Ahead of her session at CXN Live: CX APAC, Rekha Weerasooriya, senior general manager of customer experience and people development at Dialog Axiata, shares lessons from her 23 years in customer experience making seamless journeys for both internal and external customers. She discusses the importance of organizations and their individual employees all choosing to continuously upskill in alignment with digital advancements and keeping customer needs at the heart of decision-making in CX.
How can companies encourage customer-centric cultural transformation towards digital?
RW: One of the best ways is to be very honest about the fact that digital is not a cost-cutting exercise. It is about the reality that if your brand fails to adapt, your competitors will get ahead of you in the market.
Over the last five years, this transparency has been important to the success our transformation projects. It is crucial to have clarity around your digital strategy, where your brand wants to get to and how it will empower its employees to contribute to its growing technical sophistication.
How can businesses boost the returns they see from customer experience initiatives?
RW: If your heart is right, your strategy is right. By that I mean if your customer needs are at the heart of your brand, initiatives will be delivered in the right places, at the right time and for the right customer segments. With this ethos of customer need alignment driving your performance you will automatically generate business results. It is definitely not a dynamic that occurs overnight, it is a journey but keep the strategy simple and your employees will adapt to it to ensure returns are realized.