Overcoming CX hurdles with customer centricity

Following his session at CXN Live: Customer Journey Management 2022, strategic insight manager at TSB Bank, Muss Haq shares how businesses can use customer centricity to overcome common CX hurdles.

CX Network research has indicated that customers are willing to pay more for convenience. How can brands make sure customer journeys tap into this correctly, without going overboard?  

Muss Haq: It is true to some extent that customers will pay more for convenience, but not at the cost of a bad experience. Customer perceived value encompasses a combination of factors:

• The trust in the brand to maintain quality of service
• The ease of transacting
• The promise of resolving an issue quickly if expectation of service did not meet brand promise
• Removing any inconvenience and uncertainty of engagement

Especially in the current climate, digital engagement is at its highest, which means customers rely on businesses to step up their game. Therefore, it is imperative for businesses to look at their customer journey and identify the key touchpoints where customers interact and the employee experience of delivery that service. Followed by the processes that enable the employee to bring the level of experience you want to the customer.  
 
Remove uncertainty and friction for the customer during the journey, as they see the whole process as one journey. This is regardless of the combination of departments, teams and systems required to deliver that experience. 

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What are the needed next steps to make sure customer journeys receive the needed corrections that are highlighted in customer feedback?  

MH: Collaboration across is key. Customer experience is not the responsibility of one team or department. It should be a corporate objective that feeds down and across all parts of the business including IT and finance. Commonly, businesses chase Net Promoter Scores (NPS) but what they should be chasing is customer centricity in every aspect of their decision making, as customers are impacted by all decisions in the business whether directly or indirectly.  
 
There needs to be a representative from each department in their CX forum group listening to the feedback of their VOC programme and understanding how a change in one department impacts another, which eventually reaches the customer.  
 
Change in culture and mindset needs to come from the top down, ownership of continuous improvement for the customer is responsibility of the everyone in the business.  

Integration with legacy technologies is one of the top challenges threatening the success of CX journey enhancements. Please name two common mistakes to avoid with technology integration.  

MH: The whole aim on integrating new technology in the business is to improve a company’s ability to engage with its customers. It is also to remove bottlenecks, workarounds and difficulties for the employee in doing their job.  
 
Unfortunately, time and time again, new technologies come at a cost of even more complications, disjointed processes and data platforms. Two major failures are that business users and IT drive the integration of technologies. Any new integration and process design should firstly come from the needs of the customer and how the employees will be able to use the technology to deliver that service. 
 
If the new technology will enhance the experience without the expense of losing quality of service and experience, then it is worth introducing. Otherwise, find a way to firstly improve and simplify your existing data and processes, which will make it easier for the business to integrate with legacy systems.

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