings that actually shape
consumer behavior will beportrayed.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah.
Um, I wanted to, to just go backto a quote that's in the report
from, um, a very good friend ofyours and mine, Shannon McGee
Smith, who's a, a senior analystin the sector.
Um, and she says, the lessonsdescribed from top customer
experience.
Performers are a roadmap forcreating the seamless,
automated, digital, and liveassistance journeys.
(22:23):
Customers now expect customerexperience is being treated like
the value creator.
It is, and companies are rampingup automation efforts and
enabling employees with digitaltools.
So there's a lot in there, butthe thing that really struck me
with this was this focus aroundautomation, um, and enabling
(22:45):
people with tools.
If you touched on it earlier bysaying, you know, that, that one
of the problems perhapsemployees have, who are in the
front line, delivering customerservice is appreciating how
these tools can actually helpthem deliver a better
experience.
Do you wanna talk to that?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah, definitely.
So I think Sheila sums up reallywell.
Um, as I think when you moveinto a period of change, it, it
it's that whole mirror thing.
Again, it gives a dark realityof things that may have been
issues, but because they'vebecome the norm, you come to
accept them and, and they, thatbecomes kind of Aero.
(23:25):
What, what we've seen is this,this sea change where people
have been sent home.
So that sounds a bit, bit likethey've been sent home from
school.
Um, they, the operations,
Speaker 2 (23:36):
They were encouraged.
Yes.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah.
The work from home.
Yeah.
Which has created lots ofopportunities, but it's called,
it's also created issues thathave to be addressed.
They have to be addressed in thehere and now.
And there's there's datasecurity concerns.
Um, there's um, 50% of employeessaying that they do not have the
(24:01):
tools that they require to, toex execute on their job com
correctly to completion
Speaker 2 (24:09):
50% that,
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just under 50%.
So that does not sound, sound orlook like success.
And, and what are the kind ofthings that they need.
They, they need all of theinformation on the customer.
They need access this to thecorrect systems.
Um, they need the right coachingtools, et cetera.
(24:31):
When we look at all of thedifferent things that support
both the customer and theemployee in terms of real time,
enriched data, knowledge, etcetera, um, that can have
artificial tech applied to itthat can radically, um, enrich
the customer experience in termsof their digital experience.
(24:55):
Um, it can help withpersonalization.
It can help it being far morespecific to them.
Um, in terms of the, theemployee supporting the consumer
of the consumers, able to, um,get the kind of resolution that
they need within thoseself-service channels that
enrichment can radicallyaccelerate a, a time to
(25:17):
competent in terms ofunderstanding, um, things, it
can remove the requirement for,for the focus of the employee to
be on systems, because we canautomate a lot of the dependency
on 5, 10, 20, we've seen someclients with 30 systems, they,
that we expect people totraverse that's that's verging
(25:38):
on inhumane.
Um, so what, what we were sayingis we can take through things
like, you know, maturetechnologies like RPA, et cetera
.
We can take the focus away fromthe systems.
We can enrich the experience byactually providing real time
insights to that customer forthe employee.
(25:59):
Um, and, and we can combine thejourney and the, the, the
history of the journey that theconsumer or the customer has
been on, um, when, when, whenthey engage, that that's a far
better basis for success than,than waiting for someone to come
through, who who's effectivelybeen pulled through a hedge
(26:20):
backwards, through aself-service thing that that's
frustrated them an experience oftrying to find the right contact
points, et cetera.
They may have to spoken toanother colleague in the
organization if we're kind ofactually reaching out, um,
because we're seeing thatsomeone may be struggling.
And this is where we talk aboutthe concept of augmentation,
(26:42):
that we're actually designing anunderstanding of things and
designing to support both thecustomer and the employee, um,
and making sure that we'refocused on the, the, the outcome
, um, and the intent, um, ratherthan the, the process, um, and
the failure point, we'rethinking more about success than
(27:05):
failure.
So I think those are the keyessences of how we, um, the, the
data, the artificialintelligence, the insights, but
we bring that to life in realtime.
And I think bringing thosethings together, thinking about
how the customer and theemployee positioned to, to, to
be effective, making it easy forthem, giving the customer
(27:28):
choice, bringing those elementstogether, that, that that's the,
you know, they're theingredients and the recipe, um,
is, is really the, the cultureand the, the design and the
competency that organizationsshare around that.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So do you, do you think that, um, if organizations
are able to bring those thingstogether, the way you've just
described, is it still the casethat there are a large
proportion of customers whoactually don't want any of that
digital experience?
They just wanna speak tosomebody when they contact
customer service.
It's because they've got aproblem, something hasn't
(28:06):
arrived on time, there's anerror on their booking form, or,
you know, they've made a mistakewhen they were doing an online
check or whatever, and they wantto speak to somebody and, and
just looking at, you know, thewebsites for a lot of these
eCommerce companies, trying tofind the telephone number to
speak to a human being isvirtually impossible.
(28:26):
I mean, the only thing you can,in fact, the most effective
thing to do as I've discoveredis to Google it.
Because if you, if you actuallyask Google, where can I find
customer service for X, Y, Zcompany, they will direct you
specifically to the page wherethat happens.
But it does look to me as thoughthere are two things happening.
And number one, customers aregetting frustrated because they
(28:47):
can't contact theirorganizations when they want to,
to speak to somebody.
And then the, you know,paradoxically companies are
hiding telephone numbers stillto prevent them having contact
with their customers.
Is that ever gonna change?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Yeah, hun one, 100%.
It's a, I think the it's amodern perversion, isn't it?
The, and it's a modernperversion that's been in the
making for 15 years plus, um,the, the, the key thing here is
that if we think we're, we getthousands and thousands of
different messages fromorganizations trying to market
(29:26):
to us through throughout theday, it's probably far greater
than that.
And people are trying to findrelevance, whether it's through
SEO, different ways of engagingwith, with customers, however,
when a customer wants to engagewith them, they they're, there's
people finding methods ofavoiding
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Blank.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Yeah.
So, um, so first thing isembrace the opportunity to
engage with a customer.
Um, second, second piece inthere is that it it's two thirds
of customers, the, the consumersthat we survey conveyed so that
they absolutely still relish theopportunity and want the ability
(30:12):
, um, to talk, to, uh, talk tosomeone within the organization.
And when they talk to someonethey want to open and honest
communication and the someonewho's equipped to resolve their,
their issue.
So these are, these are traitsthat consumers want.
Um, they also want things to beeffective and effortless
(30:35):
digitally, and, and to have theright level of competence that
keeps up, um, with, with theleaders.
Um, but, but once again, thisisn't massively complex.
It's common sense and commonsense.
Isn't always that common.
Um, but, but, but really thethings that people are asking
for or want, uh, uh, are quite,um, pragmatic.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, okay.
Rob, look, we're gonna have towrap out quite soon, but I, I
wanted to ask you if, if therewere sort of three bits of
advice that you would give to CXexecutives who are seeking to
get ahead here, um, what wouldit be?
What do they need to be focusedon in order to generate a better
customer experience?
Speaker 4 (31:20):
The, the first thing is really, and it's about the
applying the gravity that theyneed to, to, to customer
experience people who view CXas, as a value creation element,
that's fundamental to thestrategy of their organization
and the success of theirorganization will be successful,
(31:43):
um, with their customers, um, interms of growth retention, um,
repeat business.
So that that's clear.
And that's, that's some of thethings that people should look
at on evidence on the report andorganizations who are leading
are doing that.
So get a strategy that'seffective and, and commonly
understood and execute on andwell rounded.
(32:05):
So that's, that's kinda numberone, um, connect, think about
the, the connection between thecustomer and the employee and
what you need to do, what thatlooks like and what you need to
do to enable that effectively.
Um, and that, I think that'sfundamental operate have now
(32:25):
changed forever there'sorganizations like national
Australia, buying HSBC here inthe UK.
Many others in around the worldhave said, we are not returning
to our previous operating model.
We're not going back on mass to,to, to, to the, to the office.
So that operating model haschanged.
And there's many benefits tothat.
(32:46):
It'll probably be more hybrid,um, but make it work and, and,
but, but make it work on a valuebasis rather than a, a logistics
facilitation.
And the third other thing, whichis cool, um, is we, we talk
about hyper automation.
Um, and our, when we think aboutthat really, really simply put,
(33:11):
we're saying that automation Iis absolutely here.
It's been here for many, manyyears.
It's not a new thing in terms of, um, self-service and all
automating things.
But what we are saying is, is doit well, the, the, the alter is
the customer experience in termsof the, the level and in terms
(33:33):
of how it's done things like RPAand things on, on their own pass
se.
Um, but if we can combinedifferent technologies, um, you
know, we're seeing big evidencethroughout the report that AI is
applied as a, as a, and peoplehave a mindset around growth
around that.
So let's, let's, let's gatherthe information that is out
(33:55):
there around the customer,whether it's in their
interaction or the, the historyand all of those, their intent
let's mobilize that use thatapply artificial intelligence,
make that, make that, um,available to help resolve
personalize, but bring togetherthe organization, the might of
(34:16):
the organization on behalf ofthe customer, um, using
automation in an, a greatintelligent fashion.
Um, and I think that that's thekey thing is, is making sure
that we automate intelligently,um, on behalf of the customer,
as opposed to on behalf of theorganization.
(34:36):
So strategy CX as a valuecreator, create that to link
between the, the customer andthe employee and automate, um,
effectively on behalf of thecustomer, not the organization.
And, and you'll get the resultsthat the organization wants.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
You make it sound so simple.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
And
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Rob, that was, that was fascinating.
Um, so, so look, before we wrapup, um, how can people, well, I
will, by the way, put in the, uh, the podcast notes links to the
report, but for those who arelisted, just want to go straight
to, um, to a search engine andfind it, where can they, um, get
(35:21):
hold of copies of the report?
Speaker 4 (35:24):
So the, the report is free.
It's, it's a gift to theindustry.
It's the first time we've, we'vedone that it's available.
Um, and, um, it's, it isavailable on the, the NTT
website under CX benchmarking.
Um, and we we'll create all thelinks that people can get it
(35:45):
directly from, from this, um,podcast as well.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Great, Rob, thank you so much for your time, mate.
Really appreciate it.
Great to see you looking fit andwell, I hope the, uh, the
English winter doesn't treat youto too badly.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
Well, certainly on the way it's here.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Good stuff.
Okay.
We'll uh, hopefully catch upagain.
I'd like to catch up with youagain next year and do the same
thing.
See how things have moved on.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Absolutely.
And, and lovely.
See, thank you for theopportunity.
Thanks, Paul.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Cheer.
Not at all.
Thank you very much, indeed.
Well, cheers.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Please feel free to check us outon our website, digital
village.network for our pastepisodes.
We'll be back next month, but onthe last Wednesday of every
month, as we are with more greatstories and guests see you, then
.
Welcome back to the new year and a new season of the
digital village show.
We've got some exciting storiesin store for 2022, as we focus
on digital trends, impactingbusiness and culture from the
influence of blockchain rightdown to processes and artificial
intelligence today's episode issomething special for me
personally, as an area I focusheavily on in my own business
customer experience, but with abit of a DV show, topical twist,
(00:27):
Paul Scott, our resident host isjoined by Robert Alman NTTS
global senior vice president forcustomer experience together.
They're tackling the topicaround automation and where it
fits into the customerexperience using data from the
later CX benchmark king reportsfrom 2021, Paul and Robert will
explore the levels of thecustomer from your own teams
(00:47):
down to the buyer, from thebenefits of CX and the value
that, um, that automation willbring to it and how businesses
can stay customer focus and thebenefits of doing so.
So sit back and enjoy as we kickoff 2022 together.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, hello, roll.
How are you?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
I'm very well, thank you.
Good morning.
Good evening, Paul.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Great to see you again.
And, and, um, goodness me, we goback a bit of a, a long way.
You and I, I think it's, um, itmust be 16, 17 years.
Um, and then merchants dimensiondata and now NTT.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
Couple of decades, I think in my
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Indeed.
And, um, we, we, I think we'veshare a passion, Rob, um,
besides sport obviously, cuz weboth share a passion for that.
Um, uh, for customer experienceand benchmarking.
I mean the, the topic of ourdiscussion today is really where
will automation benefit customerexperience and um, like you, I
(02:01):
mean working in a, in a tecompany, um, but having a very
strong sense of the purpose ofgreat customer experience and
customer service, it's alwaysbeen a challenge to get
technology, to align with whatwe actually want to deliver as
an experience.
Um, and it would be fair to say,I think that, um, the CX
(02:23):
benchmark and report, which Ibelieve is now in its 24th year,
um, that's right, has providedan extraordinary wealth of
insight and knowledge, um, forthe people who participate in
report.
And there must be, you know,several thousand companies who
participated in over the lasttwo, only four years.
(02:46):
Um, and also of course foryourselves within, within
dimension data and NTT now, um,the kind of insights that
presumably are helping you todesign and deliver great
solutions for your clients aswell.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Absolutely.
And the, the benchmarking reportorigins were very much our
clients at the outset of thecall center industry saying,
what does good look like?
Um, what, how do, what, whatdoes good look like in terms of
performance for top performers?
(03:23):
Um, what are peopleprioritizing?
What's the trends we should becognizant of?
Um, and how should we use thisto prioritize our planning.
Um, and it's never been morerelevant as it was then as it is
now.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Absolutely.
And, and, uh, the thing thatreally struck me about this
year's report was the, um, thefocus on, on this sort of human
automation interface.
Um, you know, I think there's,there's a long history and we're
gonna go into it in some detail,perhaps a little later on, um,
(04:02):
uh, of there's been evidence of,of the, the customer services
domain being in, in a little bitof conflict, really with the
technology side oforganizations, because it's
never quite worked out how tocombine the two in a way, which
is gonna deliver a greatexperience, but as you're going
to, hopefully to the second, the, the report is now talking
(04:24):
about the fact there is evidencethat this automation human
interface thing is beginning to,to actually work.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think, I think it's reallysimple when, when we look at the
, the, the customer experienceglobal benchmarking report, it,
it really is a stake in theground for organizations to try
and understand where they are,where their competitors are,
where people that they mightaspire to, or whether they just
(04:56):
want a sound check in terms ofhow they're doing.
And when we think aboutcustomer, it's something that's
quite easy for us to understandbecause we're all consumers in
one way or another.
But what the report does is itcreates a moments in time that
witnesses the industry globally.
And it's look, this is, this iswhat's happening.
(05:17):
This is what's looking like.
And one of the things that Ithink we've always, um, tr tried
to do, and I think I've beenapplauded before has been taking
a view on where we are andwhat's happening within the
industry.
And so, so to put it, I suppose,very simply the benchmarking
(05:38):
report creates a view of what ishappening in customer experience
and making sure all that wedon't lose the wood for the
trees.
And I think with the, thebenchmarking report and the
growth of automation, it it'ssimply that at its simplest form
customer experience is purposeshould not be lost.
(05:59):
And that's to make sure thatpeople, um, consumers have a
greater experience than they getwhat they want from, from their
engagement, with anorganization.
And really all, all we're sayingat the simplest level is, is do
not forget the customer.
If you get things right with thecustomer, many, many good things
(06:22):
happen easier said than done.
Um, but, but actuallyorganizations that absolutely
have that in their, in theiressence and their core.
Um, this year's benchmarking rereport shows that their three
sums more likely to demonstrategrowth and they're getting kind
of higher performance.
And that's why this year'sreport is saying crossing the
(06:45):
divide that I think manyorganizations have operated in
silos in terms of their channels, um, in terms of their, the way
that they see sales, marketing,different lines of businesses.
And this year's report reallysays successful organizations, a
new baseline for leadership,which is the other core theme of
(07:06):
this year's report is showingthat there's there's for many
years, we've chartered theprogress of, um, disruptive
innovators.
Now we're saying that that thatgroup has widened leaders.
Those leaders are, are showingthe tenants of what good
customer experience is.
And they've scaled to a pointthat, that now represents what
(07:29):
good customer experience is thatother organizations need to
aspire to.
The
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Last point is very, very interesting.
I wanted just dive into, that'salready interrupt you.
The, the report mentions thefact that there's CX
representation now at boardlevel at higher levels than
they've ever been before.
Do you think that's a factorthat has driven improvements in
this domain?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Absolutely.
I, when I, when I look, I thinkthree years ago were charted
slight dip in, in the boardroom,um, representation, which was
deeply concerning because it wasa point that we really saw a
massive growth and job titlesand LinkedIn of customer
experience, et cetera.
(08:13):
And so it seemed like the, therewas almost platitudes of a, of
an area that was being re, butthen we're seeing the strategic,
um, senior seniority actuallydecline.
And last year we saw a, a goodincrease, which we felt as
though was more representativeabout 35% this year it's risen
(08:34):
to over 70%.
Wow.
That feels right.
That, that feels a reflection ofthe times, because is this
year's report isn't meant to be,uh, another commentary on the
pandemic or a survival guide tothe pandemic.
We wanted to try and giveorganizations a view of what
they should start, stop,continue.
(08:55):
And what are the traits thatorganizations are going to kind
of stick with post the pandemic?
And the pandemic is really, youknow, through government policy
and health concerns has createdmore change or point in change.
That's accelerated mega trendsthat have been in the post, like
(09:15):
automation, the use oftechnology, um, the impact on
operating models that we'venever seen in terms of the, the
increased acceleration as, ascatalyst.
And, and what that has done isthat when things had to shut
down or people were sent home,it held a huge mirror and up to
(09:35):
executives all around the worldin terms of how good, bad, awful
brilliant, you know, theircustomer experience was.
Um, and, and that, that examinedevery facet.
Um, you, you know, the, have youused your own website?
Have you used your mobile app?
Have you used your IVR?
(09:57):
Do you know what it feels likewhen you get stuck on a web chat
and then you just give up andyou want to find a number, but
some like spark has hidden thatnumber somewhere.
All, all of those things yeah.
Came immediately obvious becausestuff either worked.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
And, um, and all of us son that also what this year,
what we started chatting acouple of years ago was
organizations because we sawlots of the tenants and
capabilities, whether it wastechnology, you know, the, the
increased maturity of managementtechniques and experience in
this, this area have all grown,but we haven't seen the see
(10:37):
change that would expect overthe last few years.
So, and, and we started asking,we're saying, look, you need to
change this.
You need to change that.
We highly recommend that youshould prioritize this.
Um, and, and it's difficult tobe a profit in your own land.
It was one of the things that wefound for, for are our clients
(10:58):
and participants, but what'swhat this has created is people
have said, we have to take thisseriously because it's not good
enough and we're losingcustomers or where all we've got
to, um, change our cost model.
All of those things come intobearing and people have
recognized the coal was toostatic.
(11:21):
It, it was too incremental.
And one of the biggest, um,emphasis particularly on leaders
, um, within this year's report,cuz we, we, we very much focus
on how we segment what leadersare doing and what followers or
lag guards are doing and, andcontrast those things.
And this year's report reallysays you, you've got to be able
(11:42):
to change quickly.
You've got to have a more agilemindset, not just in terms of
technology development, but interms of your entire management.
And I think that's one of thereally, really interesting
things because people have hadto change their operating model.
They have had to put muchgreater focus on self-service
the ambition of automation andself-service is almost doubled
(12:05):
in terms of the volumes andnumbers of organizations that
want to move things to thoseareas are big message in is, do
not sacrifice the purpose and donot sacrifice the quality double
down on the purpose and thequality.
And there's a simple, you know,there there's huge focus on
(12:25):
customer journeys and thematurity of work.
The way people are beginning tolook at those as, as grown in
terms of this science, the, the,the purpose is quite simple is
make it easier and stayrelevant.
So people are desperately tryingto keep up with these, um, the,
these new evangelists of the,the new customer experience,
(12:47):
but, but simply put the, thebest way to do these things.
Under half of organizations areactually trying to understand
what their customers want and,or, or actively trying to
consult with customers to thinkabout design, et cetera.
Um, so that one bigrecommendation, the, the big one
(13:07):
is really the mindset though.
Um, if we think about technology, um, being used for good, then
that's a really great place tostart if we think about and
empathize, which is a, a hugeword that can really resonated
out of, of the report of what itis like, because people, many
(13:28):
people have lost connection with, with communities, with family,
um, with, with theorganizations.
But, but they've beenparticularly, it, it, it really
exaggerates how good or bad, um,you are when you're isolated.
Um, sure.
Um, and, um, really what, whatwe're saying here is that if you
(13:51):
really think about that personand you think about the cons,
the context of why they'recalling and you give them choice
of how they want to do thingsand make sure that you're trying
to understand what it is likefor them within, within their
customer journey, within theirengagement.
Yeah.
Um, what, what are thefrustration points, um, how do
(14:14):
you make it seamless?
How can you do you more topractically understand how you
can reach out rather than tryand avoid, um, how you can be
proactive if you see, um,challenges, should you be
reaching out to engage?
But I think the big thing thatwe encourage is that the mindset
of leaders, um, and the clearrecommendations we make, look at
(14:37):
engagement as a positive thingto, um, retain, grow, um, create
, um, positive repeat businessand, and have a growth mindset
as opposed to cost minimizationone, because do those things
well, um, you, you will be moreefficient.
You will empower employees.
(14:58):
If we look at there was a, theother huge shift that we saw was
that there was a ma the, thebiggest prioritization in terms
of the next five years.
Um, sorry, in terms of the next12 months, is the enablement and
focus on employees to be moreeffective in their engagements
around CX Employees.
(15:20):
Who've got that line of sight toa strategy.
You need to have a strategy tocreate line of site strategy,
um, are far more engaged and farmore effective and, and engaging
and, and working and doing theirjob effectively with customers.
So really emphasizing thatconnection between the customer
experience and the employeeexperience and giving both the
(15:44):
customer and, and your people,the tools of the trade, whether
that's automation at the correctpoint that's appropriate, um,
whether we're managing thingslike automation, anxiety with,
with our employees and makingsure that they understand that
automation can help take awaythe mundane and, and create, um,
(16:06):
give them the right informationat the right time to really add
value and, and complete things,or create opportunity with
things.
That's a far more positivemindset for the customer and
employee to have where data useof intelligence to help enrich
things, um, in that real time isused.
And that can be seamless acrosswhether it's self-service
(16:29):
assisted service or, oremployees using information at
the right points and at theright times in a designed way,
rather than conky way.
So I think that that's probablythe essence of have just touched
Speaker 2 (16:43):
One of the, one of the things that, uh, I find
strange here though, Rob, isthat, um, NPS schools generally
are not improving significantlywith all the, the insight that
we're getting from the datathat's being gathered now, and
the ability to apply, uh,digital to the customer
(17:06):
experience, you would expectthat organizations would get
better at actually understandingwhat their customers want and
the way that they want itprovided.
But the, the evidence from Neboschools does not back that up.
It actually suggests thatorganizations are, are either
not getting any better or insome cases actually getting
(17:28):
worse at delivering reallyoutstanding customer
experiences.
I mean, to what extent do youthink, um, that's because of
this kind of, uh, disconnectbetween strategy and execution,
cuz I know that, um, that thereis something in the report as
well, that talks about this,that you've got, um, people are
(17:48):
getting better at doing thestrategic thing, but then there
isn't the same improvement inhow they then execute.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Yeah.
I, there's a few points inthere.
So around the net promoterschool, um, one of the things
that we introduced in thisyear's report, there is 1,300
hundred and 59 participants,roughly.
Exactly,
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Roughly,
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Which is our biggest, um, participation ever, which
we're really, really pleasedaround the seniority of
participation from CEOs todirectors was really high, much
higher than previous years.
So that's great.
And I think that in itself as anindicator that people are taking
customer experience moreseriously.
Yeah.
The, the other, um, vector thatwe added into the data this year
(18:38):
was 1400 consumer surveys in,um, 13 countries.
And, and really what we wantedto do was, um, you know, drink
our own champagne, um, and, andmake sure we were getting that
balance of what the organizationwas saying.
Looks like good, versus whatconsumers or customers were
(18:59):
saying, looks like good.
And only 17% of consumersactually said that they saw, um,
uh, customer experience from, ata, at a net promoter level at an
advocacy level.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
So, so your point's absolutely spot on.
Um, and it was interesting whenyou compare that to things like
the, the experience of digitalchannels, et cetera, it's a very
similar story, slightly worse.
So, um, one of things I think iswe shouldn't lose heart because
there's definitely organizationsand leaders who created a new
(19:38):
normal, sorry, I Bann myselffrom saying that word,
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Sorry, we'll edit it out.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
The, the, the key thing is though that there,
there is lighthouse for peopleto see what good looks like.
That's also risen.
Um, you know, that's given lightto, um, an increased
expectation.
We, we expect things to bedelivered the next day.
We might actually select, um, athing where we don't consider
(20:13):
any other products.
So yeah, the, the expectationhas risen, but sadly, there's
also some absolutely terribleexperience that's still out
there.
Um, and I think key things thatwe see one is we, we see that
organizations who have astrategy in that's commonly
(20:33):
understood there's line of sightthrough the organization.
And they're executing on that,um, show far higher customer
experience, satisfactionresults, and that they have far
more engaged.
And boys, as a result of that,the employees are the people who
mobilize your strategy without,without execution strategies to
(20:54):
solution.
So, so I think there's keythings that we're seeing that's
in place there.
The, the other piece that we'reseeing in terms of the
customers, it it's when we lookat some of the key decision
points that the consumers werestating, they want quality of
products and services.
Um, they want trusted brands.
(21:16):
They want to see things likecustomer reviews, customer
reviews, and open and honestcommunication, um, with number
three or four, in terms of the,the buying choices, the, that
they make.
Mm.
So, so there's clear, you know,there's, there's not just a
wisdom of crowd, but there's,there's actually a, a dead set
(21:36):
judgment on those things can addall the complexity we want, but
if people aren't really alignedand able to have open and honest
communication, because they'vegot the right culture, um,
they've got the rightinformation and data in front of
them, then, you know, those keythings that actually shape
consumer behavior will beportrayed.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah.
Um, I wanted to, to just go backto a quote that's in the report
from, um, a very good friend ofyours and mine, Shannon McGee
Smith, who's a, a senior analystin the sector.
Um, and she says, the lessonsdescribed from top customer
experience.
Performers are a roadmap forcreating the seamless,
automated, digital, and liveassistance journeys.
(22:23):
Customers now expect customerexperience is being treated like
the value creator.
It is, and companies are rampingup automation efforts and
enabling employees with digitaltools.
So there's a lot in there, butthe thing that really struck me
with this was this focus aroundautomation, um, and enabling
(22:45):
people with tools.
If you touched on it earlier bysaying, you know, that, that one
of the problems perhapsemployees have, who are in the
front line, delivering customerservice is appreciating how
these tools can actually helpthem deliver a better
experience.
Do you wanna talk to that?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah, definitely.
So I think Sheila sums up reallywell.
Um, as I think when you moveinto a period of change, it, it
it's that whole mirror thing.
Again, it gives a dark realityof things that may have been
issues, but because they'vebecome the norm, you come to
accept them and, and they, thatbecomes kind of Aero.
(23:25):
What, what we've seen is this,this sea change where people
have been sent home.
So that sounds a bit, bit likethey've been sent home from
school.
Um, they, the operations,
Speaker 2 (23:36):
They were encouraged.
Yes.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah.
The work from home.
Yeah.
Which has created lots ofopportunities, but it's called,
it's also created issues thathave to be addressed.
They have to be addressed in thehere and now.
And there's there's datasecurity concerns.
Um, there's um, 50% of employeessaying that they do not have the
(24:01):
tools that they require to, toex execute on their job com
correctly to completion
Speaker 2 (24:09):
50% that,
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just under 50%.
So that does not sound, sound orlook like success.
And, and what are the kind ofthings that they need.
They, they need all of theinformation on the customer.
They need access this to thecorrect systems.
Um, they need the right coachingtools, et cetera.
(24:31):
When we look at all of thedifferent things that support
both the customer and theemployee in terms of real time,
enriched data, knowledge, etcetera, um, that can have
artificial tech applied to itthat can radically, um, enrich
the customer experience in termsof their digital experience.
(24:55):
Um, it can help withpersonalization.
It can help it being far morespecific to them.
Um, in terms of the, theemployee supporting the consumer
of the consumers, able to, um,get the kind of resolution that
they need within thoseself-service channels that
enrichment can radicallyaccelerate a, a time to
(25:17):
competent in terms ofunderstanding, um, things, it
can remove the requirement for,for the focus of the employee to
be on systems, because we canautomate a lot of the dependency
on 5, 10, 20, we've seen someclients with 30 systems, they,
that we expect people totraverse that's that's verging
(25:38):
on inhumane.
Um, so what, what we were sayingis we can take through things
like, you know, maturetechnologies like RPA, et cetera
.
We can take the focus away fromthe systems.
We can enrich the experience byactually providing real time
insights to that customer forthe employee.
(25:59):
Um, and, and we can combine thejourney and the, the, the
history of the journey that theconsumer or the customer has
been on, um, when, when, whenthey engage, that that's a far
better basis for success than,than waiting for someone to come
through, who who's effectivelybeen pulled through a hedge
(26:20):
backwards, through aself-service thing that that's
frustrated them an experience oftrying to find the right contact
points, et cetera.
They may have to spoken toanother colleague in the
organization if we're kind ofactually reaching out, um,
because we're seeing thatsomeone may be struggling.
And this is where we talk aboutthe concept of augmentation,
(26:42):
that we're actually designing anunderstanding of things and
designing to support both thecustomer and the employee, um,
and making sure that we'refocused on the, the, the outcome
, um, and the intent, um, ratherthan the, the process, um, and
the failure point, we'rethinking more about success than
(27:05):
failure.
So I think those are the keyessences of how we, um, the, the
data, the artificialintelligence, the insights, but
we bring that to life in realtime.
And I think bringing thosethings together, thinking about
how the customer and theemployee positioned to, to, to
be effective, making it easy forthem, giving the customer
(27:28):
choice, bringing those elementstogether, that, that that's the,
you know, they're theingredients and the recipe, um,
is, is really the, the cultureand the, the design and the
competency that organizationsshare around that.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So do you, do you think that, um, if organizations
are able to bring those thingstogether, the way you've just
described, is it still the casethat there are a large
proportion of customers whoactually don't want any of that
digital experience?
They just wanna speak tosomebody when they contact
customer service.
It's because they've got aproblem, something hasn't
(28:06):
arrived on time, there's anerror on their booking form, or,
you know, they've made a mistakewhen they were doing an online
check or whatever, and they wantto speak to somebody and, and
just looking at, you know, thewebsites for a lot of these
eCommerce companies, trying tofind the telephone number to
speak to a human being isvirtually impossible.
(28:26):
I mean, the only thing you can,in fact, the most effective
thing to do as I've discoveredis to Google it.
Because if you, if you actuallyask Google, where can I find
customer service for X, Y, Zcompany, they will direct you
specifically to the page wherethat happens.
But it does look to me as thoughthere are two things happening.
And number one, customers aregetting frustrated because they
(28:47):
can't contact theirorganizations when they want to,
to speak to somebody.
And then the, you know,paradoxically companies are
hiding telephone numbers stillto prevent them having contact
with their customers.
Is that ever gonna change?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Yeah, hun one, 100%.
It's a, I think the it's amodern perversion, isn't it?
The, and it's a modernperversion that's been in the
making for 15 years plus, um,the, the, the key thing here is
that if we think we're, we getthousands and thousands of
different messages fromorganizations trying to market
(29:26):
to us through throughout theday, it's probably far greater
than that.
And people are trying to findrelevance, whether it's through
SEO, different ways of engagingwith, with customers, however,
when a customer wants to engagewith them, they they're, there's
people finding methods ofavoiding
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Blank.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Yeah.
So, um, so first thing isembrace the opportunity to
engage with a customer.
Um, second, second piece inthere is that it it's two thirds
of customers, the, the consumersthat we survey conveyed so that
they absolutely still relish theopportunity and want the ability
(30:12):
, um, to talk, to, uh, talk tosomeone within the organization.
And when they talk to someonethey want to open and honest
communication and the someonewho's equipped to resolve their,
their issue.
So these are, these are traitsthat consumers want.
Um, they also want things to beeffective and effortless
(30:35):
digitally, and, and to have theright level of competence that
keeps up, um, with, with theleaders.
Um, but, but once again, thisisn't massively complex.
It's common sense and commonsense.
Isn't always that common.
Um, but, but, but really thethings that people are asking
for or want, uh, uh, are quite,um, pragmatic.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, okay.
Rob, look, we're gonna have towrap out quite soon, but I, I
wanted to ask you if, if therewere sort of three bits of
advice that you would give to CXexecutives who are seeking to
get ahead here, um, what wouldit be?
What do they need to be focusedon in order to generate a better
customer experience?
Speaker 4 (31:20):
The, the first thing is really, and it's about the
applying the gravity that theyneed to, to, to customer
experience people who view CXas, as a value creation element,
that's fundamental to thestrategy of their organization
and the success of theirorganization will be successful,
(31:43):
um, with their customers, um, interms of growth retention, um,
repeat business.
So that that's clear.
And that's, that's some of thethings that people should look
at on evidence on the report andorganizations who are leading
are doing that.
So get a strategy that'seffective and, and commonly
understood and execute on andwell rounded.
(32:05):
So that's, that's kinda numberone, um, connect, think about
the, the connection between thecustomer and the employee and
what you need to do, what thatlooks like and what you need to
do to enable that effectively.
Um, and that, I think that'sfundamental operate have now
(32:25):
changed forever there'sorganizations like national
Australia, buying HSBC here inthe UK.
Many others in around the worldhave said, we are not returning
to our previous operating model.
We're not going back on mass to,to, to, to the, to the office.
So that operating model haschanged.
And there's many benefits tothat.
(32:46):
It'll probably be more hybrid,um, but make it work and, and,
but, but make it work on a valuebasis rather than a, a logistics
facilitation.
And the third other thing, whichis cool, um, is we, we talk
about hyper automation.
Um, and our, when we think aboutthat really, really simply put,
(33:11):
we're saying that automation Iis absolutely here.
It's been here for many, manyyears.
It's not a new thing in terms of, um, self-service and all
automating things.
But what we are saying is, is doit well, the, the, the alter is
the customer experience in termsof the, the level and in terms
(33:33):
of how it's done things like RPAand things on, on their own pass
se.
Um, but if we can combinedifferent technologies, um, you
know, we're seeing big evidencethroughout the report that AI is
applied as a, as a, and peoplehave a mindset around growth
around that.
So let's, let's, let's gatherthe information that is out
(33:55):
there around the customer,whether it's in their
interaction or the, the historyand all of those, their intent
let's mobilize that use thatapply artificial intelligence,
make that, make that, um,available to help resolve
personalize, but bring togetherthe organization, the might of
(34:16):
the organization on behalf ofthe customer, um, using
automation in an, a greatintelligent fashion.
Um, and I think that that's thekey thing is, is making sure
that we automate intelligently,um, on behalf of the customer,
as opposed to on behalf of theorganization.
(34:36):
So strategy CX as a valuecreator, create that to link
between the, the customer andthe employee and automate, um,
effectively on behalf of thecustomer, not the organization.
And, and you'll get the resultsthat the organization wants.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
You make it sound so simple.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
And
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Rob, that was, that was fascinating.
Um, so, so look, before we wrapup, um, how can people, well, I
will, by the way, put in the, uh, the podcast notes links to the
report, but for those who arelisted, just want to go straight
to, um, to a search engine andfind it, where can they, um, get
(35:21):
hold of copies of the report?
Speaker 4 (35:24):
So the, the report is free.
It's, it's a gift to theindustry.
It's the first time we've, we'vedone that it's available.
Um, and, um, it's, it isavailable on the, the NTT
website under CX benchmarking.
Um, and we we'll create all thelinks that people can get it
(35:45):
directly from, from this, um,podcast as well.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Great, Rob, thank you so much for your time, mate.
Really appreciate it.
Great to see you looking fit andwell, I hope the, uh, the
English winter doesn't treat youto too badly.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
Well, certainly on the way it's here.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Good stuff.
Okay.
We'll uh, hopefully catch upagain.
I'd like to catch up with youagain next year and do the same
thing.
See how things have moved on.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
Absolutely.
And, and lovely.
See, thank you for theopportunity.
Thanks, Paul.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Cheer.
Not at all.
Thank you very much, indeed.
Well, cheers.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Hope you enjoyed today's episode.
Please feel free to check us outon our website, digital
village.network for our pastepisodes.
We'll be back next month, but onthe last Wednesday of every
month, as we are with more greatstories and guests see you, then
.
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