Decoding the Customer

Decoding the Customer

By Julia Ahlfeldt, Certified Customer Experience ProfessionalBusiness
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Decoding the Customer episodes

  • An honest and practical guide to customer experience: interview with Ian Golding – E08 - Decoding the Customer
    While the term CX was first coined in 1998, it’s only really taken off in the past 15 years. This is in large part thanks to the massive technical boom that fundamentally changed everything in the early 2000s. Many businesses born before this time now battle to stay relevant, while newcomers nip at their heels, taking their slice of pie from right under their noses. While certainly a cliché, the world of informed and connected consumers really did change how and why we do business today.

    My conversation with Ian Golding, author of the book “Customer What?” takes a deep dive into CX, highlighting how effective it can be for businesses that get it right, and how ineffective it can be for those who don’t.

    His book loosely tackles CX in four parts, each equal in importance and practice:

    * CX’s need to find a firm footing in the organisation to truly start any meaningful transformation
    * Understanding a business’s culture and finding effective ways to connect its people to a CX strategy is essential
    * Which are the right CX tools to use when inside the business and what can they yield
    * How are CX programmes sustained within an organisation, long after the strategy is defined

    Realizing customer-centric change
    It’s not easy. Especially when a business has yet to buy into having a CX strategy in the first place.

    Ian’s advice, and on-the-job observations, is that CX needs an advocate within the business, even if a formalized customer experience role has yet to exist. Often these customer advocates will forge the way for the creation of the centralized customer experience function within their organization. For those who are interested in customer experience, but don’t see a clear career path, Ian advises looking for opportunities to get involved and elevate the topic of customer experience from your current role.

    So how do CX practitioners (or avid customer advocates) make a meaningful argument to the C-Suite that focus on why customer experience is needed, especially when there is a strong demand from shareholders to perform: through the numbers! There is a strong case of the long-term benefit of a focus on customer experience, but CX initiatives bet on the “long game” of profit contribution through improved customer loyalty and retention. This isn’t something that happens overnight, CX efforts may not yield ROI within the short-term horizon of quarterly earnings cycles. To overcome this Ian suggests developing an engagement plan that allows leadership to understand the importance of dialogue and also articulate the message to shareholders that ultimately will benefit them (from the business) in the medium to long term.

    Ian considers Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as an excellent example. For years, Amazon didn’t make a profit because Bezos was obsessed with reinvesting everything Amazon did to improve the customer experience. His shareholders didn’t like him much at the start, in fact they hated him! But now they are reaping the benefit and will continue to do so in the long term. A major win for CX and a major win for Amazon.
    The growing CX community
    Besides these key take-aways on helping executives engage with shareholders, Ian and I also spoke about the role of the Customer experience Professionals’ Association (CXPA) as a unifying force within the growing CX community. Ian and I are both active members of the CXPA, and Ian spoke about how this member-run non-profit industry body is helping pave the pathway for the future of our profession.  The CXPA both regulates performance and best practice but also provides a community of sharing and learning. Watch this space.



    CX resources
    During our conversation, Ian and I discussed several resources for anyone who is interested in learning more about customer ...
    45 min
  • When a voice is the face of customer experience: interview with Marianthi Dickie – E07
    In today’s world, so many of our consumer interactions happen remotely. As banking, retail and other experiences have moved into the digital realm, their support functions have gradually transitioned out of the physical store or branch, and into the contact center. These changes mean that verbal interactions are playing a more important role in shaping consumer’s relationships with brands, and so we need to understand how verbal interactions influence the customer experience.

    When you interact with someone face-to-face, 80% of the communication is non-verbal, but what happens when you take away the in-person aspect? In this case, an employee’s voice becomes the “face” of the brand. Organizations need to craft each customer touchpoint for maximum impact, and if you only have a handful of human interactions along the journey – as is increasingly the case – they had better count.

    Within this context, verbal interactions are so much more than just a means to gather or relay information. They are a medium for connecting with consumers, setting the tone of the relationship, and differentiating the brand.

    In late 2017, I had the opportunity to interview Marianthi Dickie, the founder of Voiceworks. Marianthi has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Drama and Psychology from Rhodes University and an LTCL Speech & Drama Teacher’s Diploma from Trinity College London. She is passionate about changing the way we sound, by teaching people to use their most valuable communication tool… their voice.

    She believes in finding new ways to communicate through her dealings with a wide range of people and her extensive travel. While Marianthi is not a traditional customer experience specialist, her work contributes to an organization’s ability to deliver on brand promise, and as business leaders heighten their focus on customer experience, she has helped many brands enable their teams to improve the verbal communication aspect of the customer journey. Her areas of expertise encompass the teaching of voice techniques, presentation and communication skills to ensure exceptional outcomes in a professional and corporate environment.

    Marianthi Dickie, founder of Voiceworks

     

    Decoding the Customer is a customer experience podcast created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is an author, speaker and business advisor. She is one of Southern Africa’s foremost experts in Customer Experience Management. For more information about Julia’s services, click here. To hear other episodes of Decoding the Customer, click here.

    25 min
  • When a voice is the face of customer experience: interview with Marianthi Dickie – E07
    In today’s world, so many of our consumer interactions happen remotely. As banking, retail and other experiences have moved into the digital realm, their support functions have gradually transitioned out of the physical store or branch, and into the contact center. These changes mean that verbal interactions are playing a more important role in shaping consumer’s relationships with brands, and so we need to understand how verbal interactions influence the customer experience.

    When you interact with someone face-to-face, 80% of the communication is non-verbal, but what happens when you take away the in-person aspect? In this case, an employee’s voice becomes the “face” of the brand. Organizations need to craft each customer touchpoint for maximum impact, and if you only have a handful of human interactions along the journey – as is increasingly the case – they had better count.

    Within this context, verbal interactions are so much more than just a means to gather or relay information. They are a medium for connecting with consumers, setting the tone of the relationship, and differentiating the brand.

    In late 2017, I had the opportunity to interview Marianthi Dickie, the founder of Voiceworks. Marianthi has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Drama and Psychology from Rhodes University and an LTCL Speech & Drama Teacher’s Diploma from Trinity College London. She is passionate about changing the way we sound, by teaching people to use their most valuable communication tool… their voice.

    She believes in finding new ways to communicate through her dealings with a wide range of people and her extensive travel. While Marianthi is not a traditional customer experience specialist, her work contributes to an organization’s ability to deliver on brand promise, and as business leaders heighten their focus on customer experience, she has helped many brands enable their teams to improve the verbal communication aspect of the customer journey. Her areas of expertise encompass the teaching of voice techniques, presentation and communication skills to ensure exceptional outcomes in a professional and corporate environment.

    Marianthi Dickie, founder of Voiceworks

     

    Decoding the Customer is a customer experience podcast created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is an author, speaker and business advisor. She is one of Southern Africa's foremost experts in Customer Experience Management. For more information about Julia's services, click here. To hear other episodes of Decoding the Customer, click here.
    25 min
  • When a voice is the face of customer experience: interview with Marianthi Dickie – E07 - Decoding the Customer
    In today’s world, so many of our consumer interactions happen remotely. As banking, retail and other experiences have moved into the digital realm, their support functions have gradually transitioned out of the physical store or branch, and into the contact center. These changes mean that verbal interactions are playing a more important role in shaping consumer’s relationships with brands, and so we need to understand how verbal interactions influence the customer journey.

    When you interact with someone face-to-face, 80% of the communication is non-verbal, but what happens when you take away the in-person aspect? In this case, an employee’s voice becomes the “face” of the brand. Organizations need to craft each customer touchpoint for maximum impact, and if you only have a handful of human interactions along the journey – as is increasingly the case – they had better count.

    Within this context, verbal interactions are so much more than just a means to gather or relay information. They are a medium for connecting with consumers, setting the tone of the relationship, and differentiating the brand.

    In late 2017, I had the opportunity to interview Marianthi Dickie, the founder of Voiceworks. Marianthi has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Drama and Psychology from Rhodes University and an LTCL Speech & Drama Teacher’s Diploma from Trinity College London. She is passionate about changing the way we sound, by teaching people to use their most valuable communication tool… their voice.

    She believes in finding new ways to communicate through her dealings with a wide range of people and her extensive travel. While Marianthi is not a traditional customer experience specialist, her work contributes to an organization’s ability to deliver on brand promise, and as business leaders heighten their focus on customer experience, she has helped many brands enable their teams to improve the verbal communication aspect of the customer journey. Her areas of expertise encompass the teaching of voice techniques, presentation and communication skills to ensure exceptional outcomes in a professional and corporate environment.

    25 min
  • Solving 99 customer problems: interview with Multichoice SA – E06
    This episode of Decoding the Customer explores how Multichoice, Africa’s largest satellite TV provider, ignited CX transformation through customer-centric culture change. It started when their CX team brought in several angry customers to give the executives a reality check, and then culminated with a campaign to rally the entire organization around 99 customer journey problems that just needed to be fixed.

    Catching up with Landile and Clint at the Multichoice head office in JohannesburgIn our interview, Clint Payne and Landile Chauke, from the Multichoice CX team share insights from their efforts to engage employees, elevate the voice of the customer, and drive customer-centric change across the business. Multichoice’s innovative approach led to them win recognition in several categories at the inaugural CX Africa Awards, in 2017.

    There is no denying that the field of customer experience management has deeper roots and a larger presence in developed economies such as the US and Europe, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t inspiring work happening in other regions. As a judge for the 2017 the CX Africa Awards, and I was personally impressed by the caliber of work underway at companies in Africa. Hopefully this episode provides an opportunity to highlight and share some of the excellent CX work underway in developing markets.

    99 problems were no match for Multichoice employees. They rallied around a common goal to eliminate the most common customer journey pain points


    Executive support was key to the team’s success. Landile shows one of the CEO’s hand written thank you notes given to each employee who solved one of the 99 problems

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Decoding the Customer is a customer experience podcast created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is an author, speaker and business advisor. She is one of Southern Africa’s foremost experts in Customer Experience Management. For more information about Julia’s services, click here. To hear other episodes of Decoding the Customer, click here.

     

     

    43 min
  • Solving 99 customer problems: interview with Multichoice SA – E06
    This episode of Decoding the Customer explores how Multichoice, Africa’s largest satellite TV provider, ignited CX transformation through customer-centric culture change. It started when their CX team brought in several angry customers to give the executives a reality check, and then culminated with a campaign to rally the entire organization around 99 customer journey problems that just needed to be fixed.



    In our interview, Clint Payne and Landile Chauke, from the Multichoice CX team share insights from their efforts to engage employees, elevate the voice of the customer, and drive customer-centric change across the business. Multichoice’s innovative approach led to them win recognition in several categories at the inaugural CX Africa Awards, in 2017.

    There is no denying that the field of customer experience management has deeper roots and a larger presence in developed economies such as the US and Europe, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t inspiring work happening in other regions. As a judge for the 2017 the CX Africa Awards, and I was personally impressed by the caliber of work underway at companies in Africa. Hopefully this episode provides an opportunity to highlight and share some of the excellent CX work underway in developing markets.





     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Decoding the Customer is a customer experience podcast created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is an author, speaker and business advisor. She is one of Southern Africa's foremost experts in Customer Experience Management. For more information about Julia's services, click here. To hear other episodes of Decoding the Customer, click here.

     

     

     
    43 min
  • Solving 99 customer problems: interview with Multichoice SA – E06 - Decoding the Customer


     

    This episode of Decoding the Customer explores how Multichoice, Africa’s largest satellite TV provider, ignited CX transformation. It started when their CX team brought in several angry customers to give the executives a reality check, and then culminated with a campaign to rally the entire organization around 99 customer journey problems that just needed to be fixed.

    In our interview, Clint Payne and Landile Chauke, from the Multichoice CX team share insights from their efforts to engage employees, elevate the voice of the customer, and drive customer-centric change across the business. Multichoice’s innovative approach led to them win recognition in several categories at the inaugural CX Africa Awards, in 2017.

    There is no denying that the field of customer experience management has deeper roots and a larger presence in developed economies such as the US and Europe, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t inspiring work happening in other regions. As a judge for the 2017 the CX Africa Awards, and I was personally impressed by the caliber of work underway at companies in Africa. Hopefully this episode provides an opportunity to highlight and share some of the excellent CX work underway in developing markets.





     
    43 min
  • The role of compassion in customer experience: interview with Laura Jack – E05
     Understanding the perspectives of others and making decisions within this context is the foundation good customer experience. Customer compassion is key to developing engaging customer experiences, and rallying teams around a common customer-centric goal. Laura Jack is an expert on the topic of compassion, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with her about how embracing and enabling compassion can improve CX.

    Laura Jack is a counselor, coach and author of the bestselling book, The Compassion Code. Laura is also a close friend, and during a recent visit to the US, we were catching up about life and our jobs. Laura was telling me about her work helping people understand and relate kindly to others, when we realized that our careers had an interesting and unexpected common vein.  A few weeks later we recorded an interview via Skype for the podcast.

    Laura kicks off our podcast conversation by sharing how compassion has become an area of heightened interest, the definitions of sympathy/empathy/compassion, why they are different, and the role of compassion in customer experiences. Later in the episode, discuss the importance of compassion in the workplace, how managers of frontline teams can mitigate “empathy fatigue”, and finally, how to teach back office employees to relate to a customer they may never meet in person.

    To find out more about Laura’s work, please visit her website. You’ll find information about her services, as well as her contact information. The Compassion Code is an excellent read. It’s available in print in the US, or globally as an e-book.

    Laura visits South Africa in 2014 (no, that rainbow isn’t photo-shopped!)


    Laura’s book

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Decoding the Customer is a customer experience podcast created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is one of Southern Africa’s foremost experts in Customer Experience Management. For more information about how Julia can help your business thrive in The Age of the Customer, click here. To hear other episodes of her podcast, click here.

    34 min
  • The role of compassion in customer experience: interview with Laura Jack – E05
    Understanding the perspectives of others and making decisions within this context is the foundation good customer experience. Customer compassion is key to developing engaging customer experiences, and rallying teams around a common customer-centric goal. Laura Jack is an expert on the topic of compassion, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with her about how embracing and enabling compassion can improve CX.

    Laura Jack is a counselor, coach and author of the bestselling book, The Compassion Code. Laura is also a close friend, and during a recent visit to the US, we were catching up about life and our jobs. Laura was telling me about her work helping people understand and relate kindly to others, when we realized that our careers had an interesting and unexpected common vein.  A few weeks later we recorded an interview via Skype for the podcast.



    Laura kicks off our podcast conversation by sharing how compassion has become an area of heightened interest, the definitions of sympathy/empathy/compassion, why they are different, and the role of compassion in customer experiences. Later in the episode, discuss the importance of compassion in the workplace, how managers of frontline teams can mitigate “empathy fatigue”, and finally, how to teach back office employees to relate to a customer they may never meet in person.

    To find out more about Laura’s work, please visit her website. You’ll find information about her services, as well as her contact information. The Compassion Code is an excellent read. It’s available in print in the US, or globally as an e-book.





     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Decoding the Customer is a customer experience podcast created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is one of Southern Africa's foremost experts in Customer Experience Management. For more information about how Julia can help your business thrive in The Age of the Customer, click here. To hear other episodes of her podcast, click here.
    34 min
  • The role of compassion in customer experience: interview with Laura Jack – E05 - Decoding the Customer
    Laura Jack is a counselor, coach and author of the bestselling book, The Compassion Code. Laura is also a close friend, and during a recent visit to the US, we were catching up about life and our jobs. Laura was telling me about her work helping people understand and relate kindly to others, when we realized that our careers had an interesting and unexpected common vein.  A few weeks later we recorded an interview via Skype.

    Understanding the perspectives of other and making decisions within this context is the foundation good customer experience. Laura is an expert on this topic, so it was great to hear her insights on how embracing and enabling compassion can improve CX.



    Laura kicks off our podcast conversation by sharing how compassion has become an area of heightened interest, the definitions of sympathy/empathy/compassion, why they are different, and the role of compassion in customer experiences. Later in the episode, discuss the importance of compassion in the workplace, how managers of frontline teams can mitigate “empathy fatigue”, and finally, how to teach back office employees to relate to a customer they may never meet in person.

    To find out more about Laura’s work, please visit her website. You’ll find information about her services, as well as her contact information. The Compassion Code is an excellent read. It’s available in print in the US, or globally as an e-book.





     

     
    34 min

About Decoding the Customer

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Interviews and perspectives from global customer experience experts