Hi Saquib, tell us about yourself and your background.
I have over 12 years’ experience in the field of IT, I started my customer experience career 7 years ago. I have a degree in Electronic Engineering, along with a Master’s in Supply Chain.
How did you start working in the customer experience space?
An opportunity created in my organization way back in 2015 attracted me a lot as it covered management science. It was a role where you need to deliver things on a timely basis, and I believed in my skill set, which encouraged me to adopt this role and really boosted my career a lot.
Can you tell us a little bit about your current role?
I am currently working as a CX Country Lead in an IT Company that provides sales and aftersales services of ATMs to renowned banks of Pakistan; I manage a team of 8 people, where 3 people are managing call center/help desk, and 5 people are working in the back-office team.
I manage country operations, in which we have to resolve customer queries in agreed TAT, and we have to ensure quality rectification of issues with 100% customer satisfaction. Secondly, I am also managing projects which cover the roll out of new ATM installations, software upgrading on our ATMs’ base install, or any other new deployments which are related to machine configuration.
How can companies better listen and understand their customer base?
Good question. I think the customer always wants timely support for the rectification of their issues and queries, so we must put emphasis on timely support and timely rectification – for this, we need to have agreed on a turnaround time, which will be clearly mentioned to customers. They will respond accordingly, and it also gives them enormous satisfaction; they will never panic, and they won’t feel any kind of ambiguity.
What are some companies that you think are doing an excellent job at customer experience, and why?
I think one of the renowned companies of food delivery in Pakistan, Food Panda, are doing a fabulous job in delivering quality food on timely basis to their customers. It is their strength which is growing them as one of the shining brands in Pakistan.
Meezan Bank Limited is also one of the most flourishing banks in Pakistan. I consider MBL services out of the box, especially its mobile app as it is one of the fastest Financial transactions apps, which eases customers’ lives in many regards.
Many companies are currently undergoing digital transformation processes – what are your tips on a successful digital transformation?
This is one of the key transformations in this current era and I think every company should adopt digital transformation to reduce at least 30% of its manual work.
I think companies should focus on centralizing their daily operations by implementing SAP & ERP in their process flow, to eliminate paper usage, and to ensure Green HR in their organization. People can check the latest company updates with a single click without any human involvement. It will also assist people with working from home, if they are unable to attend the office due to any circumstances.
What are some CX solutions or tools that you’re keeping your eyes on right now?
Currently, we are using a complaint management portal in ERP, where we have a detailed dashboard along with report extracting options, so we are using it comprehensively. But we are also keeping an eagle eye on any new updates and new technologies, which we adopt when we need them to strengthen our field operations.
Did you read any interesting books this past summer that you’d like to recommend?
I am in the phase of reading the book Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking.
What is your favorite CX metric?
My favorite CX metric is obviously “Customer Satisfaction”.
