IT's leading role in customer experience

Stalley cited Zurich Insurance in Europe, which realised that great customer experience actually results in a far better financial outcome for the business.

The company took steps to measure and adjust the customer-facing activities of various teams in the marketplace to lift their financial performance. 

Since then, many organisations have recognised that profitable and happy clients are the sweet spot of longevity in the market, and focusing on these dimensions helps companies outperform those that don’t. 

Embracing a customer-centric approach

For many in IT, this may sound like marketing mumbo jumbo. How can IT contribute to a customer experience program? 

“A good customer experience management program, which delivers actionable feedback at all levels, is really critical to sustaining focus,” Mendes said.

“This needs to be driven by a strong customer strategy which can identify and target initiatives and execute them within the business.

“However unless you embed customer centricity into the underlying culture of the organisation you won’t be able to ensure that the customer stays front of mind. These three elements become the foundation for sustained, customer centric action from all staff.”

IT teams are the best placed to role model this culture change. Our reactions to both internal and external customers need to reflect a customer-centric culture.

IT teams need to see things from the customer’s perspective ourselves. We have to understand what interactions really matter and what we do to support those efforts. 

What IT does in terms of providing people, process and technology are the fundamental components of any organisation - they just need to be arranged in a way that provides a great customer experience.

Sheedy pointed out that it is hard to deliver a great customer experience without ensuring a ‘good’ employee experience. Employees need to be enabled to deliver experiences that make sense to the customer with processes and technology aligned to support them.

Case study—Shanghai hot pot

Hai Di Lao is a chain of restaurants serving spicy hotpot soup. Its ethos is to ‘serve the people’, and this starts upon arrival when staff take and remember your name.

When no table is available, cheerful staff will provide you free drinks (wine and beer) as well as snacks. There is free wi-fi and board games to pass the time. Some locations even provide a shoe shine or manicure as a complimentary service.

Waiters are given discretion to provide clients extras such a fruit platter or dessert.

In the case of Hai Di Lao, each staff member lives in a free company apartment, is paid well and provided other services, such as a nanny service.

This translates into genuinely happy staff who deliver an incredible customer experience.

Looking from the outside in

This case study is a great example of looking at the dining experience from the shoes of the diner.

What does a diner want when they are waiting for a table? How can we delight the customer?

Build and deliver what the customer wants. If that means working with the regulator to change legislation then that's what needs to be done. The banking sector has demonstrated businesses who push the limits and push the regulations tend to be more successful.

That’s a powerful example and a lesson for every CIO and his IT team. How can we start to look at the world from the outside in and find ways to partner with the business to deliver what’s needed?

Good luck with the journey...