Organisations with greater CX maturity are seeing their ability to demonstrate returns put them in a stronger position to invest, at a time when digital experiences are making the difference in winning customers’ business.
The pandemic has reshaped the world of work, company culture, consumer expectations, innovation and strategic thinking. What it means to deliver outstanding customer experience (CX) is now fundamentally different from anything marketers have had to navigate before. CX maturity, gained by embedding it throughout organisational strategy over a number of years, is proving an advantage to brands in today’s context.
“We have to recognise that the pandemic [has compressed] 10 years of digital acceleration into one,” warned BMW’s UK group marketing director Michelle Roberts, speaking at June’s Festival of Marketing, where the first day’s agenda was given over to exploring best practice in digital customer experience under the banner of the DX Summit 2021, in partnership with Zone and Cognizant Digital Experience.
“Anyone can have a sale. We wanted our customers to know that ours was the biggest and the best. The campaign made that happen.”
Jamie Hewett, B&Q
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Remote working has led to greater reliance on technology platforms
Why brands that put customer experience first are now reaping the benefits
CX50 — 2021
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“There are opportunities but one of the challenges brands now have is keeping up with that pace. Levels of customer expectation have had a monumental shift over the last 18 months and our challenge is now to meet or exceed those expectations,” Roberts added.
Digital sophistication is already here
Consumers’ expectations of digital experiences today might even be ahead of where marketers believe they are. “Part of the conversation that is being missed is around the complexity that customers are willing to undertake online. [During the pandemic] medical appointments and diagnostics that are traditionally offline – customers have had to run the gauntlet of those online,” revealed Mark Evans, managing director of marketing and digital at Direct Line Group, speaking during another session at the DX Summit.
“We’re only limited by our pre-Covid beliefs about what’s possible. [Insurance] claims are a complex, sequential process but we’ve seen more customers willing to go through it. Expect more complicated journeys to take place online.”
Alongside Roberts, Evans is one of the 50 named on this year’s CX50 list of the UK’s top CX professionals. Compiled by Marketing Week alongside Zone and Cognizant Digital Experience, the list was revealed at the DX Summit.
Evans’ insurance example is a helpful one because it shows just how transformative delivering great customer experiences online can be. Roy Capon, CEO of Zone, explained at the DX Summit: “It’s about looking at pain points and how you fix them. The classic moment is when you go for your first claim. Historically it’s been about phone calls and a protracted experience. But it can be easy and straightforward. You can model how fixing the pain point has an impact on customer lifetime value, retention and loyalty.“
Roberts expressed similar sentiments: “We know that customers absolutely want to have the choice between on- and offline experiences, but they want them to be humanised. We know they’re happy for those experiences to be transactional – straightforward, seamless, done. But it looks different for every customer. The only way you can do that as a brand is to see CX through the customer’s eyes.”
Adopting the customer’s perspective
Naturally, customer understanding was a constant theme across the DX Summit. Cheryl Calverley, CEO at Eve Sleep – another CX50 2021 inductee – is looking at all the brand's cusromer data. “For some, speed is important, for others it’s aftercare. The first question we ask ourselves is what matters to our customers. We look at ecommerce metrics such as availability to purchase and accuracy of deliveries – the really practical stuff. Then the perception – NPS or reviews – that has a strong commercial impact.”
Her fellow CX50 member Carly O’Brien, CMO of Very Group, agreed. “We use a range of metrics – retention, customer lifetime value – and all the digital touchpoints are critical. Everyone in our business is really targeted on relationship NPS. It really helps us get under the skin of the critical drivers – next-day delivery comes out loud and clear as important, so it makes sure we’re focused on protecting that.”
Direct Line’s Evans concurred that, even though NPS can be seen as less scientific than, say, sales figures (Calverley, too stated it’s “a bit blunt”), it is nevertheless a commercial driver.
“We did an exercise looking at NPS and correlating it to retention, which is a really big deal in the insurance business model,” he continued. “We got to the notion that ‘customer equals commercial’. It reminded us of the commercial imperative to be customer-oriented.”
The data is important and, at a time when there’s more of it than ever, it would be foolish to ignore such a useful tool. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only source of insight and confirmation. Marketers need to draw on their skills too.
“Data can give you a sense of false accuracy,” Calverley warned. “Actually, 85% accurate is enough. It’s important to know when to stop the chase. All voices have to be synthesised from across the organisation and the group has to agree on a narrative. Synthesising it though human conversation is quicker than trying to find a single piece of data. Use your gut,” she added.
‘Customer equals commercial’
“The relationship between customer satisfaction and commercial success is never going to be linear,“ O’Brien admitted, “but there are lots of ways the connection can be drawn meaningfully. A customer who has had a great experience is prepared to give a really good [NPS] score and that’s a really good indicator of your ability to convert. It also means that [colleagues are] open to the conversation [about CX's impact].”
Calverley’s position at Eve, having moved from CMO to CEO, perhaps gives her special insight into this cultural shift. “Customer satisfaction is felt very keenly by the CEO because that’s who upset customers email. It makes sure it’s high up the priority list. Bridging that to metrics is the challenge, from qualitative to quantitative, and being able to show those metrics in a consistent way and how they connect to revenue.”
Leadership’s role is important if customer experience’s place as a measure of financial success is to be recognised. There is no doubt that it has to be embraced as a strategy at every level of the business, not least because every member of staff has a direct role in delivering experiences to the customer, one way or another.
“Two years ago, we put our staff through a ‘best for customer’ training programme so we could recalibrate around what the premium experience looks like and how they can shift the dial. Within my team, I’ve set up individuals who you could argue are customer journey managers; they look at the product from end to end and [expose] the things we need to innovate around,” Roberts explained.
Evans added that staff incentivisation based on CX is vital to really cement its importance across the business. “Every employee that receives a bonus, a core component of it is the customer measures we have and that’s makes sure everyone is incentivised. It’s particularly important on longer-term investments [in CX, where the business] won’t see the short-term gains but, overall, it’s the right thing to do.”
There is no neat solution to building a successful CX strategy. There is no beginning, middle and end. But it’s definitely one that is worth taking on, said Evans.
“The job is never done because it’s easy to slip back into a product or P&L orientation. The more complicated the product, the higher the margin, the more you have to fight the tide. It’s a long game to play, but in doing the right thing for the customer it will pay back.” ■
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Highlights from across the DX Summit sessions
Highlights from across the DX Summit sessions