‘Be Present, Not Perfect’ – 14 top quotes from Customer 360

This year’s Customer 360 Symposium featured a brilliant line-up of speakers revealing their experiences, insights and predictions around customer experience delivery, as well as ponderings on the cultural shift needed to  become a truly customer-centric organisation. If you were unable to make it this year, here are our top #customerCX360 takeaway quotes.

“Marketing today is less about being perfect and more about being present”.
Harriet Wakelam, General Manager Experience Design, Medibank

 

“For us, customer experience (CX) initiatives and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are two very different areas. CX improvements are usually very low-hanging fruit – niggling problems that can be fixed to make very simple yet obvious improvements; for example, newspaper suspension times. NPS, on the other hand, is a drastic change that can completely change the customers’ perception of your business.”
Kristin Haynes, Customer Experience Manager, News Corp

 

“Change should always be driven by the customer and what creates value for them. If it’s not creating customer value, it’s eroding it”.
Kate Christiansen, Author, Consultant and Founder of The Adaptive Advantage

 

“Ask yourself: Are we adding value? Or are we just stalking our customers?”
Jack Loo, Inside Sales Representative, Sitecore

 

“Never assume to know what your customers want – ask them. Our research showed us that customers would prefer longer hold times when contacting our call centres, in order to get a correct answer, than to receive a quick answer that was wrong or inadequate”.
Jason Bradshaw, Director of Customer Experience, Volkswagen Group Australia

 

“A loyal customer is a profitable customer.”
Roland Irwin, Director – Digital, Oakton

 

“A big focus for us has been the collapsing of time – how can we collapse time in the customer journey? Every second counts.”
Kathryn Wood, Customer Experience Program Lead, QBE Australia

 

“If content is king, then context is queen.”
Jack Loo, Inside Sales Representative, Sitecore

 

“A good experience pays dividends… literally. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that if you had invested $100 in the overall US stock market in 2000, by 2015 that investment would be worth $137. If you had invested in a fund made up of companies that scored well on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, your $100 would have turned into $697.”
Kerry Bodine, Author, Speaker and Coach, Kerry Bodine & Co.

 

“Any time you ask the customer for information, you should already know how you’re going to use that information to improve their experience. If you’re not going to use their information wisely, you’re wasting your own time and annoying them.”
Jason Bradshaw, Director of Customer Experience, Volkswagen Group Australia

 

“Net Promoter Score (NPS) should be looked at as a business risk metric, not a customer satisfaction/happiness metric.”
Harriet Wakelam, General Manager Experience Design, Medibank
 

 
“80% of marketers think they deliver a good experience… Only 8% of customers agree”
Roland Irwin, Director – Digital, Oakton
 
“Most customer motivations are emotional not rational.”
Lisa Claes, Executive Director of Customer Delivery, ING Direct

 

“In large, established enterprises, where simply asking a team member to change desks can cause anxiety, gaining support to shift the organisation’s focus to become customer-centric can seem impossible.”
Harriet Wakelam, General Manager Experience Design, Medibank

 
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