#126 Transforming Customer Experience with Vaishali Dialani

“Academics and experience should go hand in hand for better experience : when you can feel, you can bring that feeling for that customer, and empathise much better.”

A fun conversation with Vaishali as we explore the intersection of technology and human experience through a customer experience and collective intelligence lens. We discuss how to create meaningful customer experiences, by integrating emotions into CX using design thinking, and other tools to help forge deeper connections with customers. 

We explore the necessity to design tailored customer experiences through introspection, curiosity and empathy, and the importance of having diverse personas and perspectives to build relevant and inclusive experiences to adapt to the relevant business needs and goals. The foundations of self awareness and the power of visualisation are key to cultivating adaptability which is essential, and focuses primarily on understanding internal systems to manage external factors and experiences effectively.

The value of collective intelligence and emotional connections in enhancing customer and employee experiences is a main pillar of our discussion. How can we intentionally create forums for support, care and learning to navigate & visualise challenges together, maintain neutrality, share perspectives and manage self-criticism for effective design & communication. Engaging with professional networks provides encouragement and reinforces growth & transformation in CX processes, methods and results

Vaishali shares her insights from her book CX5, her journey and her experience as she highlights the significance of emotions in customer experience desig and the importance of authenticity and empathy in understanding customer emotions.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

-      Career began at a startup early in life, with the opportunity to embrace chaos, build resilience and learn everything - subsequently combining academic study with hands-on experience resulted in excellent life/leadership skills. Found customer engagement attractive and after working on UX projects during COVID, moved into CX.

-      It is important to integrate emotions into CX and the world of technology and be authentic – if you can feel what the customer feels, this facilitates empathy and thus more alignment with the ever-evolving experience (of design).

-      It is good to mirror your design in the way you help clients as CX practitioners rarely have the opportunity to see the design first-hand in practice and the emotional validation is not face-to-face.

-      To intentionally design DX, EX, CX, etc. requires tweaking the frameworks to suit both the people, the project and the business goals. The starting point is to sit with yourself, think it through and create/embody the persona(s), followed by a research/discovery phase to be curious and ask the right questions.

-      The conscious inclusion required for CX means catering for all audiences by putting yourself in others’ shoes, and 360-degree thinking starts with knowing yourself. Consider the aim of the project and create a hierarchy based on business objectives.

-      Set the right course by building a structure for your own thought processes so as to be able to design well; mix and match possibilities (for quick wins); be adaptable; and juggle the different yet equally weighted CX disciplines.  

-      We must stay neutral in ourselves and for operationalisation - when constantly designing, the default thought process is to refer back to previous projects, but this limits capacity for creative thinking. A clean slate is required to be able to leave our comfort zone for the benefit of customers.

-      Visualising things outside of our heads is important as we tend to overthink; this can help us translate our thoughts into tangible concepts for stakeholders. We must then ask stakeholders for their requirements/feedback to create an aligned vision for the CX.

-      Support from other CX professionals is vital: it relieves pressure to share the burden and offers reassurance to hear from others in a similar position - community gives a feeling of hope to create something that is both bigger and of value.

-      CX involves many silent battles that require self-discipline and decisiveness from the designer. We must have the courage to take the first step and be ourselves – the noise around CX can be overwhelming, but the difference is you.

Find out more about Vaishali here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishalidialani/