Steve Jobs once said, "Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works." While organizations do focus on the look and feel, unfortunately, the 'how it works' part is ignored. And from the customer's perspective, this is a pain point that needs to be worked upon. The concept of customer shadowing can help overcome these pain points and design robust customer service. Customer shadowing is like being the fly on the wall while a customer goes through his/her journey. To disc...
Dec 31, 2019•38 min•Season 1Ep. 41
There is no denying that the end goal of any business is growth. And the one definitive way of achieving more growth is focusing on customer experience. Hence, for any organisation, its business strategy must go hand in hand with its CX strategy: the CX strategy must actualise the business strategy. However, many times, this does not happen and there is a significant gap between the CX and the business strategy. To discuss how organisations can bridge this gap, I am joined today by one of the be...
Dec 19, 2019•39 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Very often, we hear that the one mantra organisations must follow for success is to ensure that customer centricity is the DNA of an organisation. And this is an obvious idea. However, surprisingly, many organisation tend to lose sight of this idea as they grow. And that is when the downfall starts. The silver lining, though, is that organisations can redesign themselves to become customer-centric and attain sustainable growth. To help you with how to do so, I am joined by Heidi Beets, a serial ...
Dec 17, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 39
While we have, very often, seen brands make tall promises to court customers, we have also seen them fail on delivering those promises often. Why does this happen? Why is the customer's perception of a brand significantly different from the company's? Why do these conundrums occur? And how can brands avoid such pitfalls? I am delighted to be speaking with Neil Sharp, an expert on developing and delivering customer experience transformation programmes that place the customer at the heart of the o...
Dec 10, 2019•41 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Today's customers are demanding. The retail, banking, and hospitality sectors have realized that CX is the only differentiator today and have upped their game considerably to provide the best possible experience to their customers. Naturally, customers expect the same from all brands across all sectors, including healthcare. And why shouldn't they!? Healthcare is perhaps the only sectors where customers need the most love, empathy, and compassion. Right? Strangely, not many healthcare brands und...
Dec 03, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 37
People often conflate 'simple' with 'plain', and 'plain' has, well, a plain connotation. Nothing special about it. But, simple, as Da Vinci reminds us: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." When it comes to organisations, complexities are discouraged and simplicity is favoured and the reason for that is: simplicity is hospitable to adaptability and the efficacy of an organisation. Think of it this way: complexities within an organisation are inadvisable for they contribute to poor custome...
Nov 26, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 36
The thought of visiting a government office, for most of us, is often followed by an exasperated sigh. Generally, that reaction is rooted in the poor experience that government offices are infamous for. CX improvement in government is often stymied due to its agencies' culture, shortage of staff, and / or dearth of technological implementation and adoption. These factors, among others, lead to an unsatisfactory experience. Fortunately, there are individuals and organizations out there, helping t...
Nov 19, 2019•29 min•Season 1Ep. 34
At a time when the world is going bonkers over chatbots, what would you think if I said that live chat with an actual person at the other end is more effective? It might come as a surprise to you, right? Well as a business it might not make as much sense as it would from the customer's perspective. People like to talk to people, not with bots. Interestingly, in this podcast I talk about exactly that. In conversation with Nelson Bruton, President, Interchanges - a leading live chat solution provi...
Nov 19, 2019•28 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Founders need to strike a balance between product, go-to-market, customer experience, and business discipline to ensure sustainable growth for their startup. Often, sorting through the array of goals in each of these areas will cause a certain degree of palpitation. Sometimes, as Rohit puts it, even existential crisis. The art of successful business growth from infancy to a formidable organisation then lies in a founder's ability to walk a tight rope while using customer feedback as the balancin...
Nov 05, 2019•30 min•Season 1Ep. 33
A nod from leadership on CX strategy might not translate into an allocation of resources for executing that strategy. Setting up a Customer Experience team is a challenging and arduous process. A process, if done right, yields tremendous value. A CX Management Team, just like other functional teams in an organisation, bring focus and accountability to customer experience. Setting up the right CX Management Team will put you on a fast track to realising your customer experience goals! In this epi...
Oct 29, 2019•43 min•Season 1Ep. 32
What's common between iPhone and Slack? Along with them being amazing products, both iPhone and Slack delivered great customer experience and altered the market in a big way! It's not like smart phones didn't exist before the iPhone - remember Blackberry? Surely there were several other office communicators before Slack was launched. Both these products massively enhanced the customer experience. Interestingly, both iPhone and Slack gave birth to a new product segment and we've all seen how the ...
Oct 22, 2019•45 min•Season 1Ep. 31
eCommerce didn't just change the way we buy stuff, it has changed consumer psychology and has completely transformed our expectations as customers. When you compare the traditional customer journey of a retail shopper with that of someone shopping on Amazon, you realise the massive leap in customer experience. From the ease of product search to almost zero wait time at billing and finally the product showing up at your doorstep without even stepping out, it is nothing less than magical! It howev...
Oct 15, 2019•36 min•Season 1Ep. 30
As much as your CEO may talk about customer experience, the true test of his/her commitment is whether he/she would invest in it. Even if you get the budget, we know that you'd need department heads to be onboard if you wish to achieve your CX goals. It is surprising that many organisations still struggle to get senior management buy-in for CX improvement. The reality is that you'd find yourself manoeuvring conflicting priorities and struggling to achieve your CX goals without the buy-in from th...
Oct 08, 2019•38 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Customer service is a critical part of the overall customer experience. Your customer service team is the face of your brand when it comes to handling customer concerns and turning unhappy customers into brand advocates. Building a rockstar customer service team is paramount to delivering a delightful customer experience. In this episode I am in conversation with Jasmeet Singh, VP Customer Experience, MakeMyTrip & Goibibo Group. We talk about how to build an amazing customer service team tha...
Oct 01, 2019•24 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Digital transformation is no longer a choice for organisations. With almost 1/3rd of the world population now connected to the internet, companies need to look at digital technologies in a new way: not just as technology for operational optimisation and excellence but also as a differentiated product offering and customer experience. In this amazing discussion with Martin Mocker, Professor at ESB Business School, and Co-author of "Designed to digital: how to architect your business for sustained...
Sep 25, 2019•26 min•Season 1Ep. 27
With almost everything being automated in SaaS, bringing the human touch to the experience is challenging. In this episode I am in conversation with my dear friend and partner in most of the ups and downs of a startup journey - Vikas Jha, Founder & CEO at Alore. We lay out the different aspects of managing CX in SaaS and ways to deliver the best customer experience. From using unique ways to connect to your customers, to creating extensive methods to improve the experience, we have covered t...
Sep 17, 2019•17 min•Season 1Ep. 26
As a founder I've learnt the importance of culture the hard way. Through painful mistakes and less than happy outcomes, I realised the importance of paying attention to cultivating the right company culture to build a thriving business. However, there is no playbook on how to build the right culture. You are essentially learning from experiences and implementing in retrospect. It is the first time I came across a systematic way to craft a unique company culture and thereon deliver a unique custo...
Sep 10, 2019•39 min•Season 1Ep. 25
In this conversation with Rajan Bajaj, Founder and CEO at Slicepay - one of India's leading credit solution for young consumers - we explore what it takes to meet and exceed the millennials' expectations. Millennials are an important bunch – and for good reasons: they’re an exclusive club of 1.8 billion people, a quarter of the world’s population! With the millennials constituting a major part of every brand's consumer base, it is imperative for businesses to understand this young tech-savvy dig...
Sep 06, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Delighted to be talking with Sachin Rao, Head Digital Transformations, KIMS Healthcare Group - a leading chain of hospitals and medical centres across India and GCC region. In this conversation, Sachin and I unfold the various aspects of digital transformation initiatives in healthcare. Sachin lays out the requirements from both ends of the spectrum - the patient's and the doctor's - in healthcare. This is a must listen for anyone working in healthcare. We discuss the following: The various kind...
Sep 03, 2019•17 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Net Promoter Score®(NPS®) has become the go-to metric for organisations to measure and manage customer experience. Although it has been around for over a decade now, many brands are just getting started with NPS. In this conversation with Hemant, I dive deep into how NPS is being used at NiYO Solutions, a venture backed FinTech startup in India. Along with collecting NPS feedback Hemant has ensured that there is a dedicated team working on closing the loop with customers and keeping internal sta...
Aug 30, 2019•18 min•Season 1Ep. 22
From uncovering the key aspects of a Bitcoin business to the nuances of cryptocurrency as a product, this discussion with Ajeet Khurana has it all. In this conversation, we discuss: The core facets of a Cryptocurrency / Bitcoin business. How to manage customer experience for a Cryptocurrency / Bitcoin business? What is the expected level of CX from Cryptocurrency products, given that it’s early days for such products? And much more. I can say that I've learnt a great deal about Cryptocurrency an...
Aug 23, 2019•36 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Building a FinTech product is challenging. Getting your customers to love that product is a completely different game! In this episode of CX Conversations, I talk with Kailash Nadh, CTO @ Zerodha , about the art of making things simple in FinTech and how that affects customer experience. We dive into: - how to approach product development from the user's perspective? - how to use customer feedback for product improvement? - how to build the right team that embodies this sentiment? Don't miss thi...
Aug 09, 2019•26 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Getting customer experience right at the customer service touchpoint is as important as it is difficult. Think about it, customer who reach out to customer service are already in distress. I am talking with Deepak Kashyap, Co-founder of Dialdesk, a company dedicated to helping companies improve their customer service experience. Deepak believes that "CX is the new RX" and talks about some foundational steps for improving CX at CS! Need help with your customer experience strategy? Reach out to me...
Aug 01, 2019•25 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Harish, SVP, Head of Customer Experience and Segments at Prudential Assurance Company, Singapore, joins me to talk about the state of customer experience in life insurance. Harish shares how he found his way from marketing to customer experience management and also shares some great insights on the similarities and differences between life insurance and other products that we use on a daily basis. This is one of the most insightful episodes. I personally learnt a great deal about life insurance ...
Jul 26, 2019•24 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In this episode, I talk to world's only Rockstar Customer Experience Coach - James Dodkins. Along with great humour and storytelling, James shares his six step framework for delivering a rockstar CX. This is probably the most fun episode on CX Conversations! Thanks to James for a rockstar episode. Visit www.customerguru.com Looking for NPS automation? Checkout omoto.io...
Jul 18, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 17
In this episode I am talking to Abhinav Sinha, Co-founder of Eko India Financial Services. We talk about how to use tech to improve CX in FinTech! My personal favourite is the part where Abhinav breaks down what exactly FinTech businesses are doing - they are taking a slice of the bigger financial services pie and making it easier for consumers to use that specific service. From there, he goes on to talk about the different use cases for tech enabled improvement in customer experience in FinTech...
Jul 11, 2019•24 min•Season 1Ep. 16
In this episode of CX Conversations, I talk about the customer experience challenges and opportunities for FinTech in India. In conversation with me is the CEO and Co-founder of ZestMoney, Lizzie Chapman. Coming from a successful career in financial services, Lizzie has had a ringside view of the impact of technology on financial services. With ZestMoney she is bringing together the best of the people and technologies to deliver world-class customer experience to ZestMoney's customers. Listen to...
Jul 04, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Listen to this exciting episode of CX Conversations with Toni Newman. Toni is an award winning business leader and founder of The Innovation Advantage, working with clients around the world to develop innovation as a competitive advantage. She is the most sought after innovation catalyst and speaker and we are super excited to have her as a guest on CX Conversations. In this episode Toni and Vivek talk about how companies can develop the right strategy for delivering insanely innovative customer...
Jun 20, 2019•22 min•Season 1Ep. 14
This episode of CX Conversations features the most energetic customer experience speaker and consultant - Nienke Bloem! Nienke believes that great customer experiences must be designed in a predictable and consistent manner. Learn how to design great customer experience in this conversation with Nienke Bloem, Founder of CX By Nienke Bloem! Look out for the part where Nienke shares her word of advice for organisations that plan to design an impeccable CX - it's a gem! Visit us at www.customerguru...
Jun 13, 2019•20 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Are you thinking of taking the CCXP exam? This episode of CX Conversations might just save you a ton of research time! Learn about “How to prepare for CCXP exam and what to expect once you are certified?” from Michael Bartlett, the author of CCXP Exam Preparation - one of the best CCXP preparation material out there. Michael is a CCXP himself and is dedicated to helping others crack this certification. He is the Director of Experience Innovation at JMARK Business Solutions, Inc. and also the Co-...
Jun 06, 2019•29 min•Season 1Ep. 12
