There is no question that trusted brands go further. Trust drives loyalty, engagement, and brand exclusivity, and it also helps in building lasting customer relationships. While trust has always been a hot topic, the question remains – how do we gain it, nurture it, and what are the consequences of losing it? A huge part of providing a great customer experience is making sure that CX is ongoing and focused on keeping your existing customers, rather than just attracting new ones.

In order to reflect a consumer’s expectation that a brand’s product aligns with the promises the company has made, trust needs to be embedded in a company culture. According to research by Microsoft, brands that are inclusive in their marketing & consumer approach are viewed as more authentic & trustworthy.

Building loyalty, authenticity, transparency, and trust into a company’s CX means allowing the brand’s human qualities to shine through. Join this panel discussion to hear from a variety of leaders in both the B2b and B2C arena as we explore what role emotion & culture play in the CX space, and how brands can ensure they retain that trust & authenticity to drive consumer loyalty.

Customer Experience is the most important area of differentiation for a company. While 80% of companies believe they deliver a great customer experience, only 8% of their customers feel the same. In todays’ world, it is imperative that the customer journey be seamless, frictionless, and engaging.

Customers are expecting these seamlessly connected experiences through an omni-channel approach, which is top of mind for many contact centres — for good reason. Leveraging your digital channels creates a significant competitive advantage. But simply being present on the channels your customers prefer isn’t enough. According to Segment research, 69% of customers want a consistent experience with a company across all physical and digital channels. Unfortunately, few companies are delivering on this desire. The key is taking a customer-centric approach, and then building your strategy around your customers’ viewpoint. So how do we get there?

With statistics showing over 50% of consumers will shift to another brand if companies don't routinely anticipate their needs, it is vital for organizations to predict customer needs and potential problems before they become major complaints. The major goal of proactive customer experience is to foresee the kind of help customers may require before they even ask.

Questions to answer in this roundtable include:
• What are the challenges you are working through in creating a seamless cross- channel customer journey?
• What tools can you use to create a frictionless user experience?
• What are the best approaches to understanding omnichannel customer journeys?
• How can you communicate across departments to improve UX?
• How can we ensure there is clarity in communication throughout the customer journey?
• How does a seamless customer journey improve customer loyalty?
• What are current challenges preventing you from having a holistic view of your customer?

Research shows that 35% of business executives claim that digital transformation helps them to better- meet customer expectations and improve operational efficiency (PTC.com), and 38% of executives plan to invest more in technology to make it their competitive advantage (McKinsey). If we look at the C- suite today, 44% of CMOs said that CX transformation is the most important program they are looking to for driving innovation (Wipro).

New technologies have made it easier than ever for companies to digitize nearly every facet of CX. But if you’ve ever found yourself on hold for customer service, then you already know the importance of the human touch. Unfortunately, that human touch is lost when brands enter digital transformation aiming to solve tech problems, rather than human ones. (Forbes)

Today, customers are in the driver’s seat, and they expect relevant content in relation to what they’re doing anytime, anywhere and in the format and on the device of their choosing. Mobile devices, apps, machine learning, automation and much more allow customers to get what they want almost exactly at the moment they need it.(Super Office)

In order to keep up with this new kind of “always-connected” customer, businesses must embrace technology, but also ensure they maintain the human touch, to deliver an unmatched customer experience.

Questions to Answer in the Roundtable Include:
• How can your company’s digital transformation efforts positively affect the experience customers have with your brand?
• What technologies are helping your company provide a consistent customer experience whenever and wherever they interact with you?
• In what ways can you ensure the human touch is felt within every interaction your customer has with your company?
• How can you integrate CX into the blueprint of your digital transformation journey, rather than it being an after- thought?
• Where can you leverage ML and AI tools to not only make innovative observations about your customers’ behavior, but also drive the growth of your business?
• How can organizations optimize their digital channels to create higher- quality online experiences for their customers? What are the challenges associated with it?

Thanks to online pioneers, such as Amazon, customers have grown to expect and desire personalized experiences: a survey of 1,000 US adults by Epsilon and GBH Insights found that 80% of respondents want personalization from the companies they interact with. Personalization now extends to the entire customer experience. This means that customers want personalization throughout their overall lifecycle with the company, with multiple, personalized touchpoints that enable them to allocate their time and money according to their preferences. (McKinsey)

Given customers’ expectations, retailers must respond to the demand for personalized experiences, not only to differentiate themselves, but to survive. Successful personalization programs yield more engaged customers and drive up the top line. In general, a positive customer experience is hugely meaningful to a company’s success. It yields 20% higher customer-satisfaction rates, a 10 to 15% boost in sales-conversion rates, and an increase in employee engagement of 20 to 30%. (McKinsey)

Highly- personalized customer experiences, when offered to millions of individual customers by using proprietary data, are difficult for competitors to imitate. When executed well, such experiences enable businesses not only to differentiate themselves, but also to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Questions to Answer in this roundtable include:
• What does personalization mean to you in the context of CX, and how can organizations develop a better understanding of customer needs and expectations?
• How can companies make the customer part of the dialogue and leverage data to create one- to- one personalization?
• How can personalization enable your organization to become a competitive differentiator in the market?
• How can you utilize personalization to increase customer loyalty and retention?
• Consumers want convenient, responsive, and personalized / contextualized interactions⁠ - what challenges are brands facing in adapting to the mobile world?
• What points during the customer journey do you see to be most critical in order to drive engagement and growth?
• How do you utilize consumer data in a way that's most impactful for the business and for your customers?

Join Hiliana Fienieg- Global Director of Digital Marketing & eCommerce- Avery Dennison, as she discusses how organizations can enhance CX by connecting the physical with the digital. Hiliana is a leader with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of marketing, technology, and agile delivery. Hiliana will explain how Avery Dennison is enabling brands to engage their customers and unlock end-to-end traceability and circularity. She will show the audience real world examples and will also share with the audience an exercise on the how digital tools are enabling authenticity and brand protection, as well as how IoT is enhancing CX via tools like digital product passports.

Bart Behnke- VP, Board of the Directors & CMO- Intersport ISI, will join us to share his story on how the organization has worked over the past couple of years to innovate their omnichannel CX strategy. Bart will talk about how B&M has changed since COVID, the retail innovations that have increased the overall customer experience, and how they are working to keep their stores competitive in today’s climate.

The role of leadership has changed immensely over the last few years, with a newfound emphasis on inspiring with purpose, encouraging risk-taking, and bouncing back from disruption and uncertainty. The role of leadership today has never been so demanding, yet critical, in setting the tone for human-focused business success.

CX leaders see first-hand how a consistently good CX strategy can boost loyalty and promote growth. And in a world where customers’ expectations – and their capacity to influence others – are rising, creating a positive experience counts more than ever. So why are so many businesses failing to make any headway? According to Forrester, it comes down to a lack of CX leadership.

While exciting technologies, processes, and rich data undoubtedly help in building a CX- centred organization, the focus must lie within the culture, the people, the capabilities, and the organizational mindset to support it. Join this panel to hear from a variety of industry- leading CX experts on how they have utilized positive leadership and culture to in turn, create better value for their businesses.

Nick will share insights on the key trends shaping the industry in the near and mid- term – the forces of change impacting buyers, brands and retailers. From the long-lasting effects of supply constraints to electrification, new entrants and more, Nick’s insights will give you a greater understanding of the big themes and help you plan ahead.

Nick will also take us though the latest research on car buyer behaviour and how the COVID pandemic has made a big difference to the expectations of visitors to showrooms. The car buying jobs to be done are the same, but people’s preparedness and plans have changed rapidly – hear about what they now expect, the opportunities for your business and how these learning can be applied to other industries.

If you want to change a business, you have to change the culture. Attracting, retaining, and empowering diverse skills sets and talent are at the core, along with a solid customer experience strategy that is customer facing, not inwardly lead. Tracie will share examples from her own recent career experiences.