Hi Ian, tell us about yourself, your background?
Hi, I am Chief Revenue Officer at OneUp Sales, responsible for driving Sales and Marketing in the business. I have spent the past 30 years in Sales and Sales leadership in the tech sector, the last 15 in Cloud Computing. I have had the pleasure to be a non-exec on a number of industry bodies and technology firms and led the sales growth of 7 smaller firms, 4 through to exit. I was awarded the accolade of UK Sales Director of the year by BESMA (British Excellence in Sales Management Awards) and in 2019 & 2020, was listed in the top 50 Sales Keynote speakers by Top Sales World.
I am a regular judge on the Women in Sales Awards (WISA), Top Sales Awards, BESMA, and the UK Cloud Awards. I am invited to speak on Sales Leadership, Customer Experience, Social Selling, and Personal Branding and also appeared in the global Selling from the Heart Champion’s list and the global Sales Experts Channel.
Online commerce was booming in 2020, and so did consumer reviews. – How can brands better utilize this data to improve their customers’ experience?
Too often, brands do NOT listen to their customers, let alone proactively seek feedback. In today’s web and social media world, there are a plethora of data points to listen to, which can guide your processes, product/service, and customer engagement. Firstly try to respond to social and public commentary and engage with your customers’ comments and feedback; it is not only they that see this but prospective customers who gain comfort and trust seeing a brand engaging back.
It also can give your brand a personality to the customer. Do you want to be seen as a blank corporate brand or one that engages, friendly, and trusted. The customer today has a different perception of the brand than simply the logo and advertising. It is one where they take part. In addition, consider that if you have opened yourself to omnichannel communication and engagement, the customer will expect a response. Do not be on Twitter if when a customer sends a DM or comments and tags that there is zero response. Be on social platforms but limit yourself to the ones you can do well and be actively responsive on.
What is one element that must always be considered when working on a CXM (customer experience management) strategy?
Focus on what you can do well and do not try and boil the ocean. Spreading yourself too thinly and trying to be excellent at everything then becomes hard. Take the above example mentioned of Omnichannel!
How many websites do we see with every social platform listed? But when you engage or try to contact the vendor via these, do you get no reply? You complain via DM or tweet and tag them to get never a response! Also, how often have you seen this to visit one of these socials to find they never post or share information on it? Having a presence means just that being present!
Do you think personalization and customer-centricity are going to become increasingly more relevant in the coming year? How so?
These continue to increase in importance driven by the bar-setting experience that consumers get in day-to-day lives from Amazon, Uber, Deliveroo, and others born in the cloud offerings. We are all individuals and expect to be treated as such, and in the digital engagement world, this can be made effective with a focus on tech stack used, processes, and humans trained to support the digital engagement.
We all seek to be treated as a human with our given name and do not want to feel we are just a number or transaction to a supplier. Following Covid, people are seeking human engagement, touch and feel welcomed; this is an opportunity for brands to excel and shine in their customers’ eyes.
What are some of the ways companies can strive to eliminate the CX Gap?
Make it personal, make it human. We are coming out of a time of social distancing and where human interactions changed. Where video call put us in the homes of customers, like never before. Where people discussed things with strangers with a commonality of experience the foundation, this is an opportunity for brands to put themselves in the shoes of their customer, to have more personal conversations, to engage and deliver a more insightful and enjoyable touchpoint.
Too often, brands forget they are dealing with an individual where the smallest things can delight and create a positive customer experience. It is not about having a CX, but one that delights and people remember and want to talk about. This does not necessarily need to be something big or expensive to deliver; it can be as simple as calling back the customer to tell them no answer yet, but we haven’t forgotten you and will call again tomorrow; as simple as using their name and being polite and personable or doing something unexpected such as if you have let a customer down, providing a compensatory action without being asked, albeit that sending a Starbucks voucher or a discount code without even wanting to receive a complaint.
What’s the most insightful book you read in 2020?
Key Person of Influence by Daniel Priestley, how individuals and their profiles can be influential to customers and bring a personal face to a brand, be it their own or their organizations. Too often, senior people are aloof and distanced from the customer. With the digital world we live in, the leadership of a business can be influential on how the customer perceives the brand. A leader can give an organization a trusted face, commentary that customers can trust and learn from and feel is the heart of the brand.
Ian’s predictions for the future of CX
What are your predictions for trends in customer experience in the coming year?
Customers will be more expecting than ever. During COVID, we have been distanced from people. According to telecom giants, phone call traffic went through the roof in traffic volumes as humans needed to communicate and wanted to engage.
Omni-channel will continue to grow, the customers ability and want to engage with a brand across multiple forms of medium, be it physical in a bricks and mortar location, on the phone, via live chat, email, video chat, and more.
Who will be the 1st to offer customers video chat with an advisor now that we are all day to day familiar with zoom, MS Teams, and Hangouts calls. Shall we see live-chat become live-video chat where you can see the advisor and make it a more personal engagement with a human. Will this lead to living AI chatbots using augmented or deep fake technology down the line where you can talk to what appears to be a human on video, in fact being served by a virtual agent?
Last but not least, what is your favorite CX metric?
Easy one NPS scoring. Not always done formally, but this 1-10 ask can be utilized in so many useful ways. At any time when discussing with a prospect of client, you can utilize this method. For example, “I am pleased you like the product in the demo.
Could you give me feedback on 1-10 value you think this could bring your team 1- being not relevant and 10 can’t wait to get it” In interviewing for a job “One final question, on a scale of 1-10 1 being I am a poor fit and 10 I am a candidate you can see doing well in the role where would you place me at this point?” – The beauty also is that any answer other than 10 you can ask a follow on, e.g., get a 7 and ask “what would it have taken for us to get an 8-9 from you today?”
You can find and reach Ian at www.ianmoyse.co.uk.
