Remember the fundamentals, solve your customer’s problems and other essential insights
Last month, customer contact leaders from around the country gathered in sunny Orlando, Florida to attend Customer Experience 2024. This dynamic and highly interactive event was designed to examine key customer service trends and issues and to leave participants with actionable strategies to address them.
The agenda featured sessions on industry challenges such as linking the customer experience (and contact center) to financial goals and strategy; ensuring that every customer touchpoint throughout the organization is positive and on brand; and providing an employee experience that drives an outstanding customer experience.
Customer Experience 2024 opened with a Headliner presentation from Dora Boussias, Transformational Leader, Data & Analytics, entitled From Buzzwords to Brass Tacks: CX in the New Era of AI. Miya Gray, Vice President Customer Experience & Engagement at Pfizer, presented a CASE HISTORY – Validate to Innovate: CX Experimentation and Prototyping to Mitigate Risk and Drive ROI. Participants also enjoyed an ASK THE EXPERTS! Panel Discussion – Investing in Your Customer’s CX Priorities, as well as interactive collaboration zones, crowdsourcing “Fixes” and other inspiring sessions.
Recurring themes, ready for implementation
Encapsulating all the ideas, tactics and strategies discussed at the event can be challenging, as participants are exposed to a wealth of learnings. The event’s INSIGHTS AND IDEAS ROUNDUP session is designed to sum up the event’s most compelling and recurring themes. During this session, a cross section of customer experience leaders discussed and highlighted the ideas and insights that resonated most with them.
Here are their top 5 takeaways:
- Don’t forget the fundamentals! When trying to prioritize and plan projects, start with your organization’s vision and end goals and work backwards. This can help you focus and stay on strategy.
- Complexity is the enemy of execution. In an era of digital transformation, consider starting with a simple but important customer problem when leveraging new technologies. Cultivate small wins, then build from there. Don’t forget to go back to the problem statement and don’t make the solution too complex. Implement with an agile approach.
- If you’re standing still, you’re going backward. Today’s CX leaders are expected to deliver the kind of customer experience that drives financial performance. This might include testing new ideas, products and services and failing and learning along the way. The important thing is to keep moving forward, keeping strategy top of mind while creating better experiences for customers.
- Make sure you know what problem you are solving or designing for. Is it a customer problem? Customer-focused problems should take precedence over internally driven projects lists or agendas. If you’re not already, get acquainted with the UX and UI teams in your organization – they can help you understand your customers and create better customer experiences.
- Don’t lose sight of the human component. Don’t let the human aspect get lost in all the data and technology. There may be lots of shiny new products and AI capabilities in your world now, but human oversight is still critical and is not replaceable.
Other key insights:
For ultimate customer satisfaction, get the employee experience right first! The return on investment when investing in employees far outweighs the monetary cost.
AI capabilities can help your employees. Many companies are piloting new AI driven knowledge features and agent reminders. Clearly defining and testing applications is key, as is keeping humans in the mix.
Have a plan B. Be prepared for upheaval and big changes that can come with natural disasters and other crises. Having a recovery plan can spell the difference between survival and long-term repercussions for many an organization. Remember to keep customer needs top of mind and be ready to pivot if necessary.
Finally, participants were encouraged to ask themselves: What is one simple but important thing I can do immediately and not put off? One thought leader created a TEAMS chat in the moment for the purpose of keeping key employees connected and ready to brainstorm solutions to thorny customer issues. The essential takeaway: Don’t wait to take action.
If you’re looking for more customer contact insights and strategies from speakers on the leading edge of customer service, don’t miss the 20th Anniversary Customer Contact West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange, taking place October 20-23rd in Tucson, Arizona. It’s a great way to access ideas and strategies to help you unleash new technologies, adapt to change and power up your effectiveness as a CX leader!
