Business Transformation Pitch with The CX Goalkeeper

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Nick Glimsdahl Nick Glimsdahl is director Contact Center Solutions at VDS and host of the podcast Press 1 For Nick My learnings: Be purposeful with your time. Podcasts add value for prospects, customers and for the host. It is a way to add value by having fun and serving listeners Nick mentioned some episode which stand out based on our flow: Episode 23 with Jesse Cole – Owner of Savanah Bananas. He found out that he we not in baseball business but in delivering experiences Episode 16 with John DiJulius, President DiJulius Group. Use FORD (Family, Occupation, Recreation and Dreams) on your employees and when you interact with customers. By writing a short note in your CRM you gain insights on your customers. There are quite a lot of learning: Reducing effort, breaking silos, making it as easy as possible for customer to interact with a company. Customers see a company as an entity and not the different departments. In relation to CX and CS Employee experience has a direct correlation to customer experience Be FINE – i.e.,be better than average Reduce effort and focus on the customer Listen to customers Get feedback from customers and employees Focus on business outcomes His book suggestion: Chris Voss, Never Split the differences Note to customer service employees: Do it with intent. Customers are a name and not a number Have fun serving other (enjoy the process) Note to podcasters: Focus on the quality and not quantity Respect your guest time Nick’s golden nugget: Listen to this podcast, listen to this specific episode, and then continue to share it with others. Share success stories , even if it a small nugget, within and outside your organization. How to contact Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickglimsdahl/ https://press1fornick.com/ the list of the "nuggets" from Press 1 for Nick https://www.canva.com/design/DAEQOrinvMI/HgLef55o182mGAeVLyXhlg/view If someone would like to start a podcast, here are a few great tips: https://press1fornick.com/podcasting/ Thank you, Nick! #customerexperience #customerservice #cxgoalkeeper

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Gustavo Imhof Gustavo is the Customer Insights Leader at Avado and he is the Head of CX at CXAhead. Gustavo is very well known in LinkedIn and on the market for his outstanding thoughts, insights and posts on Customer Experience. He is one of the co-authors of Customer Experience 3. We discussed his chapter of the book Customer Experience Experiences don't matter, memories do. My learnings: - There is a disconnect between what happens during an experience and what customers remember, therefore memories matter! - Every human being remembers and elaborates experiences in a different way - By understanding how memories work, you can design the experiences accordingly and making moments memorable (however, you need to be smart at it) - Some moments can completely change the evaluation of an experience (good and bad) His book suggestion: - Atomic habits, James Clear - Impossible to ignore, Carmen Simon Gustavo’s golden nugget: Utilities are completely from external interferences thus they are completely free in designing experiences. These are not the most exciting industries. how to contact Gustavo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/headofcustomerexperience/ Thank you, Gustavo! #customerexperience #CXAhead #cxgoalkeeper

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Pascal Kaufmann My learnings: - It is possible to create human level AI - Deep learning and Machine Learning will not replicate the human brain. Indeed, to create flying machine, it was not required to copy bird feathers - The principles of intelligence need to be discovered to crack the brain code - The brain is like a small data machine - Today, there is no prototype able to emulate human intelligence - Midfire will unite 300’000 talents to focus on specific questions with the final scope of cracking the brain code. - There is a race to create human level AI - In China, it is built for the government and in the USA for companies. The idea behind Mindfire is to build it for people. Switzerland is suited for this task. - Speaking about ethics, it is an ethical imperative to build human AI for the people and ideally in a free country. - Speaking about empathy. Does a machine need emotions? Do objects have feelings? – is it possible to train it. Tricking human beings by means of hormones is relatively easy (think about Oxytocin). His book suggestion: · https://youtu.be/E4SSU29Arj0 · https://youtu.be/h4CIoJgvlB4 and this is the Alien Movie which Pascal very much recommend when it comes to AI: https://youtu.be/svnAD0TApb8 Pascal’s golden nugget: We will be able to create human level AI within this decade 2020 to 2030. And I think the race about AI will be decided in this decade. We are living in super exciting time and we should all help that it goes into the right hands and it goes to people and not to governments nor to companies. How to contact Pascal: · https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-kaufmann-b2890246/ · You can also write him an email but your email should be remarkable as Pascal often deletes emails. Make it somehow stand out – if not, it will be deleted. Thank you, Pascal! #customerexperience #cxgoalkeeper #artificialintelligence

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Ian Golding, the CX specialist (and not expert) Ian is THE Global Customer Experience Specialist (and not expert!). He is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) and the first recognized training provider by the CXPA. He is the CEO and founder of the Customer Experience Consultancy Ldt. My learnings: CX is a science but not rocket science: Is not difficult to understand – corporates are overcomplicating what they are doing. Only 2% of the participants to Ian’s courses are from the C-Suite. Why? They don’t care or CX is not enough important, or they already know enough. However, senior leaders from Amazon attended one of Ian’s courses as they never stop to learn. The most important competency is measurement. It is a fact-based methodology. By measuring, it is possible to improve experience. It implies financial results can be improved for a sustainable growth. CX is not in the responsibility of a team but of everyone. The CX teams should develop capabilities, competencies, setting directions and holding the mirror. All these tasks should be performed in collaboration with business. The 7th CX core competency is the role of CX professionals. It is not really defined in the CXPA framework. However, it helps CX practitioners developing Resilience, courage, strengths and persistence to keep going. The future of CX is the marriage between Customer Experience and Employee Experience. His book suggestion: Outside In, Kerry Bodine & Harley Manning, Josh Bernoff Customer Journey Playbook, Jerry Angrave How to contact Ian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iangolding/ https://ijgolding.com/ Ian's book: https://ijgolding.com/ians-book/ Ian's golden nugget: "If you are doing the right thing for the right reason, you have nothing to lose." Thank you, Ian Golding! #customerexperience #leadership #cxgoalkeeper #cxpa #ccxp

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Björn Kälin My learnings: His definition of empathy: feeling into something. The target is to understand customers’ feelings and acting on feelings (including what to do next) We are all humans, and we are not the same every day. Anthrolytics is the solution. By sensing and predicting emotions, it gives advice on how to react on them. This is the solution to biased surveys! Which survey is not biased?  Behind every interaction there is a human. By leveraging each interaction and collecting data from all the touchpoints it is possible to understand how an interaction was influenced. Anthrolytics gives you the emotional state of a customer. Moving to the second part of the discussion. The ART of collaboration – an outstanding article written by Björn: Collaboration is linked to feelings and emotions, Björn defined 3 main pillars: A as ACCEPT and ACKNOWLEDGE: Every person is different, UNIQUE. A happy person is not the same as the same unhappy person. R as RESPECT that there are different ideas, thoughts and feelings. (Known also as diversity of opinions) T as TOLERATE The ART of collaboration helps to work together with people you don’t like We are continuously in meeting, therefore use these hints Always assume good intention Leaders speak last Be there in the moment His book suggestion Eleven Rings, Phil Jackson Björn’s golden nugget: “Don’t forget we are humans, we all have feelings, we all have emotions, we all expect something. The company, a business is more humans together, but it is important that we understand that and we are aware of that. It’s not rocket science. “ How to contact Björn: · https://www.anthrolytics.io/ · https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjoernkaelin/ Thank you, Björn! #customerexperience #leadership #data #cxgoalkeeper

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Annika Björck My learnings: Most transformation projects fail due to 2 main causes: The initiative’s success cannot be proved, and little improvements are invisible Too much focus on “doing” and not enough on change management How to cope with these issues: It is about balancing the skills of the team: adding to the UX skills, strategic skills to lead the transformation (e.g., communication, coaching, …) Succeed together with top management: Prove the return on CX and pick some KPIs from the top management scorecards to help them achieving their goals. The North star of a company is important: what is the vision for the customers? How should customers feel after the contact? This is the market differentiator! 80% has to do with the company (mindset, organization, …) and 20% with customers Stop measuring everything. The 20% of the touchpoints which related to the Moment of Truths are the key differentiators and these should be measured properly In the CX teams create a common understanding, manage the company expectations and the own team expectations. CX teams need to be strategic and flexible. Leveraging change management to get people to move ahead and to reflect. Don’t link CX to a person in a company. Her book suggestion: Reinventing organizations Frederic Laloux Annika’s golden nugget: A tool to put in place: adaptive processes. Going away from classical business process management (the old-fashioned step by step processes) to something supportive, intuitive, linked to customers behavior. It works with actions and rules instead of steps. It enables to create a customer journey and breaking it into its process within days. How to contact Annika: · https://www.linkedin.com/in/annikabjoerck/ · https://www.instagram.com/cxheroes/ · https://www.bjoerck.ch/ · https://www.linkedin.com/company/cxheroes/ Thank you, Annika! #customerexperience #leadership #cxgoalkeeper #cxheroes

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Faran Niaz Faran Niaz is CEO & founder of CX FUTURE. He is a change management expert, agile CX leader and transformation specialist. Faran is an international speaker & awards judge. Additionally, he is passionate about LEGO and an award-winning photographer. My learnings: In Dubai and in the United Arab Emirates, CX is driven by the government. The priority is happiness and focus on people (tourists and citizens) needs. All is so smooth as there is an immense respect and love for the government. There is a clear focus on continuously improving experiences. Expectations are extremely high – overdeliver is a must. A star model (as the well known for hotels) was developed for other industries (e.g., for government offices, restaurants, malls, …) too. Employees are trained to give you moments. It is a matter of fact, that Dubai creates benchmarks for other countries A positive competition, the passion and the curiosity of people ensure that there is a run to get always better and better It is all about the mindset: you get recognized for the good work. People are proud of being the best and getting to the best. His book suggestion: The ultimate question 2.0, Fred Reichheld Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh Faran’s golden nugget: It is about leadership. Become a good leader, be proud of the achievement of your teams. Highlight your people, identify and nurture them. Share your experience, by sharing you learn, and others will learn too. It is our duty to give as much as we can. How to contact Faran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farann/ https://twitter.com/farann https://cx-future.com/ Thank you, Faran! #customerexperience #leadership #cxgoalkeeper

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Anna Noake Schulze Anna is a Senior Partner for CX and a founding member and platform advisor of “Women in CX”. She is a best-selling author of the «Customer Experience 3» book, a TEDx & Keynote Speaker and a Startup Mentor. My learnings: Platforms will change how business works as it is a different way of doing business. The comparison between pipeline businesses and platform businesses makes it quite clear. A pipeline business has a linear value chain (i.e., one flow from the company to the customers) Platform businesses offer the infrastructure as they control the access to the value creation chain. The value itself is created by the participants (sellers and buyers). Both are contributing to the value creation. Increasing the traffic creates more value for the participants (e.g., the Amazon flywheel clearly shows the network effect) The telephone is a good example. If only 2-3 people would be connected via phone the value of the platform “phone” would be really low, however, if the whole world would be connected the value would be immense (as it is). Investors value platform businesses with higher multiples then pipeline businesses. Three key implications on CX: value, usability and trust Value: It is created by the interactions within the community and by the power of involved community. BlaBlaCar in France which matches riders and drivers, is a great example. During the pandemic they created a new App within 10 days to help people who were not able to leave their houses. The community volunteered to pick up grocery, medicines etc. for the community and bringing them the to the houses of other community members in need. Usability is important also in platform businesses: Finding partners easily, ensuring frictionless experiences and making possible to quickly interact. Trust is the third key component. All the participants need to trust themselves in the ecosystem. Her book suggestion: Convenience revolution by S. Hyken Outside In by K. Bodine and H. Manning The Platform Revolution by G. Parker, M. Van Alstyne and S. Choudary Anna’s golden nugget: Start thinking about platform businesses and try to find out more about them. Find out how to improve platforms for the better from a customer and a partner experience perspective. How to contact Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annanoakesschulze/ Thank you, Anna! #customerexperience #leadership #platforms #cxgoalkeeper

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Annette Franz My learnings discussing about the book “Customer Understanding”, while we went through the three chapters: 1) Listening Start with the customers and design / develop products for them. (and don’t try to find customers for the products). Starting with “listening” and continuing by capturing all the relevant data and consolidating them: these steps help to really understand the customers. 2) Characterize: Segments are like the continents on our planet. They are too high level to design experiences. A “Buyer Persona” is also too high level for customer journey mapping. It shows preferences, what customer buys and how he/she buys. The details required for a Persona to map journey are e.g., needs, pain points, JTBD, … … it makes companies one steps closer to being able to personalize experiences. 3) Empathize: It is important to understand the experience customers have today and redesign it (how it will be tomorrow) You can’t transform something you don’t understand therefore, you need the “as-is” situation first. “Current state”, “service blueprint” and “future state” are the three most important steps in the CJM process. With the AS-IS situation you can perform tactical fixes. Indeed, it takes time to implement the desired “future state” and customers are maybe already gone. Fixing what is happening inside a company (using the service blueprint) is important to empower employees to deliver the desired experiences. The experiences are human and emotional, technology helps to facilitate the experiences. If you want to be successful you should appeal to both sides of CEO brain. The analytical side with the ROI and emotional side by making them feel the experiences and bringing stories to them. Additionally, make them understand what legacy they want to leave to the organization. How they want to be remembered… Her book suggestion: The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch 'Em Kick Butt; Hal F. Rosenbluth Annette’s golden nuggets: Culture is the foundation of everything, and it starts from the CEO. Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers (and at the end of your business) How to contact Annette: http://www.cx-journey.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/annette-franz/ Customer Understanding on Amazon Thank you, Annette! #customerexperience #leadership #customerunderstanding #cxgoalkeeper

The CX Goalkeeper had a smart discussion with Neil Skehel Neil is CEO and founder of Awards International in the UK, Serbia and UAE. Owner of CXM (Customer Experience Magazine). My learnings: By winning an award and by sitting next to Don Hales, Neil started together with Don “Awards International” Awards International offers outstanding awards in several countries (UK, UAE, Turkey, …) One of the key success factors of Awards International is the DREAM TEAM In future there will be several options how to run them. The digitalization (e.g., blockchain, digital platforms) is giving a new dimension to businesses There is no “new normal” there will be a "new future" with new opportunities, new business models, as the financial flows changed. It is a matter of fact that Moore’s law is forever dead. The following leadership traits make Neil successful: taking risk, ensuring short decision paths, backing people, always learning if something goes wrong His book suggestion: War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy Neil’s golden nugget: “What you recognize is what you get” in other words, "You see what you look for”. If you look for positivity, you will have a positive life. It is key that you look for the positive side of life to live a better life. How to contact Neil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilskehel/ https://awardsinternational.com/ Thank you Neil! #customerexperience #leadership #innovation #transformation