Improving Customer Experiences Starts Within

Transformation programs are never easy, including transforming a services organization to provide better customer experiences. Firstly transformation starts from the top more importantly on how an organization is judged. In the most traditional sense and organization is seen through its Profits and Loss, however a big contributor to that that is long ignored is customer experiences. A good customer service is one thing, a pleasurable and consistent customer experience is another. Transformation always have a high cost attached to it and most organizations are afraid of change. Having said that what if the benefits completely outweigh the cost and all troubles for doing so? In the case of delivering a good and consistent customer experience the benefit is much higher than the total cost and troubles by a factor of a hundred.

Looking at organizations that perform  very well, one thing that differentiates them is that they provide a very good customer service and a positive customer experience. The other thing that differentiates them is that they executives are fully committed to customer experiences that their bonuses are tied to how customers feel about their services.

Now how do we take the same improvements we do for a services organization and apply that to a product organization? Can we take the same principles and apply them to product based company?

CEM Asia... the conference proper

I am attending the CEM Asia which was kick started by Dr. Brendan French introducing speakers during the event.  Andrew Sidwell of DBS improvement team talked about putting people first. The DBS journey started in 2010 changing the culture of 18000 people to focus on customer value.  The journey is expected to be completed in 2020 that will put DBS in the forefront of customer centricity evolving from a product centric organization with the objective of being the Asian bank of choice for the new Asia. The keys of their improvement program are the Big 6, Process, Sponsor and Skill sets.

Michel Mucci presented an eBay case study on how to leverage Social Media to enhance customer experience. He highlighted the importance of moving from traditional to social customer experiences embracing 1 to many and as a company have a purpose why use social media. And to suceed with a social media strategy companies should  consider people, process and technology.

Michael Van Woudenberg of Oracle talks about focusing on customer journey and life cycle to drive better customer experiences. The strategy on customer experience are influenced by the movement of consumers to mobile and social while at the same time wanting consistent experiences on various channels.

Dr. Brendan French presented  a case study from last to best bank in Australia through customer surveys using CSI. He presented the importance of executive ownership, singularity,  service recovery, re branding, leadership focus as the key factors in taking the  Commonwealth Bank of Australia to be the best bank in Australia in its 101st year of existence.

Categorizing customers is the key for Dubai airport on embarking on a customer centric transformation.  Having no ownership of its customers have the challenge to have a common denominator and not individual brands.

Louise Long talked about delivering consistency across multiple channels.  Their Cx program is driven all the way from the CEO. Brand management is all about what it does not what it says, the brand is defined by the customer experience. The experience is all about architecture and design.

Air France, The Airline that always say NO.

I travel a lot and with that a lot of flights every week. I have good experiences and bad experiences. Good experiences primarily on Asian airlines where the service is superb. In the past I never like flying Air France since their service is really bad, both ground and air. On the flight to Singapore I had to take Air France since its half the price of flying with Singapore Air. Although I should have known that price is directly proportional to price when it comes to Air France.

Transiting via Paris Charles De Gaulle airport was OK, no queues late at night, although the entire airport smells of new wood and new carpets, a smell so bad it gives you headache. My horror did not stop there. In most airlines I sample their customer service by throwing random questions. So I went to the lounge and inquire about changing my seat, and the lounge attendants best answer was go to the gate I have a colleague there, even with Platinum membership on my frequent flyer there was no service. That is something that never happens if you take any Star Alliance flight, where the lounge personnel will be more than happy to assist you change your seat.

So I went to the gate, approached a grumpy looking attendant who can only muster the words the flight is full, no seat on economy, no seat in business, no seat for you. I implored that he might be able to do something or upgrade me an I pay for it, but to do avail, no Platinum status in their frequent flyer program can help either. Not even offering to put me in a queue if another seat vacates…

Inflight services was horrible. When asking for coffee during the morning meal services the stewardess said  no for no valid reason twice. It also took several tries to get a cup of coffee.

 This is simply the one of the worse customer service I have seen… and very typical of Air France. The return flight from Singapore will be the last time I will ever fly Air France again out of my own choice.. Sorry Air France but you lose one frequent flyer and many more will stop flying with you on this kind of customer service. Perhaps it will help for their customer service managers to attend some good CEM Seminars… or Perhaps they should fly Singapore airlines once in a while to experience good customer service.