Book Launching: Customer Experience 4
Since the first volume of Customer Experience was published in 2019, the book series has become an inspiration for most CX professionals and enthusiasts around the world. Naeem Arif started with the idea of providing the global CX community with a book where CX professionals could share best practice ideas and insights from different industries, all based on the standards of the Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA). This is how the first book was born, with 22 international professionals sharing their thoughts on integrating customer experience as a business activity. Customer Experience Volume 1 was published in 2019, followed each year by Volumes 2 and 3, and this year, on 1 February, Customer Experience Volume 4 was launched on Amazon, where it became a bestseller within a few days.The event we organised on 8 February was important for two reasons:
Naeem‘s chapter deals with complaints management, an issue that is present in every organisation. Typically, the organisation’s attitude to receiving a complaint is “the complaining customer is lost” or “the customer has something personal against me”. In reality, the customer just wants a problem solved and to feel important to the company. They are giving you a chance to make things right because they want to buy from you again. Complaints can have many causes, the main one being that the customer’s level of expectation is different to the level of service they receive. Complaints should be received by an organisation’s staff with a friendly attitude, not an aggressive or defensive one. A response such as “I’m sorry you have a problem, let’s see how we can resolve it” is all that can be said to defuse a tense situation. The customer will be more open to suggestions and can easily be turned into a brand advocate. And if you can wow them with a voucher or discount, you’ve won them over.
Faran, founder of CX Future, is a CX professional with impressive expertise, particularly in banking. The story in his chapter gives us an insight into their resounding success in taking the bank he worked for from 23rd place in Dubai’s top banks in the customer experience category to number 1, where it has remained for 7 consecutive years. The main driver of this performance is people. People are the critical asset of any organisation and a customer-centric culture is achieved when every employee understands their role in creating exceptional customer experiences. The company’s vision and mission, together with a framework that is known throughout the organisation, was the starting point for Faran’s Bank to move from 23rd to 1st place. The passion with which Faran talks about CX won us all over. Faran certainly has a strong voice in the industry.
I have written about the adaptation of CX strategy in companies in the context of the crisis. I chose this topic because the pandemic is a period in which a lot of information can be extracted and the relationship with the customer can be re-examined from different perspectives. The customer experience strategy sets out the standard experience to be delivered to customers at each point of interaction with the organisation. Because this discussion is primarily about people and secondarily about technology, the CX strategy needs to be adapted during a crisis, because customers have been affected socially, psychologically and, for some of them, economically by the pandemic for two years. This is information that cannot be ignored, because if we analyse the new customer habits, we find that we have indeed changed the customer persona. Because of the new customer typology, organisations need to create a new approach to customer relations and a new customer journey, in interactions with people, technology or physical locations. And because, as Faran said, employees are an organisation’s most valuable asset, they need to feel secure about their health, their family, but also their income stability.
The event can be watched in full on YouTube, on the Customer Experience Romania channel.
- For the first time, we launched a volume of the Customer Experience book series in Romania, just one week after it became a HOT New Release and Best Selling book on Amazon in the UK, USA, Australia, Germany, Canada, Netherlands and France.
- But more importantly, because we are celebrating the first contribution of a Romanian professional to this reference book in the field.
Naeem Arif – Developing a complaints procedure to turn customers into promoters
Naeem‘s chapter deals with complaints management, an issue that is present in every organisation. Typically, the organisation’s attitude to receiving a complaint is “the complaining customer is lost” or “the customer has something personal against me”. In reality, the customer just wants a problem solved and to feel important to the company. They are giving you a chance to make things right because they want to buy from you again. Complaints can have many causes, the main one being that the customer’s level of expectation is different to the level of service they receive. Complaints should be received by an organisation’s staff with a friendly attitude, not an aggressive or defensive one. A response such as “I’m sorry you have a problem, let’s see how we can resolve it” is all that can be said to defuse a tense situation. The customer will be more open to suggestions and can easily be turned into a brand advocate. And if you can wow them with a voucher or discount, you’ve won them over.
Faran Niaz – A CX success story: from 23rd to 1st place in the top CX banks
Faran, founder of CX Future, is a CX professional with impressive expertise, particularly in banking. The story in his chapter gives us an insight into their resounding success in taking the bank he worked for from 23rd place in Dubai’s top banks in the customer experience category to number 1, where it has remained for 7 consecutive years. The main driver of this performance is people. People are the critical asset of any organisation and a customer-centric culture is achieved when every employee understands their role in creating exceptional customer experiences. The company’s vision and mission, together with a framework that is known throughout the organisation, was the starting point for Faran’s Bank to move from 23rd to 1st place. The passion with which Faran talks about CX won us all over. Faran certainly has a strong voice in the industry.
Gabriela Ciupitu – Do you adapt your CX strategy during the crisis or not?
I have written about the adaptation of CX strategy in companies in the context of the crisis. I chose this topic because the pandemic is a period in which a lot of information can be extracted and the relationship with the customer can be re-examined from different perspectives. The customer experience strategy sets out the standard experience to be delivered to customers at each point of interaction with the organisation. Because this discussion is primarily about people and secondarily about technology, the CX strategy needs to be adapted during a crisis, because customers have been affected socially, psychologically and, for some of them, economically by the pandemic for two years. This is information that cannot be ignored, because if we analyse the new customer habits, we find that we have indeed changed the customer persona. Because of the new customer typology, organisations need to create a new approach to customer relations and a new customer journey, in interactions with people, technology or physical locations. And because, as Faran said, employees are an organisation’s most valuable asset, they need to feel secure about their health, their family, but also their income stability.
The event can be watched in full on YouTube, on the Customer Experience Romania channel.
