Hi Enrique, tell us about yourself and your current role.
Good afternoon Alon!. My name is Enrique Gomez Alonso, I am born and raised in Madrid, Spain, but I have lived/worked in more than 25 countries around the world!. Currently, I am Principal XP in Medallia for South EMEA
How did you start working in the customer experience space?
More than 10 years ago, I was the Head of Strategic Planning at Vodafone Spain, and one of the key trends that we foresee was “customer.”
When we finished the proposal of buying the main cable operator in Spain, the CEO said to me: “Why do not create that Customer Area you have been talking about?”. And we started from scratch: defining what was a customer journey, what to do with the NPS beyond “just measuring it,” etc
Tell us about your role as an ambassador for ECXO. What does it include?
First of all, push to build the community. Mainly in our countries, in my case Spain. That means finding partners, promoting the ECXO in events, publications, etc.
What do you think is different in the European approach to Customer Experience V.S the American way?
Wow, I do not know if there is even a “European approach”!! Europe is a mix of different cultures, languages and that also implies different ways to approach and build relationships with the customers!. You can see also that differences in the NPS scores, the elements that create more or less friction or pain in the customer experience.
But, from my humble point of view, in Europe, we have focused more on “how to solve issues” while in America there is a lot of experience about how to “Wow” the customers.
What do you think the top priority should be for a company that wants to improve its customer experience?
First, get the buy-in from the top executives. Real commitment, not only nice words to be included in the corporate web or reports
Then, “map the land”: identify the main pain points and power points in its customer experience. This way, they can prioritize and start working!
How can companies better listen and understand their customer base?
Buff, it depends on their current situation. I can leverage the different cases I can see in Medallia’s customers.
We have customers that have been running a successful VoC program for 5+ years, and now they need to include more customer feedback signals: non-solicited, unstructured.
Others should democratize the access to the customer data to all areas in the organization, not just the customer areas.
And the basics: listen to the customers in the key moments of the customer journeys with an open mindset and not in a “defensive” approach.
Many companies are currently undergoing digital transformation processes – what are your tips on a successful digital transformation?
From my experience, one of the first critical things to do is clarify what is “Digital transformation” for them. Is it a new way to interact with the customers? A new portfolio of digital products? Anything else?
Based on that, select clear objectives: is it about getting “registered users” or maybe “intensive use”? Or is it number of deflected calls?
And, last but not least, select, prioritize and work, work, work..!
eCommerce boomed in 2020, and consumers started leaving more product reviews online. How can we make the most out of this momentum?
Listen to the customers in all the different channels and formats they are talking to us. Video is one of the sources of customers info that I am working a lot now.
One great example is one of our customers, a beauty company, that has implemented a way of grabbing the information about its products (but also competitors products) created by influencers in the different social media.
What is your favorite CX metric? Why?
A classic: NPS. It is a “love/hate” relationship 🙂 I hate the NPS/LTR in isolation as some companies used it just like a “football match score.”
But I love when you work with all the systems, drivers, etc. It can be related to ROI and business objectives; it can be used to identify pain points, etc.
