Personalisation, Automation & The Human Touch - Getting The Balance Right Online & In-Store In A Changing Retail Environment
Agenda Day 1
8:00 am - 8:30 am
REGISTRATION AND COFFEE
8:30 am - 8:35 am
HOUSEKEEPING REMARKS AND EXCHANGE WELCOME
8:35 am - 8:45 am
CHAIRS’ OPENING REMARKS
Giovanna Questoni -
COO / Director of Transformation,
Auchan Retail International
8:45 am - 9:15 am
OPENING KEYNOTE INTERVIEW: MAINTAINING A TRANSFORMATION MINDSET IN THE CX SPHERE
Aymen Ismail -
Head of Customer Engagement Solutions,
Smart Europe GmbH
Giovanna Questoni - COO / Director of Transformation, Auchan Retail International
It has often been claimed that the field of CX is one of constant and ongoing transformation. Indeed change – ironically - is the one constant you can rely on in this field. Simultaneously customers’ expectations are shifting due to generational change and new technology also now allows you to adapt your operational activities and change your customer experience offering.
With this environment of constant change, standing still is not an option, and it's critical to maintain an innovation-focused mindset and maintain a flexible approach to CX across your team. Doing so will allow you to embrace the latest approaches, keep up to speed with technological developments and keep ahead of your competitors.
This keynote discussion will consider how you can maintain a constant state of innovation and find yourself comfortable “dancing on a moving carpet”. It will also consider how getting your training and staffing procedures right have a vital part to play in this, as well as giving you the tools to create overall awareness across the business of the vital importance of continued innovation in this field.
9:15 am - 9:45 am
KEYNOTE CX TRANSFORMATION PRESENTATION: UNCOVERING SOME OF THE STEPS IN GOING FROM INDIVIDUAL TOUCHPOINTS TO OMNICHANNEL JOURNEY AND EXPERIENCE PERFORMANCE
Anne-Kathrine Nissen -
Experience Design Director,
H&M
9:45 am - 10:15 am
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: WHERE WILL THE CUSTOMER INSIGHT OF THE FUTURE COME FROM?
The continued increase in touch points with customers creates a massive opportunity for additional insight into their behaviours, requirements and thoughts on your organisation. Traditional VoC measurements are being supplemented with countless additional areas which can provide insight and, whilst this allows companies to better understand their customers, it’s also hard to see the wood from the trees at times.
This keynote presentation aims to help identify where the most valuable insight can be found, and how this can be used to enhance customer experience. It will consider:
- What new avenues / technologies exist to capture customer insight, and what impact can these have?
- How can you maximize the value of “moment of truth” interactions with customers?
- Making the step from Quantitative to Qualitative data capture, and why this is such a critical step
- Building the best data architecture and improving data literacy within your teams
10:15 am - 10:45 am
EXPERT INTERVIEW: UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE ON YOUR CX DELIVERY
Gaelle Devins -
Chief Customer Officer and Board Member,
Breitling AG
Giovanna Questoni - COO / Director of Transformation, Auchan Retail International
Creating a customer-centric culture is often thought of as central to CX. Ensuring employees – and the business as a whole – focuses on the exceeding the expectations of the customer makes absolute sense in today’s competitive market.
Alongside improving CX techniques and investing in technology, empowering employees and having a focus on the employee journey can also have a significant impact on customer interactions in a retail environment. Given that retail staff are often the front-line in terms of customer interactions, treating them well can often have a significant impact.
The challenge is that CX leadership can have a limited impact on employee experience and their journey, and this conversation will consider:
- What impact can a strong employee journey have when it comes to delivering retail-based Customer Experience?
- How can CX leadership help influence the employee strategy, given this is often not their formal responsibility?
- How can you bridge the gap between head office and corporate strategy and front line-staff in retail locations, and ensure they feel part of the “bigger picture”?
Whilst CX is everyone’s responsibility in the retail sector – from the board-level and throughout the business – there is no group as important as front-line staff in your stores and outlets. They have the greatest level of contact with customers, can set the tone for the experience customers have and the connection they have with your brand, and are critical for driving sales and financial success.
Despite its importance, however, this group is often one which is low paid, can lack engagement and experiences high turnover. This can lead to issues with broad levels of service and the success for specific strategies you wish to employ.
This discussion-based session will consider how you can use training, education and technology to keep this most critical group engaged and allow them to become the representation of your brand and deliver the type of customer experience you need
11:55 am - 12:25 pm
EXPERT PRESENTATION: PREPARING THE GROUND FOR THE USE OF GEN AI WITHIN YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND CONTACT CENTRE ENVIRONMENT
Whilst the use cases for AI are well known across the CX space, the ability for companies to take advantage of new technology is highly dependent upon their existing technology pillars and data management strategies. Knowing that technology can be of great benefit isn’t, in of itself, enough – the foundations must be in place for technology to shine, otherwise the investment can be in vain.
This discussion will focus on the typical challenges which can impact technology effectiveness in a customer service environment – exploring the impact these can have as well as how to overcome them. It will consider:
- What are the common issues with data when considering AI in a customer contact service setting? How can you work with your CDO to solve these?
- Avoiding increased staff turnover as a result of technology adoption
- What are the working groups and key roles any tech implementation team cannot be without, and what impact can this have – war stories and hard lessons learned
In the world of CX strategic leadership, data is one of the most critical resources available. With the right interrogation, data can provide invaluable insights, potential data-driven changes can be proposed where they will have genuine impact.
However, ensuring the data you are collecting can offer you the right type of insight is not straightforward, and before embarking on any data-driven project which would lead to potential change, the following questions would need to be answered:
- Given the breadth of data which you would potentially have access to, how can you focus your data acquisition where it will have the most impact?
- How can you present proposed strategic changes back to the business, using data-driven analysis? What practical steps can you take to try and ensure these changes are actually implemented?
- How can you keep track of positive outcomes because of your work?
1:00 pm - 1:50 pm
LUNCH NETWORKING BREAK
Creating a genuinely consistent omnichannel experience is something of a must-have in today’s retail environment. Being able to employ consistent interactions with your customers and to respond to their needs is the goal of many customer experience leaders, and is the subject of significant focus in 2025.
However, there is a core challenge in that there is not “on-size fits all” approach which can be taken here. Different companies have different customer bases with different needs, and creating a unified approach is a significant challenge.
This session will consider the questions you need to ask in order to create a customer engagement strategy which is both consistent across all areas of interaction, whilst being unique both for your company and for the various different customer groups you have, giving you the tools to do the same for your business
2:55 pm - 3:25 pm
PRESENTATION: GETTING THE PERFECT BALANCE OF PERSONALIZATION ACROSS YOUR DIGITAL CHANNELS
Gaelle Devins -
Chief Customer Officer and Board Member,
Breitling AG
The digital landscape of customer interaction today allows for an unprecedented degree of personalisation. It is entirely possible – with the right data capture and resultant activities in place – to entirely personalise an omnichannel experience of your customer.
However, just because the possibility exists, it doesn’t necessarily follow that more is better when it comes to personalisation. Customers can potentially be put off in some circumstances and knowing when to step back is vital. This session will consider:
- When does personalisation become too much, and for who does this matter?
- Personalising for behaviours not people; browsers vs buyers
- Assessing how to prepare for generational change
3:25 pm - 4:05 pm
PANEL SESSION: BUILDING A BUSINESS CARE - HOW CAN YOU PRESENT THE ROI FOR CX INITIATIVES TO SENIOR EXECUTIVES?
Bita Paydar Huynh -
CX and Personalisation Manager,
Pandora
Whilst the value of a strong focus on and investment into CX can be self-evident to those in the sector, defining this value to business leaders is often a challenge, and one which can inhibit the allocation of resources to this function. Likewise, whilst there are plenty of ways to measure the impact CX has (NPS, CSAT etc), often the impact of positive measurement on business growth is an area which can be difficult to define.
Translating the importance and impact of CX to a language understood by business leadership is a vital skillset for CX leaders to have if they want to continue developing their CX capabilities. Linking the existing metrics used in the CX space to areas such as ROI (and ROE) will inevitably lead to the critical senior-level support needed for projects, investment and the implementation of new technology, and this session will consider:
- How can you embed the role of CX within broader business decisions and demonstrate the importance of such an approach?
- Can the importance of CX always be boiled down to ROI, or is the value of CX’s impact more complex?
- How can you bring other groups (CDO / IT etc) onside when asking for their involvement in CX development projects?
4:05 pm - 4:30 pm
EXPERT PRESENTATION: BUILDING PERSONALISATION INTO PAID MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
Personalisation and hyper-personalisation are key watchwords for all CX leaders. The critical importance of personalisation and how to deliver this across the various channels you employ is well understood and often discussed.
However, whilst this is an area often discussed within client / customer retention and via channels you take direct care of, this is more rarely considered when it comes to moving beyond a focus on client retention and using personalisation to grow your customer base. Specifically, personalising paid media or advertising campaigns is a step it can be extremely hard to overcome.
This session will explore both the challenges of personalising a client acquisition strategy, as well as the plans you need to have in place beforehand to deliver a successful strategy in this space
A frictionless CX approach is the end goal for many companies. Engaging in a consistent way across all channels and maintaining the same approach is critical for today’s consumers.
However, moving from simply having multiple points of engagement through to a genuinely integrated omnichannel methodology, whilst an ideal step for many in this sector, is not without its challenges. From the use and management of data, through to the practical challenges of tying different parts of a business and overcoming siloed infrastructures, omnichannel can be a tough ask.
This think-tank will delve into the practical barriers which stand in the way of moving to an omnichannel approach and explore how to overcome these and take the next step in your CX approach
5:10 pm - 5:10 pm
EXPERT-LED ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS: REAL-LIFE PROBLEM-SOLVING DISCUSSIONS
Whilst a problem shared does not always mean a problem halved, a problem shared with experts often means a solution to a challenge can be found.
In this round table discussion session, tables of experts will tangle with real-life, anonymous, challenges provided by attendees prior to the event. Each table will discuss the challenges and consider how they could overcome the issues put before them and offer insight into similar challenges they have also faced before.
The concept of this session is not just to provide an outcome, but to give ideas and direction to the issue at hand – to offer alternative perspectives, challenge existing ways to deliver outcomes and provide deliver food for thought
