Discovering Customer Experience Insights from Ian Golding: A Conversation with a CX Expert

We had the joy and honour of talking with Mr. Ian Golding, a globally renowned Customer Experience thought leader, at his first visit in Romania, on the occasion of his participation as a keynote speaker at the CX Conference Bucharest 2023. With over two decades of experience in business improvement and a unique perspective on CX practices worldwide, Mr. Golding shared his wisdom on what it takes to excel in the field of CX.

1. Mr. Golding, you are the first person in the world authorized by the CXPA to teach the CCXP accreditation. What do you believe are the key skills and knowledge areas a CX professional should possess?

I describe Customer Experience as a ‘Science’ – it is not rocket science, but a science nonetheless. A CX Professional should have a good working knowledge of the competencies that define the profession CX has become. This does not mean they need to be an expert – but that they need to know enough about all the related competencies, so whatever scenario that face, they would know the best course of action to take. The competencies are:

• • • • CX Strategy
      • Customer Insight and Understanding
      • Metrics, Measurement and ROI
      • Design, Implementation and Innovation
      • Culture and Accountability

In addition to these competencies, CX professionals also need to possess a huge amount of courage, persistence and patience!!

2. As an CX independent consultant, you spent over twenty years in business improvement, what common challenges do companies face and how do you guide them to overcome these challenges?

There are many challenges that I have observed throughout my career – here are so of the most common:

• • • Lack of accountability for CX
    • Lack of long term sustained focus
    • Lack of cross functional collaboration – siloed working
    • Lack of a structured approach to customer experience management

To overcome most challenges, I focus very much on the last point – if there is a desire for an organisation to transform itself from being product/sales led to customer led, it MUST adopt a structured way of doing it. The adoption of a Customer Experience Framework is vital if CX will stand a chance of embedding itself into the way an organisation works. What a Framework will do is allow the organisation to focus on the building blocks required to deliver the experience they want the customer to have – what is known as the intentional experience. Having clarity as to what the building blocks are then enables governance to be put in place to support the framework in the long term.

3. Your company has been guiding, mentoring, and consulting with organizations and customer experience practitioners in over 50 countries since 2012. Can you share some unique customer experience practices or insights you’ve observed from different cultures or industries?

This is a very interesting question. The most significant differences are cultural and related to CX maturity. Whilst much of the western world has been focused in CX for over 20 years, not only has maturity slowed, in many cases it has completely stalled, or reversed. In Eastern Europe and many parts of Africa, whilst adoption is much more recent, the pace of adoption is accelerating very quickly – and there is a real hunger and desire to see change. In the Middle East, a very interesting development is that CX is led by the public sector, NOT the private sector. Finally, In South America, evolution of CX is also very early, but I have never seen excitement like it from a community of CX professionals that is growing at a rapid rate!!

4. As a Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, how do you incorporate Lean Six Sigma principles into customer experience consultancy and training?

Continuous improvement is a key competency of the CX profession. Understanding what methodology to utilise to address the priorities in the customer journey is the only way that an organisation will deliver measurable change. The methodology of Lean is the most commonly used today to address the underlying processes issues that are causing problems in the customer journey – Six Sigma is still the most effective method to deliver change where proving it beyond doubt is essential.

5. Could you share a success story from your career where you significantly improved a company’s customer experience?

I am most proud of the work that I led at the UK’s second largest online retailer. During a seven-year period, we helped transform a legacy catalogue retailer to become one of the most profitable online retailers in Europe. This was done through the adoption of a CX framework and a relentless focus on CX customer journey management and culture change.

6. Considering that Romania is a country with its unique customer experience landscape, what is one piece of advice or insight you would offer to Romanian CX professionals?

I was honoured to be invited and very excited to see your country for the first time!! My major piece of advice is ‘be patient’ – CX is a long-term strategy – transformation does not happen overnight. There will be times that you are frustrated at the pace of change – but if you go too fast and an organisation is not ready for change, you will cause yourself problems. You must drive change at the pace the organisation can accommodate!