Becoming customer centric is smart, but it’s hard to do…

It’s smart because it’s more efficient for the business and better for customers. Win + Win.

The problem is, it’s a massive shift for large organisations, many have been structured around key product areas and work in siloed ways. So, trying to transition to a customer centric culture and operating model is an enormous task.

My guest in the next episode of the Customer Smarts Podcast Khachig Kabakjian has climbed that very mountain and successfully driven customer centricity inside massive organisations like CommBank and Standard Chartered Bank in Asia & Africa. He was heavily involved in CommBank’s successful customer decisioning program. And, most recently worked with Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore to drive customer centric change at scale, across multiple markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia & UAE. He has now moved tech side working for Pegasystems in an advisory role to help organisations drive customer centricity at scale.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why customer centricity is so important
• The barriers to overcome
• Some great examples of driving personalisation
• How to drive customer centricity across multiple markets.

Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force.

You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The speed at which AI is changing the customer experience space is mind blowing…

Qualtrics invited me to record an episode of the Customer Smarts Podcast at their X4 Summit in Sydney last week. Every guest I interviewed was genuinely blown away and excited by the amazing new Gen AI driven capabilities, things like: conversational feedback in surveys - where Gen AI adapts questions based on how the person responses to get more robust insights. As well as Managers Assist on the employee experience side an AI feature that acts as a manager coach to help managers better understand staff and make better decisions.

I had the privilege of interviewing 6 amazing guests including:

Bruce Temkin – also known as the godfather of customer experience, because he pioneered the whole industry. Bruce shared many pearls of wisdom about driving customer centric change and how to approach KPIs. Brad Anderson – President at Qualtrics who not only shared some amazing perspective on the new Gen AI features but also some great advice on driving customer centric change from all the CX leaders around the world he advises. Steven Issa - Steven Issa Former Chief Digital Officer at Australian Digital Health Agency. Ashley Taylor from Flight Centre. Melanie Disse at Ecosystem and Steve Bennetts, Head of EX at Qualtrics

This episode is a compilation from the 6 conversations. Jam packed with a broad range of insights about AI, CX and EX and how organisations are closing the insights to impact gap. I hope you enjoy.

Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force.

You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Will AI make us less or more creative?

AI and automation have stolen the spotlight in the last couple of years, so I wanted to explore the impact it’s having on the creative industry and what it means for the future.

To help explore that question and dive into what drives great creativity I had Lee Simpson join me on the Customer Smarts Podcast. Lee has won some of the most prestigious creative awards in the world including the rare D&AD Black Pencil and 2 Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. He’s worked with companies like Volvo, Westfield and CommBank. And most recently as CEO of WhiteGrey, led them to win AFR’s Most Innovative Company in 2023.

In this episode we discuss:

• The role of creativity
• What great creativity looks like today
• How to build a creative culture
• Using creativity to solve real world problems
• Creativity in the AI age

Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force.

You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many transformations have been superficial…

In the last 30 years there’s been transformation after transformation, digital, data, customer centric and now AI.

The problem I’ve seen is that many organisations have added new technology and capability, but haven’t necessarily transformed how they operate at their core, leading to somewhat superficial transformations. They then get stuck in a cycle of continually swapping out technology and expecting change.

To get some insight into this challenge I had Simon Belousoff join me on the Customer Smarts Podcast. Simon has spent the last 20 years in senior roles helping organisations like Bupa, IAG and Transport NSW with their transformation journeys.

We explored:

1. Why some transformations, end up being superficial
2. How to deliver a successful transformation
3. 13 leadership sins of enterprise transformation
4. Examples of the best transformations globally

Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force.

You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of us can’t live without coffee…

There’s nothing better than sitting in your local cozy coffee shop with a perfectly made coffee from your barista who knows exactly how you like it made. It’s a highly personalised experience.

The thing is…. when you try and brew your own at home it home it never tastes as good and the experience is just not the same. So how do you design an experience that customers can enjoy at home that rivals a café?

My guest in this episode Nick Lee, has spent a large part of his career focussed on designing the most innovative experiences in the world for coffee drinkers in the comfort of their own homes. Which he’s done all over the world with leading electronics brands like Phillips, Saeco and DeLonghi.

In this episode we explored:

1. The Starbucks effect
2. Some really interesting things you didn’t know about coffee
3. Some great stories of innovation
4. How to overcome product or tech centric cultures
5. Building personalisation into product experiences
6. Co-creating with customers

Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force.

If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine if you knew what customers wanted next?

Marketing would be a whole lot easier right?…

Well, every time a customer interacts with you, they are telling you something. Often giving you clues about what they want next. However, many organisations are not taking advantage of this opportunity. Even though digital has made it a lot easier to track all these interactions.

Interestingly, customer decisioning is a field that capitalises on this very opportunity. Where the focus is on using the customer interaction data to drive the next best action for them. It’s not a case of which product do we shove in their face next, it’s much smarter and more nurturing than that. It’s more about doing what’s best for the customer which sometimes is leaving them alone. Brands who are executing decisioning programs well are having big impacts on their bottom line.

To get insight in customer decisioning, I had Pete Avery join me on the Customer Smarts Podcast. Pete’s passion for CX and customer decisioning has driven him all over the world implementing massive programs for enormous organisations like Verizon in the US, O2 and Orange in the UK and Vodafone in Spain as well as many large companies in Australia Like Suncorp and Westpac.

We explored:

1. Customer decisioning and the massive business impact it can have.
2. How to implement it
3. Overcoming internal barriers
4. How to get executive support
5. How AI will make decisioning a whole lot easier.

Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force.

If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co

Feel free to reach out to Pete Avery directly on Linkedin if you want to chat about decisioning.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the past 30 years driving growth has become far more complex. There is now a myriad of digital channels across a mix of paid, owned and earned media assets you can leverage to engage customers. However, many organisations are still taking an old school approach, over focussing on acquisition and under focussing on retention, when there are much smarter ways to drive customer growth.

To get insight into this topic I had Gareth Begent join me on the Customer Smarts podcast who has a wealth of experience working for companies like Adobe, Foxtel and Optus in senior marketing roles. Where he helped them find smarter ways to generate customer growth.

We explored:

1. The complexity of driving customer growth
2. The answer to organisational silos
3. The mid funnel opportunity
4. Imbalance between acquisition vs retention
5. Focussing on the right customer data analytics
6. How to adjust for the tight economy we’re in right now

Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force.

If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most organisations have a desire, strategy or program to become more customer centric. However, many CX leaders are still struggling to shake old product centric ways of working inside organisations and are often finding it challenging to unlock enough investment to improve their customer experience to the standard they desire.

If your executive team haven’t fully embraced your customer centric strategy, it makes it extremely difficult to get traction, especially if it’s still viewed as an expense.

My guest in this episode Yvette Mihelic has a truckload of experience navigating complex stakeholder structures and getting buy-in to drive customer centric transformation for organisations like Transport for NSW and Telstra. She now is Director of CX for John Holland, where she oversees customer experience across many of the nation’s public transport systems, including Sydney Trains, Melbourne Trains and a bunch more, it’s an enormous job.

We explored:

1. What might be holding back your customer centric strategy?
2. How to unlock larger investment into CX?
3. The most important CX Metrics to focus on
4. Some innovative new CX concepts they are launching.

Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force.

If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.