Inspiration and the best global practices at the International Customer Experience Awards 2021

This year’s edition had the largest participation ever in the history of the International Customer Experience Award: there were more than 300 initiatives from 41 countries, grouped in 44 categories.In the last weeks we have been judging the successful initiatives from 2020 and 2021 in the categories “Contact Center” and “Customer-Centric Culture – Financial Services”.
The judging was done in two stages: the written application and then a 15-minute pitch, along with discussions and questions. A minimum of 3 people participated in each judging team. It was very difficult to judge as all applications were special in their own way.

These are the thoughts and ideas I was left with after judging.

• Just looking at the number of applications this year makes it very clear that company leaders have realised the critical importance of customer experience in business, and that this is how they will emerge from the pandemic.
• Technology has been pivotal in helping companies adapt to new conditions and restrictions during the pandemic. However, digitisation alone is not enough to retain customers. A balance between digitisation and human interaction is required.
• Humanising technology through the language used is important. Chatbots are no longer just a source of standard customer information, but have become conversational tools that almost resemble humans. Conveying empathy with a simple message such as ‘I’m sorry you’re not feeling well’ can bring customers closer to the brand and make them more receptive to subsequent messages.
• Digitalisation is a sexy term, but technology needs to adapt to the needs of new customers and employees, not the other way around.
• The effective use of data is key to companies moving forward and winning customer loyalty.
• Great experiences in the past will not be perceived in the same way in the future. CX is an ongoing process of improving and reinventing the business in all areas.
• Personalise offerings and services. Customers expect to be treated as individuals.

‘Being good is not good enough’.

The applications that I rated the highest stood out to me because they were ‘out of the box’ yet structured, and had a major impact on customers and employees. In the Customer-centric Culture category, in particular, it was confirmed to me once again that a healthy organisational culture is intentionally built over time.

You can find the list of winners here: internationalcxaward.com/winners-and-finalists-2021/

Words cannot describe the feelings and inspiration we received during two days of discussions with twelve companies from all over the world, including Kenya, the US and Dubai.