The Age of the Customer Some insight from Australia September 2013 Sue O Gorman IS Service Management Manager Auckland Council
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYMPOSIUM SYDNEY, MARCH 2013 Private & Public Sector organisations Banking (ANZ, NAB, BNZ, I & G Direct) Retail (Zappos USA) Health (BUPA, Medibank) Energy (Red Energy) Insurance (A & G) Travel (Expedia, Virgin Australia) Local Government (Power & Water, Hobson Bay)
Public or Private we are all on the same journey The issues and way forward have a lot of similarity What is important to our customers Do we understand our customers Cost to Serve vs Customer Experience Customer effort Clarity around what business are we in Transaction based vs Customer Experience Engaged staff = Happy customers
A thing of the past
The Age of the Customer We have moved from the Age of Technology, through the Age of Information and now into the Age of the Customer (Forrester) The customer is now driving - they choose how and when Customer Experience (CEx) is a huge focus in business today The Chief CEx Officer has appeared
The Age of the Customer Those that master the customer data flow and improve frontline customer staff will have the edge. They need to invest in four priority areas: real-time customer intelligence customer experience and customer service; sales channels that deliver customer intelligence useful content and interactive marketing
Big Data the next big trend
Big Data In Vogue The three V s High in Volume, High in Velocity and High in Variety Maturity of CEx relates to how well you are using your insights What do we need to change to meet needs Here s a whole lot of products who do we target vs Here s the customer what products do they want
Customer Effort Customer Effort outperforms the Net Promoter Score and Customer Satisfaction How easy was it for you to interact with us today? really simple question/answer Less is more Sorry for giving you such a complex interaction we didn t have time to craft a simpler one
Understanding the Customer Customer Experience is made up of Rational Elements if your competitors aren t delivering on this yes you could differentiate but if they are succeeding then no Emotional Elements if the brand can solve your problem then you have some emotional investment surprise/delight emotional What are the opportunities to empathise with your customer to make an emotional connection
Engaged Staff Happy Customers A common theme throughout the conference Companies realising that they need to develop and embed their values, recruit the right people and invest in their people People empowered people engaged customers happy
BNZ End to end customers original thought through to how they feel at the end Journey Mapping Delved into emotional response of customers previous PIP s had not shown or highlighted this Were using Kaizen for process improvement and this was customer focused but saw the journey mapping as an added layer real end to end
Expedia Limited loyalty in online travel industry price talks Need to look at customer value proposition differentiation why do people use Expedia what will make them come back The Brand Promise Makers (Marketing Department) The Brand Promise Keepers (Deliverers) often a disconnect need to ensure that Promise = Delivery Goal or mission to make every interaction easy and relevant and deliver experiences that customer s feel compelled to share Tend to focus on the transaction but want to be involved in the end to end e.g. the travel dream to the trip to the return from the trip
Zappos Service company with a key to live by the core values and have the right team Everyone at Zappos is in Customer Services and they treat each other like customers New recruits have a 4 week induction/trial at the end of this they are offered $2K to leave (very little take up) Hire slowly, fire quickly WOW factor don t have it? Assist them finding it elsewhere
Zappos Phone number is on every web or catalogue page on top left No call times the telephone is one of the best branding devices available PEC Personal Emotional Connection they are measured on this Story worthy experiences Staff empowered to send flowers to people e.g. they pick up that the person has had a loss in the family Phone is considered #1 Customers come back, order more often and order more
Red Energy Built in 6 months - High growth 20% YOY Don t compete on price value based approach for customers Agile and thinking quickly to be ahead of the game gives them the differential No innovation department innovation is in everyone About learning value chain end to end move people across the company instead of up Recruit to competencies not skill sets Red Values Decency, Agility, Ownership, Courage
BUPA 11M customers in 190 countries Make it Easy Make it Personal Make it Different Leverage the power of customer stories Customer listening programme all senior leaders in the organisation spend time in the contact centre, in the retail outlets or listening to recordings of customer interactions Customer Day in strategic planning bring in customers and/or specialists Mannequin in the Boardroom representing the customer always there, always visible
The End We want our customers to love us not to hate us a little less (OPTUS) QUESTIONS?