Top customer experience quotes of 2020

CX Network reflects on the powerful insights shared by customer experience experts in our content in the last 12 months.

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Chanice Henry
Chanice Henry
12/16/2020

Customer experience strategies

As the end of another year approaches, CX Network recaps the best insights from the customer experience thought leaders that featured in our resources in 2020.  

  • CX transformation projects

    “It is impossible to completely avoid mistakes, but you have to plan ahead and understand what your pitfalls may be and be ready to pivot. The assumptions you make, the things you test, the behavior you may expect may not occur.

    “My big takeaway from this would be that CX leaders should not be fixed on the solution and instead ensure there is built-in flexibility to withstand the unexpected.” - Belinda Dimovski, director of engagement and support at Australian Red Cross  

  • Digital

    1. Digital is king: “As the experience economy stalls, Covid-19 is the event that will bring digital research and design tools into the blue-chip mainstream. Those who win in the post-Covid world will be those who master these tools, but also recognize their limitations.” - Anders Wallace, UX and UI designer at NBC Universal Media

    1. Hybrid is the way forward: “My personal opinion is the combination of the physical and digital world is the future of customer experience. Mobilization was as a milestone, and I think the next milestone will be a hybrid between the digital world and the physical world in the context of customer experience.” - Dobrian Dobrev, UX lead Architect for EMEA IT marketing at The Coca-Cola Company

  • Channel choices

    1. Touchless user interfaces in the pandemic: “Customers have become very wary of touch. For instance, one sees many folks in elevators constantly figuring out ways to press buttons using sharp objects.  In this context, voice will clearly play a role – if a voice command can help a customer execute transactions without touching a keyboard, that feature is likely to have an edge.” - KV Dipu, president of operations and CX head at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, India

    1. Self-service: “Do not simply roll out self-serve channels for the sake of it, without knowing exactly the use cases it would support. The goal is to be smarter and more efficient in resolving customer problems, not give a new channel to frustrate your customer.” – Gustavo Imhof, CX expert

  • Customer engagement strategies

    1. Speaking at your customers: “One of the worst marketing mistakes to make in customer experience is to speak at your customers about your business priorities, assuming this is what they want to hear about and what they will respond to.

      “Speak to your customer and to their needs, desires and wants,” - Tony Miller, marketing director at Weight Watchers

    1. Emotions matter: “Personal feeling and emotional linkages are something that can’t be neglected during day-to-day operations. In the end, customer care is all about the accessibility and personalization, customers want to know that when they need you, they can easily reach you and you do care.” - Anna Wang, customer service manager at Bose Corporation

    1. Build trust with good service: “Customer care presents a great opportunity for brands to build long lasting, emotionally rewarding experiences for their customers.” - Adeel Ahmad, a CX analyst at PayPal

  • Customer-centricity

    1. Building customer-focused corporate culture: “It is long journey, and most companies need at least five years to see measurable impact. So CX colleagues – be patient, be persistent and stay in the race with us. Keep in mind that it is a marathon – not a 100-meter dash – that you signed up for!” - Anders Normann senior director, customer experience and sales platforms at DSV

    1. Sustainability: “Sustainability is no longer just nice to have, but definitely now a need to have. Consumers want to purchase products from companies that make a difference. Employees demand a green focus, and governments and business partners require real action.” – Michael Stausholm, founder, Sprout World

    1. Approach data projects with a customer-centric mindset: “Get the human context, that is the trick, and the minute we can get this and marry it with the wonder of machines, then we will have the answers we need,” notes Mundrey. “You can have a lot of data and tech experts to work on building a system from scratch, but first you have to understand what the consumer really needs.” - Ritanbara Mundrey, global consumer and marketplace insights manager at Nestlé 

  • Data analysis

    1. Do not lose sight of the customer: “A potential pitfall to avoid is getting distracted by all the data points available to the extent that you forget the true focal point of any journey - the customer.”

      “Any journey added or changed should not only be created with the customer in mind, but validated by customers themselves through user testing.” – Sandra De Zoysa, group chief customer officer at Dialog Axiata

    1. Actioning Voice of the Customer Insights: “Insights without actions are absolutely useless. If there is no action to resolve customer concerns, then we are spinning our wheels to create shiny dashboards that capture and learn as much as possible, but if there is no action it is useless – no progress is being made in reality.” - Sean Cramer, director of voice of the customer at Google Cloud

Check out our 2021 Predictions report for a selection of forecasts from a curated group of CX practitioners on how the customer experience arena is set to mature in the next 12 months.