Mastering FS CX with Lexden

Last month we ran our inaugural ‘Masterclass in Financial Services Customer Experience’.  We had a full house and a packed agenda. Since that day we’ve received a healthy wave of positive feedback. It has reassured me that we have provided relevant and thought-provoking content to those good enough to come, which was the original motivation.

I have been invited to attend, speak or sponsor a number of CX events already this year. So why did we decide to run another CX event? Well it’s simple really. We are independent customer experience consultants, not event managers or vendors of CX solutions. So we could share freely. We wanted clients to hear conventions challenged and indiscretions exposed. We also wanted to share practical insights that could be given to others to take and apply.

Without these constraints we could make the event complimentary too. Our hosts were the ABI who kindly provided their conference venue having heard our ambition. I am indebted to the wonderful Julie Geraud from the ABI for making that happen.

If you missed the day you can sign up on our website under downloads Click Here and access all the presentations from the day. Plus a short video of speeches will follow too.

I am also grateful to our presenters who agreed to take the stage, without previous evidence of a Lexden event to compare what it would be like against. They included:

• Professor Dr Phil Klaus (that’s him on the right), author of #2 Amazon Business Book, ‘Measuring Customer Experience’ and award winner of numerous CX studies. Dr Phil showed why chasing promoters is fool’s gold and how an alternative measure is 87% more accountable (that’s not a typo);
• Fellow of the MRS Tom Kerr, a recognised name in FS customer insight. Tom gave to the audience the only model you need when it comes to fulfilling customers experience needs and desires. This was the real deal;
• Tour de force Darren Cornish, the inspirational CX Director at customer-centric The Share Centre. Darren explained the pains and the pros of putting a customer first in the business model and helped practitioners realise what you need to do;
• Brian Simpson, the employee engagement expert with a lifetime of experience behind him. Brian created real empathy with the audience sharing emotional experiences that only someone who has been through the pains of engaging employees in customer experience change management understands;
• An expert panel including Lexden associates Colette Porter and Alvin Jackson, Jo von Riemsdijk from CX Talent and Basia Szumska-Hale from Geneysis;
• And I handed over the blue print for successfully embedding brand differentiation in customer experience programmes to drive ROI of 6:1

The content was first class with much revealed by all. I had explained to speakers I wanted the audience to take back to their desks ideas, insights and inspiration they could apply and they  duly delivered.

But most of all I am grateful to the people from Visa, HSBC, Ageas, Just Retirement, Direct Line, Dixons Carphone, HGI, Partnerships, Zurich, AXA-PPP Healthcare, TNS, Barclays, Denplan, Legal & General, Kensington Mortgages, Royal London, UK General, Boost, CX Talent and all our attendees for having faith that giving up time to attend would be a worthwhile trade.

We have been encouraged to do more following feedback. So we will be taking the event on the road West and North and looking to re-run the event in other sectors too.

For those who attended slides will be made available and for those who missed it there is a video to follow shortly.

What I love about customer experience is the generosity of those practitioners within it to share freely ideas, models and improvement techniques. We want to be associated with the best practitioners in this sector so glad to share our ideas and thinking too.

Lexden helps deliver Customer Experience Strategy and Management for clients seeking sustainable profit from customer experience.

If you like what you’ve read please sign-up to Lexden’s ‘Customer’s World’ Update for ideas, inspiration and insights to improve your customer strategy endeavours. 

For further information on how we can help with your customer challenges contact christopherbrooks@lexdengroup.com or call M: +44 (0) 7968 316548 or T: +44 (0)1279 902205.  You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter or read client testimonials and case studies at www.lexdengroup.com.

Three ways in which brands are optimising their customer experience investment

Customer Experience is still a relatively new strategy for businesses to follow. Whilst most have a feedback programme and a customer dashboard in place, many are still trying to figure out how CX will drive their business forward. Whilst this is playing out there are three options we’ve observed that have varying levels of effectiveness.

The ‘CX as a mission’ company

Zappos, the ladies online shoe retailer and part-time CX academy headed by Tony Hsieh. The strapline is ‘Powered by Service’. and with a number of legendary service delivery stories circulating they’ve become the ‘thinking CX practioners’ version of perfection.

One such story is that if a customer calls to buy shoes that they don’t have or sell, they will transfer them to a competitor free of charge so they can buy the shoes. Try that one if you are a telco or asset manager! But they have found when (and it’s when not if) the customer returns they spend 2.5 times as much on their next purchase. It’s baked in to who they are as any of their employee videos show.

The ‘CX as a measure’ company

I know of several companies who have put NPS up as a measure by which they will judge their CX success. Others even bonus staff on lifting NPS targets. I’ve also spotted NPS targets popping up in vision statements as well. But because it’s a number, it’s something that is aimed for and the business deems itself a success if it achieves it and a failure if it doesn’t.

I was at a conference recently and another speaker told me he’d seen car salesman rip NPS as a measure apart. It didn’t matter where the target was set they hit it everytime. And not a point more. They had worked out what they needed to do to achieve their targets. It had nothing to do with what mattered for the customer or how the company wanted to be portrayed. Scores like NPS are not what’s important, its the verbatim and feedback that they represent. This is the gold that helps the company get better and delight more customers. Be obsessed by customer betterment rather than the measure.

The ‘CX as a message’ company

It’s not surprising, with comms agencies taking an active role in CX strategy development, that some clients CX efforts focus on messaging their CX achievements. For instance, Kia have used the findings from what I assume would have been their VoC workshop inputs as the concept for a TV ad. With customer comments on post-its popping off the wall. It is then followed up with the boast of being voted No. 1 for satisfaction.

HSBC are in on the act too with a very beautiful ad. It parallels brotherly relationships with staff providing unexpected support and finishes with the strap line, ‘We reward our staff for delivering outstanding customer support’. Interpreted by a colleague of mine as, ‘We have to pay them otherwise they wouldn’t do it’.

Now having written a blog on the greatness of HSBC’s CX recently, I know it’s not like that in reality, so forgive my outburst HSBC – I love you still, but I’m not sure the ad agency or those briefing them, get what CX is. There’s a link below, make your own judgement but I think paralleling brotherly ‘love’ with customer service support is confused.

In their TV ads, Nationwide use their CSAT scores (from their own study not an independent one) to present themselves as No. 1 for Customer Satisfaction on the high street. My wife, a member, would argue that’s unnecessary media spend. She knows they are No.1 in her eyes because they’ve always delivered a great experience and have earned the right to be her bank forever because they always do right by her.

She would say they don’t need to tell everyone how great they are. I would say they should use this platform to demonstrate why they are No.1 instead.

In summary

Great customer experience is something a customer feels and experiences. Those like Zappos who have it hard wired in to their DNA deliver it with every customer engagement. Those who place importance on measuring it will find CX is only great where or when it is measured. Just because the customer completed a feedback survey, it doesn’t mean they actually score the company. They only do that because they were asked to. For consumers its less quantitative – they know it’s right because it works for them. It’s an emotional connection and often only realised way after the event.

The reward is the customer remains engaged with a preference. They will stand in the queues, wait at the bus stops and sit in the coffee shop telling stories to others about how great your brand is.

However, this advocacy is a key benefit of delivering a great customer experience that should be measured because it will reduce your marketing acquisition and retention costs because your customers are doing your marketing for you.

Making sure your customer experience is a mission means the measurements will be achieved and the messages created through stories on the street which is more powerful than a TV campaign.

Posted by Christopher Brooks

Lexden is a Customer Strategy Agency | We put customers at the heart of the decision 

We work with brands to attract and retain happy customers | We achieve this by helping them to understand what makes their customers tick, building memorable customer experiences and creating engaging customer value propositions.

If you like what you’ve read sign-up to our ‘Putting Customers First’ newsletter. Or for further information contact christopherbrooks@lexdengroup.com or call us on  M: +44 (0) 7968 316548 or T: +44 (0)1279 902205 .    You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter or read client case studies at www.lexdengroup.com 

How HSBC creates brand advocates through Customer Experience

I rarely write about my own customer experiences. Usually I’m taking examples from others and blending with my observations to evidence best or worse practice CX planning.

But on occasion I experience a customer experience as a consequence of a situation I’ve found myself in which impresses me enough to tell others.

And when it works, really well, it reminds us of the importance customer experience in helping consumers trying to ‘get on’ and live their lives. Great customer experience removes the friction in life which holds us back from getting through the day.

As a ‘consumer’ I can’t really consciously value this until it goes wrong. CX in this context operates as the unsung hero. However, the more important that process to me within the context of my life, the increased favourability I undoubtedly have for one brand over another.

So when something unexpected happens in my life, a customer experience designed to remove the anxiety will go a long way in turning my passive relationship to a promoter of their brand. I might even commit the experience to a blog. Here’s my story…

…at 11.30am I stepped back from a presentation I was preparing and picked up a couple of approved invoices to pay. I looked for my ‘securekey’ which allows me to access the HSBC business bank account. It wasn’t where it normally should be. I knew I needed to call HSBC to get a replacement. I decided I could make the payments when it arrived.

I was working remotely from our Bishops Stortford office so called the London office and told them the situation. I was reminded that these were due today and one by midday. Panic back on. It was at this point I realise I should have paid them before I got stuck in to the presentation but it was too late and the presentation was due to be sent in two hours.

I headed to the local branch of HSBC. As I walked there I realised I didn’t know what it would achieve going in to see them, our branch was in Victoria, but with the minutes ticking I wanted to share my pain and see what could be done over the counter.

On arrival I was greeted with a smile by a greeter. I explained the situation and he calmly said it could be sorted. He told me to head to the teller to get the payments made first. I did. I explained my quandary to the lady behind the glass. With enough security checks to make me feel comfortable, but not so much that I felt violated, ‘we’ made the payments on time. I say we because without the HSBC team I would have failed.

The lady informed me that if I called the replacement securekey team from the branch they could issue me a new card now. Wow, so within 45 minutes of my crisis starting, it would be over.

The greeter dialled through the IVR and connected me to a person. Being a global bank I expected a globally located operator. I was right. But that didn’t diminish the empathy and understanding of my situation he offered.

To get through to the point where an email was sent to me and a new securecard handed to me in branch involved three phone transfers and the assistance of three members of branch staff. But each one of those phone transfers managed my expectations and when I was handed over the recipient of my call explained my situation to me straight off to give me confidence that they were in control.

I left the bank 20 minutes after arriving with payments made, a new securekey ready to activate, a smile on my face and a tweet winging its way to broadcast from @consultingchris on how great they’d been.

It then dawned on me that I’d had a branded customer experience. This was global, local in action. Okay I wasn’t trading with New Zealand or requiring advice on setting up a venture in Baltimore, but I was vulnerable and their global network of operators helped me out capably supported by the local team.

Receive a copy of Lexden's NEW 'VexVox Brand Report' with real customer experiences and brand responses in story board format(required)

Submit

Δ

From a customer experience best practice perspective this delivers against all 6 customer attributes:

1. They managed my expectations across every touch point
2. They minimised the time and effort taken by employing various channels and technology to arrive at the right outcome
3. They empathised with my situation and brought my anxiety down whilst we got things sorted
4. They resolved my issues without any sense of it being less than why they were there
5. They personalised it to me. It may be this happens on a daily basis for them but I felt they’d structured their customer experience response specifically around my situation
6. They showed integrity putting my interests first. They could have been more stringent on security (more than needed) but a few smart questions ensured I was who I said I was and they let me use a branch in the middle of the phone even though they were hosting a MacMillan Nurses Cake morning .

Hats off to HSBC from me and our suppliers who got paid on time.

Not forgetting my client who received the presentation in time too. And that’s why all of the above was so important to me. It allowed me to ‘get on’ with my business.

Posted by Christopher Brooks

Lexden is a Customer Strategy Agency | We put customers at the heart of the decision 

We work with brands to attract and retain happy customers | We achieve this by helping them to understand what makes their customers tick, building memorable customer experience strategies and creating engaging customer value propositions.

If you like what you’ve read please sign-up to our monthly ‘Putting Customers First’ newsletter. Or for further information contact christopherbrooks@lexdengroup.com or call us on  M: +44 (0) 7968 316548. You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

How a small pink purse created a big HSBC advocate

I found a purse in the road, a small pink purse – a child’s? No, not a child’s, but a Mummy’s purse.  House keys attached. PANIC. Tesco ClubCard number attached. Inside was about £200 freshly withdrawn cash DOUBLE PANIC, four library cards, a photo, some crumpled paper with ‘Roger The Plumber’ details, and an HSBC debit card OFF THE SCALE PANIC. No address or phone number (clever lady).

I know what a traumatic experience that can be, so my sleuthing began to find the owner. I went into six shops and asked if they’d seen this lady looking for her purse, no-one had. I crashed in on the christening party taking part in the nearest church and asked. No (I was sure that I would find the owner there). So, I left my number and name in the six nearby shops, and I also left my number and name under the wipers of the two closest parked cars.

It was a Sunday, but my first port of call was Tesco ClubCard. I found the ‘lost’ number and dialed – but they are not open on a Sunday (I thought they were open every day?). So I phoned the ‘lost card’ number for HSBC and Richard answered straight away. He took the card number and name and informed me he couldn’t give me the lady’s number – I asked if he had her mobile and he did. I explained that she would be panicking and wouldn’t be able to get into her house, nor treat her children. He promised to phone her straight away and give her my number. Within five minutes the lady phoned me, and within ten minutes the lady was reunited with her purse, her cash, her keys and her sanity.

So thank you HSBC, not only did you restore my faith in humankind, as I did to the lady in question but you’ve probably saved yourselves a few pounds in admin fees in replacing the card too. Not to mention getting yourself broadcast in a positive light to the dozens I’ve told and the hundreds now thanks to this blog – the global bank certainly does do ‘local’.

We passed Canary Wharf yesterday on the way to Greenwich, and I told the entire DLR carriage this story too.

Finally, to the two ragamuffins that phoned on the strength of my quick and dirty ads placed to find the purse’s owner, asking for their cash! (My note said ‘if you’ve lost something valuable I may have it, please phone me’). How very dare you.

 

Lexden is a Customer Strategy Agency | We put customers at the start and the heart of marketing strategy.

We work with brands to attract and retain happy customers | We achieve this by helping them to understand what makes their customers tick, building memorable customer experience strategies and creating engaging customer value propositions.

If you like what you’ve read please sign-up to our monthly ‘Putting Customers First’ newsletter.

Or for a discussion on how we may be able to help you, contact christopherbrooks@lexdengroup.com or call us on T: +44 (0) 7968 316548. You can also follow us on Facebook LinkedIn  and Twitter @consultingchris