CX Re-Design Need Not Be a Complete Overhaul
With 20 years of in-depth understanding of the South African landscape, Nathalie Schooling, CEO, nlighten: Enhancing Customer Experience, talks about the core principles that are essential for creating exceptional customer experience today.
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“Re-design doesn’t have to be a complete overhaul, sometimes it’s just making minor, but impactful changes to certain customer touchpoints that can make all the difference. But you can’t make these important changes or improvements if you aren’t on top of the data and the constantly evolving customer journey,” advises Nathalie Schooling, CEO, nlighten: Enhancing Customer Experience.
A 2023 Accenture survey revealed that 95% of C-level executives believe their customers are changing faster than their businesses can keep up with. This means that a once-off customer service survey here or there is not going to cut it. Companies need to live and breathe client insights, so that they can inform the customer journey, says Nathalie, who has been at the centre of CX in South Africa since 2005.
Nathalie’s career trajectory shifted towards customer experience when she discovered the power of stakeholder engagement at Quest Temporary Staffing Solutions. Her innovative approach at Old Mutual, emphasizing experience, propelled her into founding nlightencx in 2005. Despite initial skepticism, Nathalie’s dedication to enhancing CX has revolutionised South African businesses, fostering enduring relationships and driving sustained growth.
“I had identified a gap for companies offering commoditised products and services to
differentiate with a good customer experience. So, I took the leap in 2005 and opened nlightencx. Back then, CX was barely a concept in South Africa, and I was told I was mad to open the business. But I knew there was unlocked potential for businesses to see real growth if they adopted CX strategies, so I stayed the course. Almost twenty years later, and here we still are!” adds Nathalie.
Talking to Martechvibe, she discusses all things CX – how brands can do a better job of listening to their customers, how organisations should stay agile and adapt their customer experience strategies, and how emerging technology can shape the future of customer experience.
Excerpts from the interview:
What are the core principles that you believe are essential for creating exceptional customer experiences across various industries?
For me, the number one principle of customer experience is ‘know your customer.’ And this applies across all industries. You can’t create truly memorable experiences if you don’t understand what your client needs and wants. A 2023 Accenture survey revealed that 95% of C-level executives believe their customers are changing faster than their businesses can keep up with. This means that a once-off customer service survey here or there is not going to cut it. Companies need to live and breathe client insights, so that they can inform the customer journey.
Another core CX principle is accountability. By holding your employees accountable for their performance and output, they are more likely to commit to contributing to positive customer experiences. This ties in with creating a customer-centric culture. If everyone is on the same page and is aligned with the company’s customer-centric values, good CX naturally follows.
How do you advise organisations to stay agile and adapt their customer experience strategies accordingly?
This is where customer journey mapping and customer-redesign are important. If a company is constantly leveraging its customer data, as well as conducting frequent customer journey mapping, they are in a good position to adapt when it needs to. I always stress that re-design doesn’t have to be a complete overhaul, sometimes it’s just making minor, but impactful changes to certain customer touchpoints that can make all the difference. But you can’t make these important changes or improvements if you aren’t on top of the data and the constantly evolving customer journey.
How can brands do a better job of listening to their customers?
A lot of businesses use quick surveys or on-the-fly questionnaires that retrieve feedback based on scores and numbers. The problem with this kind of customer satisfaction scoring is that the company doesn’t know the ‘why’ behind the number. Instead, if they use the true voice of customer methodologies, such as verbatim customer research, they can then get more qualitative data that is accurate and more meaningful, which will enable them to make impactful improvements.
How can CX aim to be more authentic in the face of increased brand fatigue faced by customers?
Humanise the customer experience. Encourage employees to be genuine, empathetic, and personable when engaging with customers, and to be transparent with communication.
In what ways do you see emerging technologies shaping the future of cx?
I see technology as a great enabler for CX, but not a replacement. There is a lot of talk about how AI, automation, chatbots, and virtual assistants are going to revolutionise the customer experience. While this is true, there’s also a flipside whereby there’s the risk of losing the human connection if these tools aren’t used properly. What truly excites me, is the advancing capabilities of big data analytics. Emerging technologies can enable organisations to retrieve actionable insights from large volumes of structured and unstructured data.
