CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, a Buzzword Making the Difference Among Brands

BY SANDRA SIMOES* - VODAFONE PORTUGAL

The plane landed and the first thing I saw was those imposing mountains around me. I was impressed and curious. I cannot explain why, this view left a kind of mark on me. As the days were passing and I had a chance to explore some of the life in Tirana, where I spent 2 months, and also some of the history of the country, this mountain image came to my mind often, as if I had to find a correlation between this image and what I was “discovering” in my own way.

I came to Albania as part of a twomonth assignment from the company I work for in Portugal – Vodafone Portugal - to work on projects aiming to enhance Customer Experience (CX) in Vodafone Albania. So, this notion of living the experience in its various aspects was always very present.

Customer experience is a “buzzword”, but it’s also what can truly make the difference between competitors and brands in general. It is the experience that each person lives with a brand that defines the ground of the relationship between them, as in a personal relationship. It is not enough to have good products that work well and have good customer service. Brands really have to make a difference in people’s lives, even in the simplest things of everyday life. This difference can often be made

“Customer experience is a “buzzword”, but it’s also what can truly make the difference between competitors and brands in general.”

through the emotion that is generated when a person interacts with the brand. Going to a store, visiting a website, viewing a TV ad, or using the product, these are all points of interaction between the person and the brand, but Customer Experience is more than each of these. The Customer Experience is related to all moments of interaction, be it a store, a website, an invoice, a contract, etc., over time, in an end-to-end sequential manner, such as if it were a story, with beginning, middle, and hopefully, with no ending. Above all, Customer Experience considers that customer is a human being, who thinks, acts and feels.

Working truly to understand customers’ perspectives from a functional but also an emotional perspective involves including customers as an active part, empathizing with their perceptions. The design thinking methodology, which is very important in Customer Experience, enables this and is a powerful tool for identifying key insights for designing new and truly differentiating solutions. With this approach, emotional / behavioral insights can be transformed into functional solutions truly meaningful and relevant to customers. I had the privilege of working with great people, and also with external partners, willing to know and experience more about different perspectives on approaching CX. We have undertaken so many projects during this period, mainly exploring new suitable CX strategies in order to address customers’ needs and expectations. With my colleagues, I also kicked of a design thinking training session within the company, prepared and organized workshops where new innovative solutions for customers were designed. We aimed for leveraging the voice of the customer within the company, in a truly customer-centric attitude, in an innovative and engaging way that customers would recommend to friends and family.

“THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS RELATED TO ALL MOMENTS OF INTERACTION”

Towards the end of my stay in Albania, I had the opportunity to visit the magical city of Berat, the archaeological park of Butrint where the marks of history are so interesting, and finally the mountains of Llogara. What a wonderful trip through the mountains. The scenery is superb. Again, the mountains appearing on my trip, this time almost at the end of my stay.

The mountains I saw when I landed and the ones which I finally visited in Llogara made me reflect on a symbolic meaning of a mountain and how it relates to my experience in Albania and my experience as a CX specialist. Mountains can symbolically represent a certain stillness, even rigidity, and also obstacles to overcome. The fact that I came here to work made me leave my comfort zone, made me adapt to a new culture, understand it and accept it without rigidity and without judgment, overcoming all obstacles (fortunately smaller) without giving up, looking for alternatives and new ways of solving or overcoming them. This was also the spirit I found in my colleagues in Vodafone Albania. As we should do in a CX job where we must overcome the inertia of our conventional wisdom, be empathetic with our customers and our business needs as well, develop an open attitude to different perspectives and ideas.

Harvard professor William Perry says in the book “How the way we talk can change the way we work”: “If we want a deeper understanding of the prospect of change, we must pay closer attention to our own powerful inclinations not to change.” In the humble opinion of someone who lived in Albania for only two months, I saw in the attitude of my colleagues in Vodafone Albania, and in the Albanian people overall, this perspective of change, of creating dynamism that leads to even better perspectives. As with CX, collaborative, end-toend work is needed. The mountains don’t need to be obstacles or factors of potential isolation or separation. They can always become beautiful Llogara Mountains.

*Customer Experience Project Manager at Vodafone Portugal

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ sandrapedrososimoes/