Insights from the Masters of Experience will feature video interviews with some of the brightest minds in CX and customer insights who will be sharing their insights, discussing trends, and addressing challenges within the industry.

What are you most excited about in the next twelve months?

Taimoor: It has to be AI. Right now it’s the biggest and greatest buzzword and, yes, I know it’s an emerging technology which is being sold with huge potentials in CX and CS – some of them exaggerated. What gets me excited is how can we use it to enable lean-minded teams to experiment and analyse and then execute MVP solutions at a faster rate with more confidence. I personally use this, and my team personally use a various multitude of AI tools that are available on the market when we take on CX projects and it’s helped us a fair bit. It’s reduced the workload, sped up our time for delivery and, in some cases, the quality of our end product is actually better than what it would have been, or it would have taken a lot longer to get there. So, I’m really excited not so much of how big tech is going to be able to monetize it but how small lean teams are going to be able to use this to their own advantage. It’s going to be very interesting to see the creative solutions that come out. I think AI is not going to be there to replace but it’s going to be there to aid. The replacement conversation may happen, but it’s going to take a very long time for us to get there. But the aiding conversation is absolutely relevant. How does it aid our current workflow? How can we make it faster and with better quality? Not so much is it going to replace? Because I don’t think that’s going to happen soon.

How would you describe yourself in three words?

Taimoor: Pragmatic, I think this is going to be one. I come from an engineering background – I trained as an engineer and worked for a little while but then I was like, yeah, this is not my thing. A big part of CX is project management. This is where pragmatism help you – you got to know your limitations, you got to know your risks, etcetera. And then that ultimately will lead you to delivery on time with high quality. Especially delivering what you said you would deliver. So, that has helped me in a way, but it’s also forced me to be more pragmatic because I’m accountable somewhere. I guess the next one would be lean. I’m always talking about lean, doing more with less. I personally think this is a mindset sort of thing. Creative problem solving has always been my forte. It’s always been something that I really preach. I think it’s accessible to all people. And if I’m if I’m saying this outwardly, I need to live this. Thus my answer previously, I actively use AI to be lean and to be able to do more. The most important one I have to say is hungry. I’m hungry to learn. Always open to hearing a different way of doing something, a different point of view, I have strong opinions, but I hold them quite loosely. So, I’m never claiming to be the smartest or loudest. I can’t be pragmatic and lean if I’m not hungry to learn. So, absolutely, if there’s a better way of doing something please tell me. And I’m a one hundred percent open to changing my ways if you can convince me otherwise.

Customer expectations are continuing to evolve at a rapid rate. How are you keeping up with the pace of change at MadPaws?

Taimoor: This is actually a common question that comes up in conversations. The way that I think about this is customer expectations and intention are two different things. Expectations will always change because they are influenced by current technology, current trends. But the intention of the customer remains the same. For example,
at a very high level, someone in customer service Is like “hey, I want to speak to someone quickly, I just want you to be available”. That’s their expectation is availability. But the intention is not availability. The intention is “I just want a speedy recovery. I just want a speedy and satisfactory resolution to my problem”. Our approach is always to have a finger on the pulse of the customer. We proactively connect with customers through interview surveys, demo sessions, we even get them involved in prototyping in some areas. Reactively, we look at their trends in our data, we look at trends from customer service, query data. What this allows us to do is to stay aware of the reality of what customers are currently wanting. However, there is one thing to always be ready to serve the customer in the way that they want – always being aware, always being delivering for the customer – I don’t absolutely subscribe to that level of thinking because what I don’t want to do is fall over and not be led by our data. If our data is showing that there is a certain journey and that’s converting better or faster than a journey that possibly a customer is wanting then we will be very, very bullish to push that journey. It’s A/B testing, etcetera. Eight out of ten times we will push our journey, which is being led by data, because we ultimately know that that will serve the intention of the customer, not necessarily their expectation. It’s a balance, the team are super bullish to test if our data is showing something one way.

What can CX leaders expect to learn from your session at Customer Connect?

Taimoor: My passion is always to do more with less and what I hope to inspire. Maybe not inspire, but what I hope to tell people about. This is an attitude that’s not only reserved for lean startups or scale ups which don’t have a lot of money to spend. It’s really for corporations or teams of any size. I’m also very excited to share a few stories because I feel like giving examples will really spark creativity in other people’s minds. This sort of this MVP culture that I try to push in this mindset which lets us test and iterate in a rapid fashion, which has resulted in some very serious wins for us. And some losses, absolutely, to keep us humble. So, if that’s one thing some of the leaders can come out from is hearing from someone else that the risk to experimentation is actually not as high as they think it may be. That would be a massive win in my books.

Customer Connect, 9 November 2023, will bring together 150 of the region’s most influential CX and customer insights leaders to examine this new era of how we must understand and connect with our customers to deliver an experience that sets us apart from the competition. The two track programme, with dedicated CX and Customer Insights programmes, will feature inspiring international keynotes, insightful panel discussions, the best local case studies and lots of opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and conversation..