Ugandan leaders have been called upon to enhance customer experience in their organisations in order to boost sustainability and growth, which ultimately results into better revenue growth.
The call was made by Ian Golding, the Global Customer Experience Specialist (CCXP), while giving a keynote address to stakeholders at the inaugural breakfast meeting organised by the Customer Experience Association of Uganda (CXA Uganda) at Kampala Serena Hotel on Thursday.
Themed CX that inspires loyalty, drives engagement, and powers growth, the event brought together different stakeholders in the customer experience industry.
“Customer experience is about making money. Many people around the world do not necessarily understand that intuitively. There is a lot of conversation about return on investment, but many customer experience practitioners globally struggle, considering customer experience to be a little bit soft and fluffy,” Golding said.
“But it is not soft and fluffy, and I can confirm to you that customer experience is all about sustainable growth, but the only way you will be able to realise this is through your ability to manage the customer experience,”he added.
Golding said management is key but many organisations around the world are failing to effectively manage the customer experience, because their focus is on other aspects., especially due to a lack of understanding of what its impact is.
“There are two broad categories of financial impact for improving experiences. One of those categories is revenue generation. However, this is the long-term financial return for improving the customer experience. Revenue generation is delivered as a result of developing better, stronger, deeper relationships with customers over time. Effectively managing the experience will have an impact on revenue generation, but that is not going to happen in six months. That is not going to happen by clicking fingers. It could take two years. It could take five years. It could take longer. That is the long-term impact of improving the customer experience. Customer experience is a long-term business strategy. It typically takes legacy organizations six to eight years to achieve it,”Golding said.
“The other category is cost reduction and cost avoidance by eliminating things that are going wrong in your customer journey, there is the opportunity to save money immediately,”he added.
Referring to his previous work experience, Golding advised leaders to focus on three pillars of sustaining businesses namely, ‘find, win and keep.’
He said most people spend a lot of their time finding new customers and winning them over. However, little is done to keep clients, suggesting that more focus be enhanced to retain them.
Joan Kyeyune, the President of the CXA Uganda, said organisations need to focus on building five key competencies to enhance customer experience skills.
“These include, customer insights and understanding, customer strategy, design, implementation and innovation matrix, measurement and Return on Investment, and finally culture and accountability. So, if your organisation is doing those five things well, then you know you are delivering. But as the association, we are here to stand as a national platform for customer experience excellence. We are here to serve both individuals and institutions across the country,”Kyeyune said.
She called upon organisations, especially government parastatals, to embrace the same.
“To our colleagues in government, we see you. We recognise the tremendous work that you are doing. For government organisations that do not have customer experience leaders, we encourage you to consider having a personal experience leader, because we can go far together. As the association, we are here to support you in terms of your growth,”Kyeyune added.
Liz Okomba, the Group Director Customer Experience at Equity Group, advised stakeholders to initiate customer experience within their working systems as soon as possible, while making personal reflections to help them streamline their services.
“Do not wait for the perfect strategy. Do not wait for the perfect budget, but rather start by walking the customer’s journey. How many of you have called your contact centre lines?… Have you ever used that particular service? When was the last time you visited your branch or your store or a service point. When you do that, ask yourself, would I want to do business with my organisation? If the answer makes you pause, you know who your next hire should be. The question is not whether Customer experience matters. You already have customers. The question is whether you lead this transformation or watch your competitors do it fast. The choice is yours. But remember, your customers are watching, and they are talking,”Okomba said.
Okomba said, “Most organisations that I encounter treat customer experience as an afterthought. Yes, everyone says they are here to serve the customer, but customer experience is not discussed anywhere. It is not discussed in the executive committees, nor is it discussed in the boardrooms. People think that customer experience happens naturally. One poor experience travels faster than ten good ones. Your reputation is being built or destroyed, one interaction at a time, and most of you do not even know what is happening.”
She said results in improving customer experience enhance the culture of the organisation.
“Most importantly, if you are leading in improving customer experience, then you will also lead digital transformation. When you improve customer experience, employees become more engaged because they understand their role in transforming experiences. And when you improve customer experience, the loyalty of the customer increases, thus translating into boosted revenue growth,”Okomba said.
