Change management
Whilst there is an element of human experience that is being pushed in organisations, it does not permeate the entire organization.
Thus, from a change management perspective, a lot still needs to be done to ensure the human experience becomes a culture organization-wide.
If there is a silver lining to COVID it is in how it’s helped fast track CX strategies in BFSIs and made them look seriously into it. There are still gaps. One of the industries that is a good benchmark for BFSI’s to deliver seamless and personalized customer experience in the region is hospitality.
Banks in the region are still playing catchup to a lot of industries and startups when it comes to innovation in CX. Startups are more agile, and don’t suffer from the cultural and bureaucratic challenges thus are adaptive and responsive, whilst legacy banks struggle with convincing internal stakeholders of changing big blocks before they can commence something new.
Mohamed AlTajer, Former Head of Marketing, Digital Transformation, Customer Engagement, National Bank of Kuwait
The big question is how do you change the culture?
By understating the strategy and the customer pain points it’s possible to carve a journey but sticking to the milestones and convincing people to change the way they do things is very challenging. The external and internal customers ie the employees. Employee experience is therefore important when driving culture. Some strategies that can help are:
1. Customer proximity campaign
No matter how well you design your customer journey, the internal customers are the DNA of the organization. They must be on board with the changes and agree it is the right thing to do, only then HX can succeed. The big task at hand for CX leaders is to evolve CX from being a department to being the DNA of your organization.
Thus, across organisation, employees from operations to marketing and product should conduct proximity surveys. They must physically speak with customers, governments, merchants, retailers and this starts a huge wave of listing and not just selling all the time.
The role of the CX leader in an organisation is to change the DNA. CX Leaders need to ask themselves how do I do things “with the organisation” rather than “for the organization”, they talk to customers and report back to ensure they understand what the customer is feeling. It also helps with:
Negative and positive scenarios
Helps test low and high fidelity
Empathise and understand what the customer is going through
2. Designing collaboratively without bias
Employees from across departments should participate in any design process that the CX department undertakes. Not just product development and customer-facing departments. This helps build empathy and ensures that the customer feedback and insights are being used in future product development.
3. Employee engagement and experience
This has been a huge challenge during lockdowns with lengthy remote working norms. Ensuring employees are motivated is a priority for all CX leaders and departments. Some ways organisations have adapted to this new normal is by:
Leveraging social media platforms like Whatsapp and eMeets to remain connected
Frequently checking in and ensuring cameras are on during the eMeets to have a visual interaction as well
Team leaders and supervisors should connect with their team members at least once if not twice a day
Manage the detachment levels as managers and supervisors can’t just walk up and have a quick chat, and see what they are doing and offer guidance on the agent level.
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