customer engagement transformation conference 2018 · steve kato-spyrou is a ux manager from john...
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Customer EngagementTransformation Conference 2018
VIEW FROM THE
CHAIRMartin Hill-Wilson
Founder, Brainfood Consulting
Published by
CustomerEngagementTransformationConference 2018
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CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT TRANSFORMATION CONFERENCE 2018
Andy Bryan from Henley Business School offered us a handy definition of theconference topic to get things started.
“Customer Engagement is an interaction between an individual and anorganisation or brand. Experience can be passive but engagement is active andbi-lateral”
He went on to focus on our inherent aversion to making decisions as consumers(‘cognitive misers’) with retail studies showing fewer choices can drive greaterrevenues. This often quoted insight does make me wonder though why Amazonthen manages to do so well with the largest online inventory of all!
Next up was the wonderful Jyllene Miller, SVP of Marketing and ClientEngagement Strategy at Concentrix. She had a simple tale to tell. If you don’tlisten to what your customers are saying, you have a short future in today’s world.
Her featured client was in high street fashion. The engagement channel wassocial. The complaints were legion across many categories. Concentrix helpedthem listen, act and improve. And guess what? Negative sentiment was halved,customer service responsiveness improved massively.
Lesson? Even the laggards are learning!
The Wall Street Journal began in 1935. Since then they have grown at around30%, plus or minus the occasional plateau. However, growth since 2017 has adifferent trajectory. Positively turbo charged in fact. The secret lies in theirgrowing competency in personalised campaigns and content and the killercombination of offers that generates effective engagement. It’s all down togetting their data in shape and learning the power of predictive analytics. This isa lesson the rest of us need to learn fast or risk being left behind.
Another conference in the bag. The topic was thetransformation of customer engagement. This oneseemed to not only satisfy but also delight. Clearlyorganisations are starting to do a great job. As usual, itwas my pleasure to co-chair the event. I focussed on theplenary sessions and Hall One. This is what went down.
Martin Hill-WilsonFounder, Brainfood Consulting
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Gerry Brown was next and he is fierce.That is, he is more than willing to callout brands that refuse to do the rightthing for their customers. Lots ofbrands were rightly roasted in the 20minutes Gerry had. I’m guessing hecould easily fill a day. He also sharedthe path to recovery based on soundprinciples. Anyone looking for alifeguard to save the day now knowswho to ring.
Next up was Metro Bank which onreflection is clear testament to beingbrave. The brand describes itself as‘capitalised as a full service retail andcommercial bank’. In other words,against the rising tide of digital onlyfinancial services, Metro is literallybetting the bank on the enduringappeal of face to face engagement.They trounce the competition with anNPS of 82 so they seem to be hittinghome. But to be clear they are buildingthat success on choice and availability.Face to face, contact centre, mobileapp, mobile banking.
They have high ambitions. Fans notcustomer is their motto. They act
differently from the rest. They see themselves as retailers not bankers.They go against the grain – it’s free pens rather than those famouslychained pens of old. They nurture genuinely empowered staff who caneasily call out and get changed any of the ‘dumb stuff’.
Steve Kato-Spyrou is a UX Manager from John Lewis. He has an excellent,subversive manner while delivering leading edge service design gems. Thetopic was gifting and whether JL customers would appreciate ready-madesolutions for their busy lives. Some of the conclusions were rightlyshielded for commercial sensitivity. But the process was clearly explained.
I loved it and can’t imagine how an organisation can afford to not havesuch skills at hand. If you desire innovation and ‘better than average’ CX,then this is the route to take. Keep a look out for Steve’s next assignment.I’m already hooked.
Sally Earnshaw is a force of nature and runs Blue Sky. She breathes herbrand. We were treated to a precise pep talk about how to max humantalent. It’s tough selling the people message when the big cheeses onlywant to hear that technology makes the difference. Of course they have allboarded the digital disruption train and think success just needs somesmart APIs and nerds who know neural nets. But when things go wrong,it’s always a story about people and the decisions they made.
I do hope when female CEOs arrive in force, the mindset shifts. We shallsee. Until then, Sally remains a very accomplished advocate of peoplepower.
I’ll round things up by saying that I took a turn on stage and wonderedwhat type of person we will need in customer engagement once all the AIdriven self service has kicked in. My deck as with most of the others canbe found here. If you have a read, let me know what you think.
The day was then brought to a close with the perceptive insights of SarahMetcalfe who has brought to life an excellent culture over at Sure Petcare.She really gets the employee-customer engagement connection andproved it is perfectly achievable when the leadership team is tuned into theright things.
That’s it. Thanks for reading. See you in November at the flagshipCustomer Engagement Summit
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CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT TRANSFORMATION CONFERENCE 2018
Customer Engagement Transformation Conference 2018
The Team
Steve HurstEditorial [email protected] 506 304
David [email protected] 506 300
EDITORIAL
Katie DonaldsonMarketing [email protected] 506 302
Hannah MuleaMarketing [email protected] 302 112
MARKETING
James CotteeSponsorship Sales [email protected] 506 309
Dominic StoneSponsorship [email protected] 506 303
Dale AyliffeSponsorship [email protected] 302 110
Kimberley BishopSponsorship [email protected] 506 308
Dan MoranSponsorship [email protected] 506 303
SPONSORSHIP
Dan SkinnerDelegate [email protected] 506 307
Jamie RossDelegate [email protected] 506 306
MEMBERSHIP
Sabrina ClarkeFinance [email protected] 500 103
Jenna PollardAccounts [email protected] 428 542
FINANCE
Nick [email protected] 506 301
MANAGING DIRECTOR
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Martin Hill-Wilson, Founder, Brainfood Consulting