Ahead of her session at CXN Live: CX APAC Online 2021, Emma Powell, chief customer officer at accident prevention, care and recovery organization ACC, offers CX Network a breakdown of her CX career to date, recalling the origin of her CX journey, when she worked as a speech and language therapist quite literally bringing the voice of the customer to life and changing lives. Today, with ACC, Powell still works to change lives through the implementation of initiatives that have facilitated care for tens of thousands of victims of sexual violence and proactive accident prevention. On the greatest lessons Powell has learned in her career, she recites a particular learning regarding customer-centricity:
“I’ve learned over time, that driving for customer-centricity comes is far more than merely a theory and having had a series of operational experiences, it is important to have accountability for the things than need innovation, and not just be an influencer,” Powell remarks. “That has been a big strategic focus for us as a customer group, providing easy to understand offerings to the business that it can work from and focusing on the things that matter most.”
Apply advanced analytics to anticipate customer needs
Powell highlights a particular initiative implemented with ACC called the ‘client check-in service’. ACC’s research has shown that checking in with customers at the right time is a critical way to proactively gauge problems customers may face and to build trust in the relationship. This has become a service imperative for ACC, as failure to be proactive may mean that it is too late for customers to receive the help they need.
Advanced analytics are necessary here, as it is not possible to accurately predict the ideal check-in time for a large customer base without the application of robust data sets. Analysis of thousands of historical cases involving customer complaints empowers ACC to spot operational patterns among that suggest customers might need additional communication or support in the near future, enabling proactive assistance to steer customers away from frequent painpoints.
“We ran a trial last year to see if we could make a difference to customers identified by the analytical model by proactively checking in with them, with a phone call,” Powell explains. “After three months, we saw an almost 50 per cent reduction in the escalation rate for our treatment group compared to our control group, and observed a range of positive outcomes through qualitative feedback.”
Despite its efficiency, this new process represents a significant change from ACC’s traditional way of working meaning that staff will be subjected to an element of culture change, which is always a challenge. This change in operational strategy meant that a lot of staff would have to hold difficult conversations with customers and resulted in a low participation rate in the trial.
“One of the ways we are overcoming this challenge is by demonstrating very clearly that the approach works,” Powell remarks. “Conducting a trial, and making sure it was underpinned by a robust experiment design, was critical to attaining buy-in for this initiative from our employees.”
To access the full range of Powell’s insights on internal transformation to create new customer orientated capabilities, sign up to CXN Live: CX APAC Online 2021.