Are your SLAs & KPIs measuring customer-valued outcomes?

Only the foolish would dispute the value of data in the modern customer experience. The challenge we face is that whilst we are data-rich, the ability to achieve our business goals is clouded by the amount of data available.  The solution is to create metrics that drive desired customer outcomes to meet business goals.  In…

A different way to start your data strategy

Given the value of data to any organisation, you’d think we’d no longer need to prove how important it is, especially in the world of SaaS businesses.  But getting data, linking it together then using it effectively is still a really, really hard thing to do.  When a head of engineering asks me what data…

Chatbots & AI – can they replace humans in the customer experience?

With the evolution of technology, and the great leaps forward in Artificial Intelligence (AI), there’s been a lot of progress from the early days of clunky chatbots.  In fact, there are some seriously sophisticated models starting to appear on the market that might suggest a real opportunity to cut cost and complexity by removing human…

What are you doing about the customer success gap?

This post is neither a sales pitch for my services, nor a rant about the gaps in customer success – but it is a wake up call to many business who are currently facing a customer success gap. I’ve had many conversations with businesses big and small, across a number of countries in Europe and…

Is B2B customer experience delivery different to B2C?

I attended a meet-up group recently where informal discussions fell on the difference between building an operation to support B2B versus B2C.  The group seemed quite divided – some suggesting that the difference was considerable, whilst others suggested that the differences (for operational purposes) are most cosmetic.  I heard lots of interesting view points, so…

Are your customers “Happy or Not?”

I recently read an article on the amazing company called “Happy or Not”. (You can read the article on the BBC website here.)  The founders, Heikki Vaananen and Ville Levaniemi dreamed up the idea based on Heikki’s horrible customer experiences in a local IT store as a teenager.  The fact that even at 15, he…

Can data show that 1 + 1 = 3?

Sat in a meeting with digital colleagues, our customer experience manager and our data scientist, as I listened to the conversation, as often happens, my mind began to wander.  Earlier in the day, I’d read a communication talking about who bringing two teams together is like 1 + 1 = 3.  It just sounded daft…

CX Quandary: Why are new habits so hard to form?

When I’m explaining what I mean by CX (customer experience), I explain that it’s WHAT a customer does / doesn’t do and HOW they feel when they are experiencing that product or service.  The business then supports a customer through this.  Customer service is all about ensuring that when a customer reaches out to you…

Is a personalised customer experience always necessary?

Anyone working in marketing, sales, customer service or customer success will be familiar with the modern mantra about making every experience delivered to client and customer must be personal.  Social media giants perpetuate this message, with Google, Facebook and Apple all extolling the virtues of a personal customer experience.  Many small business worry that they…

Why data is the lynchpin between the client and customer experience

Some work in organisations that deal solely with businesses – whether that is start-ups, SMEs or corporate and enterprise-sized businesses. The world of clients has the challenge of diverse relationships per account, complex business structures or multiple sites – B2B is a complex environment in which to deliver strong reactive and proactive service.  On the other hand,…