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\nReplenishing the team back to its full strength was their first objective, after which they would improve the product and CX processes, to emerge from the pandemic with a better product than they had before. This required new reception/lobby areas, better customer travel deals, enhanced U.S. Pre-clearance customer experience or easier online booking functionalities for mobile-first customers.\n\nBefore they could focus on replenishing the team, they had to first say farewell to nine of their colleagues and friends. But another problem was that this all happened during the COVID-19 restrictions, so everything had to be done virtually. The team threw individual parties with 'best of' video moments for each of their former colleagues, celebrating everyone's time and contribution at Platinum Services and giving them a goodbye they truly deserve. \n\nBut now it was time to start solving the big issues; first of which being to hire and train six new team members. They started with an internal vacancy notice to the wider Dublin Airport company. Within days, the team was inundated with applications and by the closing date, they had filtered down 42 candidates. They interviewed all 42 candidates and shortlisted 16 of them, inviting them for the second round of interviews with the General Manager, Dept Manager and Dept Head. \n\nAfter close to 60 hours of interviews, they singled out the top six candidates and got round to training them for Platinum Services Team members (this was all done in less than six weeks!). To support career progression, the team created a new programme for Step-Up Supervisors. This was designed to promote from within and encourage all team members to demonstrate their own leadership skills. \n\nThey got their first Step-Up Supervisor and, in addition to this, promoted three existing team members to new permanent positions, two as Supervisors and one as Deputy Manager. The second part of the initiative focused on improving the Platinum product and service.\n\n

\n\n
\n\n*Read the full initiative in our [FREE ebook](https://internationalcxaward.com/resources). In addition to the results Platinum Services achieved, you will find out what the judges said about their initiative - and learn the 3 tips for improving your customer experience. Also, you can study two more insightful case studies from last year's ICXA™ and learn:*\n
\n- *how Proximus implemented customer insight and feedback to upgrade their customer journey*\n- *how Timing turned their 2-star app into the best staffing app of all Dutch staffing agencies*","Date":"2022-08-05T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-08-05T14:02:11.401Z","created_at":"2022-08-05T13:50:52.801Z","updated_at":"2022-08-05T14:06:55.469Z","Images":[{"id":815,"name":"1000x329 blog daa.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1001,"height":330,"formats":{"large":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/large_1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5.png","hash":"large_1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5","mime":"image/png","name":"large_1000x329 blog daa.png","path":null,"size":368.56,"width":1000,"height":330},"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5.png","hash":"small_1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5","mime":"image/png","name":"small_1000x329 blog daa.png","path":null,"size":119.78,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5.png","hash":"medium_1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_1000x329 blog daa.png","path":null,"size":234.38,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5.png","hash":"thumbnail_1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_1000x329 blog daa.png","path":null,"size":37.13,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":205.21,"url":"/uploads/1000x329_blog_daa_cef1af1cf5.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-08-05T14:02:07.170Z","updated_at":"2022-08-05T14:02:07.190Z"}]},{"id":32,"Title":"What's New This Year?","slug":"whats-new-this-year?","Content":"The International Customer Experience Awards is the jewel in the crown of our various CX awards, bringing together the best initiatives from the world's most customer-focused companies. We always give our best to improve each one of our events, and ICXA™ is no exception.\n\n\nLast year, we had almost 120 companies enter the awards, with over 300 entries! It's a great honour to welcome so many leading organisations to this global celebration - and this year is set to be better than ever!\n\n\nWe've upgraded our bespoke software, Awards Manager, making it better and more intuitive for everyone using it. And since ICXA is a worldwide gathering of CX leaders, we've decided to have four networking meetings this year, each in a different time zone, so it won't be too early or too late for anyone to hear from our amazing speakers!\n\n\nThese are just a few ways we're upgrading the awards for 2022 - [enter today and find out for yourself!](https://internationalcxaward.com/)\n\n\n

Interview with Vuk Vukanovic

\n\n\nWho better to ask about ICXA'22 than our Senior Awards Consultant and Regional Manager, Vuk Vukanovic? Vuk is an integral part of these awards, and we had the pleasure of talking to him about this year's programme and his expectations.\n\n

1. How would you reflect on the ICXA journey so far?

Within just a few years, the International Customer Experience Awards has become a well-known CX event that people love to participate in. It's truly amazing to help so many great companies on their way to recognition and so many seasoned professionals as judges. Last year's success shows that we're on the right track.

\n\n\n

2. Last year was a success across the board, right?

Absolutely. Over 120 companies and 350 entries from all around the globe is a clear sign that people don't just choose ICXA because they want to win at any given CX awards. When it comes to global customer experience, they want to win by competing in this programme specifically. That says a lot.

\n\n

3. What do you expect from this year's event?

There's no doubt in my mind that ICXA has become a recognisable name, not just in the event industry but also in CX as a whole. I expect more companies to understand the immense potential of participating in the awards and join us for another fantastic journey.

\n\n

4. Being our regional manager for the US, how would you rate the interest of American companies in the programme?

We already had around 20 American companies at last year's ICXA achieving excellent results. To mention just a few of them: IBM, Cisco, Samsung, Medallia, GSK... Our first-ever US CXA® has also garnered a lot of interest, with close to fifty companies competing this year. I'm sure that many of them will join ICXA'22 as well. I'm excited for them.

\n\n

5. Why would you recommend ICXA'22 to companies around the globe?

Because taking part in this premium programme will help them bring more attention to their services, strengthen their brand name - and provide recognition for their results. They can also network and learn from the key players in the CX space, which is incredibly valuable And when you get an award for your efforts, it's an achievement for your team, your company and your business.

\n\n

Do you have outstanding results you want to get recognised for? Apply for the International Customer Exeperience Awards and show you belong with the best!

\n\n","Date":"2022-04-06T11:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-04-06T11:29:30.964Z","created_at":"2022-04-06T11:27:21.578Z","updated_at":"2022-04-06T12:59:05.030Z","Images":[{"id":284,"name":"ICXA Blog1 1000x329.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":329,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_ICXA_Blog1_1000x329_0c7a4b2ded.png","hash":"small_ICXA_Blog1_1000x329_0c7a4b2ded","mime":"image/png","name":"small_ICXA Blog1 1000x329.png","path":null,"size":53.72,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_ICXA_Blog1_1000x329_0c7a4b2ded.png","hash":"medium_ICXA_Blog1_1000x329_0c7a4b2ded","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_ICXA Blog1 1000x329.png","path":null,"size":96.63,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_ICXA_Blog1_1000x329_0c7a4b2ded.png","hash":"thumbnail_ICXA_Blog1_1000x329_0c7a4b2ded","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_ICXA Blog1 1000x329.png","path":null,"size":20.78,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"ICXA_Blog1_1000x329_0c7a4b2ded","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":80.78,"url":"/uploads/ICXA_Blog1_1000x329_0c7a4b2ded.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-04-06T11:27:35.770Z","updated_at":"2022-04-06T11:27:35.793Z"}]},{"id":38,"Title":"Virgin Money's Customer-Focused Culture","slug":"virgin-moneys-customer-focused-culture","Content":"In order to strengthen their bond with their customers, Virgin Money was determined to implement an effective CX culture throughout their business; this would bring their company purpose to life and ensure long-term results. Since their goal was to improve the state of UK banking via purpose-led experiences that 'delight customers and colleagues', it was essential to establish a customer-centric culture as a driving force behind this. The staff needed to be equipped for delivering these purpose-led\nexperiences, to stay inspired and advance customer obsession.\n\nTo achieve their goal, their CX team set out to achieve the following 10 SMART objectives:\n\n1. Successfully train and rollout access to real-time customer feedback InMoment platform to 700 colleagues across 19 interactions\n2. Educate and inspire colleagues to deliver purpose-led experience evidenced via Smile Score (a multidimensional measure incorporating ease, effectiveness and emotion)\n3. Real-time recognition (via celebration emails) for front-line colleagues who deliver Smile Score experiences\n4. Deliver CX Essentials online training programmes to 400 colleagues by December 2021, equipping participants with a CX toolkit to help them drive local improvements\n5. Launch the CX Influencer Forum to enable support function colleagues to get closer to customers \n6. Utilise advanced storytelling techniques to share insights that create an emotional connection, generate curiosity and inspire action across multiple content channels \n7. Set CX performance targets across all business lines, to be achieved by the end of financial year \n8. Implement local insight-led action via 13 CX working groups accountable for improving CX across customer journeys\n9. Introduce the Customer Experience Impact Assessment (CXIA) to their change management framework and ensure that each new initiative starts with its impact on customers\n10. Determine the financial impact of Smile Score, to inform colleagues of the commercial advantage of making customers smile more\n \n
\nThe division of roles helped get the project off the ground and improve the overall efficiency of the whole team. The Chief Brand Officer sponsored the framework, whereas the design and implementation were led by the Head of Customer Market Insight (CMI), the Senior CX Insight Manager and the wider CX Insight team. This multi-layered governance model was designed to ensure that all CX requirements could be identified, understood, and achieved.\n\n

\nFor this initiative, Virgin Money won Bronze at last year's International CXA®. If you'd like to join our winners in the Hall of Fame, submit your CX initiative and compete for your place at the top. Learn more about ICXA™ '22 here.

In order to improve upon their product, the team listened to and learned from their high-value customers. The tool that proved to be very effective in helping them with this was the SkyPriority App. The objective of the SkyPriority Audit Panel App was to provide a way to track the implementation and performance of SkyPriority through the feedback it collected.

\n\nThe development of SkyPriority's range of features was conducted via a dedicated cross-functional working group (with all the airlines taking part): Marketing & Customer Experience, Brand, Communications, Airport Services, and IT. The SkyPriority Panel turned out to be a very effective tool for monitoring the implementation of the SkyPriority service.\n\nRelevant information about implementation problems didn't always reach the people who could have an impact (for example, the station managers, ground staff, etc.). SkyTeam therefore needed to ensure they gave feedback to the customer who initially reported the issue. This would reassure customers that the team looked into their specific objections and took the necessary action to resolve the issue.\n\n

This is where the introduction of the 'SkyPriority Compliance Tracker' proved to be very useful. It allowed the team to operationalize the information they received from customers and send these reported issues to the people in the airline who can address and fix them. Besides this, it enabled the team to let the customers know when their issues had been looked into. For this initiative, SkyTeam won silver in the category: Customer-Centric Culture - over 10,000 employees.

\n\n

Have you achieved significant results in improving your customer experience? Would you like to get recognised for them?

\nIf you have a customer-centric story worthy of winning at the International CXA®, submit your initiative and compete with the best of the best.

\n\n\n\n","Date":"2022-05-04T10:30:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-05-04T10:28:49.555Z","created_at":"2022-05-04T10:04:34.698Z","updated_at":"2022-05-04T10:28:49.567Z","Images":[{"id":337,"name":"1000x329.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":330,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_1000x329_20307fc65d.png","hash":"small_1000x329_20307fc65d","mime":"image/png","name":"small_1000x329.png","path":null,"size":95.56,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_1000x329_20307fc65d.png","hash":"medium_1000x329_20307fc65d","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_1000x329.png","path":null,"size":186.62,"width":750,"height":248},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_1000x329_20307fc65d.png","hash":"thumbnail_1000x329_20307fc65d","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_1000x329.png","path":null,"size":29.61,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"1000x329_20307fc65d","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":186.16,"url":"/uploads/1000x329_20307fc65d.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-05-04T10:15:20.470Z","updated_at":"2022-05-04T10:15:20.518Z"}]},{"id":25,"Title":"4 Effective Ways to Improve Your Customer Engagement","slug":"4-effective-ways-to-improve-your-customer-engagement","Content":"There are customers who will naturally be more inclined to engage with your company frequently. However, not all customers will just decide to be more engaged - unless you give them a reason to.\n\nAnd why is this important? Because customer engagement can help improve your customer experience by a lot. When people are more involved in what they are doing, they will automatically care much more about it.\n\nWhen you allow your customers to be more engaged with your company, they will feel a stronger reason to stay with you and with everything you have to offer. This will improve your brand loyalty and help spread the word about your good work.\n\nSo, without further ado, let's delve deeper. Here are four ways in which you can engage your customers more.\n\n#### 1. Create a community for your customers\n\nPeople love being part of a tribe; that's simply in human nature. We love having our own communities with like-minded people, where we can share emotions, exchange ideas and create lasting relationships with other members.\n\nCreate a community for them and give them a reason to stay. There are more ways than one to create an engaging community: it can be a customer forum on your website, a hashtag for social media (Twitter, for example), a subreddit thread, a Facebook group (they are still very effective), etc. Pick the ones that work best for you, and let the customers engage in conversations, share advice and keep the community vibrant.\n\n#### 2. Leverage your employee branding\n\nHuman connections will always be a driving force behind good business. When a customer feels they know someone from a company more personally, it will increase their trust in the company - and its products or services.\n\nAllow your employees to brand themselves on social media by sharing their work updates, interesting news about their work, and by presenting them as people, with their hobbies, interests, and out-of-work activities. Customers will thus have a chance to get to know your company more closely.\n\nIn turn, this will allow your employees to establish stronger connections with the customers, and customers will engage with them on social media and across all the touchpoints along the buyer's journey.\n\n#### 3. Be active on all your channels\n\nThe omnichannel approach is fundamental because it allows your customers to have a unified experience with your company. When there are several options on the table, customers can choose a different one depending on the day, their current mood, current needs, type of problem they want to solve, etc.\n\nTherefore, make sure that you don't leave behind any of your communication channels. Be active on social media, post questions and answer in the comments, ask questions on your customer forum, keep your customer support strong, update your newsletter with valuable information, etc.\n\n#### 4. Offer relevant, actionable content\n\nHaving good content is a prerequisite for long-term success. That is why it's crucial to invest enough time, effort and resources into creating good content for your customers.\n\nThe content you create should be both relevant to your customers' needs, but also actionable. For example, if you're making a social media post, make it so that your customers would want to like it and share it with their online connections. If you're creating a newsletter, be sure to add a link with a CTA, inviting your customers to visit the link and learn more. In a YouTube video, ask them to subscribe to your channel and give you a thumbs up.\n\nThe better the content you create, the more happy and engaged customers you will have. And this will be a driving force behind your exquisite customer experience.\n\n","Date":"2021-09-07T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-03-24T09:58:09.049Z","created_at":"2022-03-24T09:57:59.603Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T09:58:09.065Z","Images":[{"id":248,"name":"IMwx6btgqCec3pUUluz4.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":329,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_I_Mwx6btgq_Cec3p_U_Uluz4_737ef417ab.png","hash":"small_I_Mwx6btgq_Cec3p_U_Uluz4_737ef417ab","mime":"image/png","name":"small_IMwx6btgqCec3pUUluz4.png","path":null,"size":40.02,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_I_Mwx6btgq_Cec3p_U_Uluz4_737ef417ab.png","hash":"medium_I_Mwx6btgq_Cec3p_U_Uluz4_737ef417ab","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_IMwx6btgqCec3pUUluz4.png","path":null,"size":124.21,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_I_Mwx6btgq_Cec3p_U_Uluz4_737ef417ab.png","hash":"thumbnail_I_Mwx6btgq_Cec3p_U_Uluz4_737ef417ab","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_IMwx6btgqCec3pUUluz4.png","path":null,"size":7.82,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"I_Mwx6btgq_Cec3p_U_Uluz4_737ef417ab","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":193.35,"url":"/uploads/I_Mwx6btgq_Cec3p_U_Uluz4_737ef417ab.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-03-24T09:57:28.851Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T09:57:28.882Z"}]},{"id":60,"Title":"What Are the Benefits of Being an Awards Judge? Interview With Faran Niaz","slug":"what-are-the-benefits-of-being-an-awards-judge","Content":"The International CXA® attracts leading CX professionals worldwide, and so many of them have become prominent members of our community. One of the people that contributed immensely to the quality of judging at ICXATM is Faran Niaz, a globally recognized CX Awards Judge & International Motivation & Keynote Speaker, who has judged at our programmes over 15 times. He is at the very top of our most experienced and most knowledgeable judges.\n\nOne of the reasons why Faran is so versed in judging CX initiatives lies in his vast knowledge and industry-specific expertise. His business helps organisations elevate and transform their CX by solving the pains in customer engagement using advanced CX Maturity Matrix models; this enables in-depth analysis and evaluation based on VOC matrics, NPS, CSS, CES surveys, customer centric design, employee engagement, agile journey mapping, digital online and mobile transformation, in line with global CX benchmarks.\n\nWe had the pleasure of interviewing Faran about his experience judging at the awards, why he thinks ICXA is an excellent platform for CX professionals worldwide and what advice he has for new upcoming judges. \n\n\n*1. You've been a judge at the awards many times. What makes them so endearing to you? What do you enjoy the most about judging at our programs?*\n\nI have done more than fifteen events as a Chair Judge, and globally I've probably judged over twenty five CX Award Competitions, with multiple organizations, which is substantial experience. There are multiple things I enjoy about the awards; it's not just one thing, and each of them has its own place. First of all, it's the global scale, or the International aspect of awards judging. The opportunity for me to meet professionals from all over the world is so amazing. A lot of CX Professionals that I used to hear names of - for example, Ian Golding and many others - are now good friends of mine, and that's all through judging at Awards International. When you're meeting other professionals, there is so much that you learn through each other. And that to me is priceless, absolutely priceless. \n\nThe second very important thing; 25 events, sometimes multiple categories, and each category with a minimum 4 or 5 companies presenting... can you imagine how many companies I have listened to and had the opportunity to evaluate their initiatives that they present proudly? There is immense knowledge I acquire, too. We are the ones who are judging, but there are times when you say \"wow, this is such a great initiative\". I remember when we did the International Customer Experience Awards in Amsterdam, which was a live event, a Kenyan Bank presented a phenomenal initiative. Their Mobile app had reached every person at all levels, including farmers and hawkers on the road side selling goods. Digital Banking at its best! And of course they won a Gold Award. Another example, today most organization present NPS scores, and then there comes one company that uses CES (Customer Effort Score) as their main VOC indicator instead of NPS or uses multiple other Metrics according to the need. This gives all judges a good indication that this company uses logical methodology to gather and evaluate their VOC results. I have evaluated over 100-150 companies, listened to their ideas, their suggestions, their initiatives and how they have taken their Customer Experience from average to phenomenal. \n\nAnd most importantly, I have become part of a big community, The Global 'Customer Experience' Community that is unified and works together supporting and helping each other. I even get approached by individuals from many companies directly seeking advice or support on CX matters. This opens all kinds of doors, which is wonderful.\n\n*2. What do you think is the biggest beneﬁt of becoming a judge? How can judging improve a career of a CX professional?*\n\nAwards International has given the people and judges a platform to be highlighted globally. I'll give you a very interesting example. I have over 25 years in the field of Customer Experience with some of the largest Financial Institutions in the world with huge global network - the likes of Citibank, Mashreq and ADIB with presence in multiple countries. That was my network, my professional family, those are the people I worked with. Once I started judging at various Award competitions around the world, my group grew exponentially. Imagine the reach I have now. I am well known not only amongst the CX fraternity but also members in organizations I have judged in every continent. And then, you suddenly realize that, as a professional, you can play a huge part outside the environment you work in. I see judges proudly representing their organizations as a professional achievement and recognition. I remember the first time I judged, CEO proudly announced and internally highlighted that Faran has been selected as a judge at Awards International representing ADIB. So, it's like an achievement, it's like an award and recognition for your staff as well. Imagine how much beneﬁt it gives that professional, who was only known within an organization, as judge is now known globally. The judges in fact become \"the face\" of that organization for the rest of the world.\n\n*3. How would you describe the state of CX today, not just in Dubai but globally? How does it reﬂect on, for example, employee experience and citizen experience?*\n\nWell, ﬁrst we must realize that the norms of experience have changed. Ever since the pandemic came in, the way customers behave, their needs, have changed, and organizations had to adapt to that very quickly. Before, companies used to present themselves with the features of their product. Now, instead of features, there are two things that have become very important. One is safety, and the second one is how well they present themselves on every channel; how easily available they are. There's no concept of 9 to 5 anymore, and customers have become extremely demanding and I will tell you two examples. \n\nI recently ﬂew to Pakistan via Emirates; the moment you sit on the plane, the ﬁrst thing - screen opens up and they say their entire plane has been disinfected. So, as a customer, that's the comfort. They're not showing the plane has these many features, etc. The ﬁrst thing that comes is: this plane is safe and clean. I went to Lisbon; I'm staying in a hotel, the Intercontinental - the door is locked by a sticker that says: this room has been disinfected. Because you know, as a customer, there is somebody else who was living in the room before you. That's the way customer dynamics have changed.\n\nThis is where UAE is very specific. I'm very proud and privileged to be living in a part of the world where the government really takes care of the people. You see that customer experience is at the forefront...because there are not many parts of the world where the rulers of the country are directly involved in customer experience. Everyone remembers, few years ago, when his Highness, Sheikh Mohammed, actually went to different organizations, personally tested the level of service, and then instructed Ministry of Interior to evaluate every government organization on the bases of customer experience and publish the Top 5 and bottom 5. That doesn't happen in many parts of the world. Now, this is passion! Because they care about people, and you feel it. When you come here, when we travel, we always jokingly say that people from Dubai or UAE are spoilt. They're used to good experience, used to good service... It's a competition here, the best of the best - so that drives the exceptional Customer Experience. \n\nSecondly, digital transformation is the dynamics - that's the future organizations are moving towards. So, customer experience, in general, is moving towards a more digitalized world, where options are available as and when the customers want it; wherever they want and at whatever time they want. However, I've been a big advocate and I will repeat it - organizations need to be very, very careful: the balance between human and digital experience needs to be maintained. The world is moving towards AI, augmented reality and Metaverse. It is a strange concept that we would experience everything virtually but without FEELING. Nothing can ever replace a Smile or just a few important words of empathy that this world so badly needs today. Emotions and feelings cannot be replicated. Technology will always be a driving force, it will always be an enabler, but it will never replace true Customer Experience – the human touch.\n\nLately I read a very interesting article and saw a video, which highlighted GEN-CX and suggested that organizations should not think in terms of GEN-Y or GEN-Z but in todays world, all customer needs and demands are universal no matter what segment they belong to. E.g. we all need the same thing, we are not 9 to 5, we are 24 hours. We want what we want, when we want, where we want. It doesn't matter if it's an old person or a young person; the requirement of the experience is the same because they are humans. So, instead of different segments, now the world probably needs to move to Generation-CX. Post pandemic, everybody realized customers want the same - faster, simpler & better.\n\n\n*4. On that note: any advice for new judges joining us for the ﬁrst time this year? What should they focus on in assessing CX initiatives at the awards?*\n\nThrough Awards International I had the opportunity to talk to and counsel some new Judges who were at it for the first time. We had such amazing discussions and it helped them a lot to hear and learn from an experienced judge. I clarified many concepts and concerns they had.\n\nFirst of all, I will start with a very interesting phase (from the Marvel world) which is very important for all Judges to hold on to - \"with power comes responsibility\".\n\nThis [the judging] is power, when you sit in a room and big organizations are presenting to you...big names, some global giants. How important you would feel sitting at that Judges seat. It's not just evaluation but finally a winner that the judges will chose. What I love about Awards International is it's un-biased transparency. It's not one judge making the decision but the winner is decided based on the scores of all judges – in many cases 4, 5 judges on each panel. However, imagine if some judges in the group have different levels of understanding or not at par with other judges on evaluation criteria, it can dramatically impact the final scores and ultimately the choice of winner. That’s why its extremely important that understanding of concepts of judges must align. If one judge gives a score of 90, and another of 60 for the same presentation - then something is wrong there.\n\nAnd that happens only when you start using perception instead of what's been presented to you. And that's the mistake some judges make; they perceive..\"oh, this is happening, so this must have happened, or that\". Always judge what has been presented to you; our responsibility is to judge what has been shown and not promised! What has not been presented cannot be judged. So, as a judge I need to ask myself - what am I looking for? As a new judge, you should be clear that you're looking for that particular initiative they have submitted, and that category you need to understand. For example, if it's the 'Best Digital Strategy' or 'Customer-Centric Culture', the entry and material presented should also be very specific to the category, within the defined parameters. Anything outside the parameters, no matter how beautiful and attractive – should not be part of scoring. \n\nNumbers are important. But, if somebody writes \"our indicators are improving or we improved our indicators fifty times\" - that doesn't mean anything. Maybe their NPS score was 2 before; and if it's 4 now, yes - it's a 100% increase but it still falls short of the global Benchmarks. So you need to be clear about the numbers; the judges should also be knowledgeable. Because you should know that if somebody's presenting, either that number is a good number or a bad number from the global benchmark's perspective. I was asked by one new judge: \"Faran, I read all the entries, and their numbers are good, but they are not at the level of the best in the world. Shall I fail everyone? And I said, not every race will have a Usain Bolt in the race. So, if Bolt is the Benchmark of racing - the fastest man on Earth, but if ﬁve people are racing without him, then the race is between ﬁve of them. Whoever crosses the line first in the best possible time – wins! So, compare the ﬁve entries amongst each other, not with something else that you know. And that is a mistake many judges make; that they start evaluating the entry not on its totality, but they go somewhere else and they start comparing. For example, it's a small airline, you can't compare it with a large airline group, so, you need to concentrate on what has been presented. Many small organizations have won awards over large competitors purely based on the excellent initiative that they presented. Once in the Judges room, they are all equal.\n\n\nThere are two more things new judges need to understand. One - there is the written entry and then, there is the presentation. For the entry, read everything that has been presented and look for evidence. This is my strategy: I read all of the entries one time ﬁrst. I don't score them individually, I read each one of them. And then, when I read, I have ﬁve stories with me and that very clearly tells me which story is the best, and which story is number two and number three, because it's very clear - I'm comparing them. My job as a judge is to ﬁnd the best one amongst them. How to do that? By comparing all of them to each other; you can only do it if you read them one by one. So, at least TWO times - I read all the entries and my mind is very clear, and I score accordingly. \n\nAs for the presentation, I have seen the best entries and worst presentations and then I have seen very normal entries but amazing presentations. For the written part, you can tell sometimes somebody professional has written it; but when it comes to the presentation, there is nobody professional enough to present it. One example is HSBC - when they come to present, they come with a bang. All of them come together, they wear the same clothes, they're very enthusiastic, they have brochures and material to give to judges – hard evidence. It makes a difference. As a judge, I highly value evidence instead of just chat. But - it's the responsibility of the judges also to keep their minds clear and not involve personal desires and personal likes. There was one organization from the UK who was presenting an initiative where their team was based on the theme of Barcelona Football Club; so they created everything around Barcelona FC. One judge actually got upset, he said: I don't like Barcelona; I'm a Real Madrid fan... But when you come into that judges' room, with responsibility, that responsibility means that you need to be neutral. Personal likes and dislikes do not matter and should not matter. So, make sure that your mind is clear. \n\n\nAlso, the responsibility of asking questions is very important; after every presentation, there is a 15-min Q&A session. Those questions need to be very intelligent and precise. Those questions tell the other side that you as a judge are listening and understand whats been presented – paying attention. If you don’t ask questions - either you are not attentive or worst , you don't care. Don't ask questions for the sake of the questioning, but ask as that's part of your job. Asking questions means that you get more clariﬁcation for something their presentation is missing or is unclear. This will help you to score better. \n\n\n*5. Why would you recommend participating in this year's awards? What makes ICXA™ a unique CX programe for judges and entrants alike?*\n\nI think every program organized by Awards International has its own importance depending on the part of the world. US, UK, Europe, Turkey and Gulf Customer Experience Awards have all their own importance and standing. Sustainability in itself is an amazing Award category now. Each Awards has their own uniqueness. \n\nWhat makes ICXA special is that this is truly on a Global scale; now we're not talking about continents only, which makes it extremely competitive and opportunity to be recognized and crowned at the world stage – the Best of the Best. Imagine that you win an award for a continent, versus - you win an award at the International level. That's what makes this program unique; it is an elevation, proof of your presence on a global scale. And that is true for the judges too; the scale is very different for judges as well and the level of exposure it gives them. \n\nThis year, it becomes far more important because now we are leaving COVID behind. The previous year was: 'let's talk about how you have handled COVID'. This year, nobody's going to ask you this question. The question the judges are going to ask you is - how did you not only survive that time, but you came out a winner from it. These organizations will be the ones who have survived through those times, not only survived but made it through, and not only made it through but excelled. So, this year we will be evaluating those who are survivors and did exceptional work for customers, employees and the community. \n\n\n

\n\n
\n\n**Would you like to take part in this year's International CXA® as a judge, and join other successful CX professionals? Follow the link to [apply now](https://internationalcxaward.com/apply-to-judge). See you at the awards!**\n\n","Date":"2022-08-09T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-08-09T12:19:20.229Z","created_at":"2022-08-09T12:19:18.128Z","updated_at":"2022-08-09T13:13:14.358Z","Images":[{"id":817,"name":"blog 1000x329 Faran.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1001,"height":330,"formats":{"large":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/large_blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d.png","hash":"large_blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d","mime":"image/png","name":"large_blog 1000x329 Faran.png","path":null,"size":477.85,"width":1000,"height":330},"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d.png","hash":"small_blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d","mime":"image/png","name":"small_blog 1000x329 Faran.png","path":null,"size":115.17,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d.png","hash":"medium_blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_blog 1000x329 Faran.png","path":null,"size":265.79,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d.png","hash":"thumbnail_blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_blog 1000x329 Faran.png","path":null,"size":32.37,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":357.24,"url":"/uploads/blog_1000x329_Faran_91234dbb7d.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-08-09T12:19:09.236Z","updated_at":"2022-08-09T12:19:09.317Z"}]},{"id":35,"Title":"CRC[X] - The Customer Experience Initiative","slug":"crc[x]-the-customer-experience-initiative","Content":"

Customer-Centric Culture is one of our most popular categories, attracting top companies worldwide. At last year's ICXA™, we had several leading companies that submitted outstanding success stories in this category and greatly impressed the judges. One of them is CRC Companies' customer experience initiative.

\n\n#### The Challenge\n\nIn 2010, several CRC employees attended Disney Institute training to prepare to manage a new property being developed for single sailors in San Diego. The foundation for excellent customer service set the tone for the years to come, resulting in the property achieving the highest levels of customer satisfaction across the US Navy’s entire portfolio, as well as resounding financial success.\n\nIn 2018, they began to examine service and satisfaction levels at our other properties and realised that customer experiences are just as – and arguably even more! – important than the product, operations, price point, or other more traditional metrics. To become active leaders in the experience economy, they needed to win over the consumers of the future.\n\n#### The Approach\n\n

So, later that year, with senior leadership support, CRC[X] was formed to meet the strategic needs of the company (to gain market share, increase price points, and reduce turnover).They set out to unite all team members, including those of their third-party property manager, under a single ethos and CX vision to consistently deliver unrivalled experiences across CRC’s 16,770-unit nationwide housing portfolio.

\n\nFrom 2018-2021, they followed a CX framework to “Measure” and quantify customer sentiment, “Engage” both customer-facing and non-customer facing team members to create a CX-focused culture, and “Elevate” their products and services to enhance specific touchpoints in the customer journey.\n\nThey conducted close to 90 hours of initial CX training for more than 600\nemployees and service providers, developed a 24-month curriculum of CX Topic Talks and a framework for advancing employee-generated CX ideas toward implementation. They also awarded 12 CX Grants to employees for worthy CX and EX initiatives.\n\n

Determined to adapt to new customer needs due to COVID-19, they rolled out a Sunshine Program for isolated seniors and created an innovative Co-Working Space for young apartment dwellers who needed private office space away from roommates. This program yielded tremendous results at every level, bringing CRC Companies gold at last year's International CXA®.

\n\n

\nHave you done tremendous things for your customers that you would like to get recognised for? \n

If you have a customer-centric success story worthy of winning a top accolade, submit your initiative and compete with the best of the best.

\n\n\n\n","Date":"2022-04-21T11:30:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-04-21T11:41:55.803Z","created_at":"2022-04-21T11:41:53.716Z","updated_at":"2022-04-21T11:51:53.552Z","Images":[{"id":296,"name":"1000x329 winner story 1.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":330,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_1000x329_winner_story_1_5c20c9193e.png","hash":"small_1000x329_winner_story_1_5c20c9193e","mime":"image/png","name":"small_1000x329 winner story 1.png","path":null,"size":87.93,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_1000x329_winner_story_1_5c20c9193e.png","hash":"medium_1000x329_winner_story_1_5c20c9193e","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_1000x329 winner story 1.png","path":null,"size":176.78,"width":750,"height":248},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_1000x329_winner_story_1_5c20c9193e.png","hash":"thumbnail_1000x329_winner_story_1_5c20c9193e","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_1000x329 winner story 1.png","path":null,"size":27.1,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"1000x329_winner_story_1_5c20c9193e","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":162.58,"url":"/uploads/1000x329_winner_story_1_5c20c9193e.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-04-21T11:41:18.982Z","updated_at":"2022-04-21T11:41:19.087Z"}]},{"id":28,"Title":"Why good customer experience is an immeasurable asset today","slug":"why-good-customer-experience-is-an-immeasurable-asset-today","Content":"Customer experience has been in focus for years, if not decades. However, many organisations do not fully understand the importance of CX for business success. Here is why every company should invest in customer experience to yield long-term results.\n\n#### Customers control the process now\n\nIn the past, customers didn’t have all the information about a product/service, so they had to rely on “outside help”. Without a company to lead them through the process, customers were practically lost.\n\n With the advent of the internet and the booming popularity of smartphones, customers now have so much information at their fingertips. Compared to just a few decades ago, they now know everything they need about a business – before even getting to the first touchpoint. Therefore, it’s not the question of having information; it’s all about the experience your audience can expect.\n\n Before even deciding to interact with your organisation, customers will know almost everything about you – except one thing: how you make them feel along the buying journey. If you provide them with exceptional customer experience, you will give them a solid reason to become your repeat customers and stay loyal to your brand. And customers definitely won’t go away from a business that treats them respectfully and makes them feel good about themselves.\n\n#### Happy customers stay loyal to the brand (and promote it)\n\nA brand advocate won’t appear unless they are delighted with your company and the way it treats customers. And if you really want to maintain respect and trust, you need to rely on brand advocates to promote your business.\n\n Simply put, brand advocates are happy customers that would be glad to talk about your organisation. They like you so much, and trust you completely, that they won’t skip an opportunity to mention you to new, potential customers. This is why it’s essential to provide exquisite customer experience so that your customers cannot help but mention how good they feel being part of your community.\n\n Remember, it’s not only the product or the service – it’s the way you make people feel about every single interaction with your business. And if they feel good, they will spread the word about you and won’t go elsewhere to get the best experience.\n\n#### Your business will get better exposure in the market\n\nThe days when customers were only interested in the product or service are long gone. You cannot count on that for success; it’s far more complicated because there are many factors at play.\n\n First of all, the market has increased a dozen times. Therefore, the offer on the market is much, much bigger and it’s very hard to get noticed solely based on having a good product. Of course, you need to have a reasonable offer, but what’s also important is the story you create around that product and the customer experience you provide. The reason for this is simple: if there are two similar businesses, or five or ten – the ones with the best chance of thriving will be those with the best customer experience.\n\n Although it seems hard to believe, it is the truth in today’s business. Companies that invest the most in their customer experience will get more exposure in the market and reinforce their brand. Because it’s much easier to create a solid product or good service than to provide good experiences for the customers. Having stellar CX will help solidify your company and give you a great foundation to develop further.\n\n\n\n","Date":"2021-07-28T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-03-24T10:37:46.241Z","created_at":"2022-03-24T10:37:42.514Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T10:37:46.253Z","Images":[{"id":251,"name":"bG7sS9I6mzkbu6N01pJT.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":329,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_b_G7s_S9_I6mzkbu6_N01p_JT_2c8d0ec5ff.png","hash":"small_b_G7s_S9_I6mzkbu6_N01p_JT_2c8d0ec5ff","mime":"image/png","name":"small_bG7sS9I6mzkbu6N01pJT.png","path":null,"size":152.31,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_b_G7s_S9_I6mzkbu6_N01p_JT_2c8d0ec5ff.png","hash":"medium_b_G7s_S9_I6mzkbu6_N01p_JT_2c8d0ec5ff","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_bG7sS9I6mzkbu6N01pJT.png","path":null,"size":332.51,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_b_G7s_S9_I6mzkbu6_N01p_JT_2c8d0ec5ff.png","hash":"thumbnail_b_G7s_S9_I6mzkbu6_N01p_JT_2c8d0ec5ff","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_bG7sS9I6mzkbu6N01pJT.png","path":null,"size":41.78,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"b_G7s_S9_I6mzkbu6_N01p_JT_2c8d0ec5ff","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":403.39,"url":"/uploads/b_G7s_S9_I6mzkbu6_N01p_JT_2c8d0ec5ff.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-03-24T10:37:38.113Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T10:37:38.145Z"}]},{"id":24,"Title":"Another 4 Ways to Improve Customer Engagement","slug":"another-4-ways-to-improve-customer-engagement","Content":"In our previous article, we talked about four ways to improve customer engagement for your business. But we've only scratched the surface! You can do so many more things to engage your customers further and keep them excited about your products or services.\n\nSo, let's dig in, shall we? Here are another four ways to improve your customer engagement.\n\n#### Create a fan club\n\nWhy not go beyond the obvious, simple solutions, such as creating a Facebook page, Twitter hashtag or a subreddit thread? It can be so much more rewarding if you make your own fan club, for example. By becoming club members, your customers will feel an even stronger emotional connection with your brand and, in turn, stay loyal to your company in the long run.\n\nFor those who join, you can create membership cards with special discounts and incentives. You can also organise regular giveaways or have monthly and annual rewards for the most loyal members. Furthermore, you can offer additional perks and benefits for those who refer someone new to your fan club. All these things will further strengthen your community.\n\n#### Gamify your content\n\nPeople love having fun, and no one wants to have boring content to deal with. That is why many companies embrace gamification as a way to engage their customers more. And it gives tangible results. Here is what you can do.\n\nIntroduce leaderboards and create badges for substantial achievements. In the leaderboard, customers can see how they score against each other, and when someone reaches a milestone – they get a badge. They can then promote that badge on their social media, thus increasing your brand awareness and exposure.\n\nAlso, you can introduce progress bars. For example – showing customers how much of the website page they have read, how much is left until they fill out a form, etc. We have a behavioural trait to feel more compelled to finish a task if we can see how much we progressed. And it gives excellent results for customer engagement.\n\nFor more tips and examples of successful ways to approach gamification, check out this article from [Quicksprout.](https://www.quicksprout.com/how-to-easily-add-gamification-techniques-to-your-content/)\n\n#### Organise company tours\n\nThis is one of the best ways for customers to know you up-close and become more engaged with your business. You can take your customers on a tour around the company, showing various departments, interviewing your employees, explaining your production process, etc.\n\nThe good thing is that you control how much you want to show (it doesn't have to be everything, only that which would interest your customers). Also, it doesn't have to be an on-site tour; thanks to the internet, it can be a tour conducted entirely online, from start to finish.\n\nCustomers can ask questions, chat with you and your employees, find out about the ins and outs of your daily activities and be invested in what you do! This can be a particular benefit for all customers and a unique feature available only to the members of your fan club.\n\n#### Tie your business to a greater goal\n\nYour authentic audience will follow you if you give them a reason to. This is why it's beneficial to tie your business to a goal beyond earning a profit or selling more products. Remember, your actual customers stay loyal because of your values and your company vision.\n\nSuppose the customers see that you're part of charity activities and care about the environment by being \"eco-friendly\". In that case, they will feel a much stronger connection when your company contributes to the greater community. As a result, they will support your goals and be more engaged with your day-to-day activities by taking an active role.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","Date":"2021-09-22T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-03-24T09:47:45.979Z","created_at":"2022-03-24T09:46:47.608Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T09:58:28.671Z","Images":[{"id":247,"name":"NUos5PeeRfu3NObIoF0G.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":329,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_N_Uos5_Pee_Rfu3_N_Ob_Io_F0_G_e96d0bf126.png","hash":"small_N_Uos5_Pee_Rfu3_N_Ob_Io_F0_G_e96d0bf126","mime":"image/png","name":"small_NUos5PeeRfu3NObIoF0G.png","path":null,"size":135.57,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_N_Uos5_Pee_Rfu3_N_Ob_Io_F0_G_e96d0bf126.png","hash":"medium_N_Uos5_Pee_Rfu3_N_Ob_Io_F0_G_e96d0bf126","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_NUos5PeeRfu3NObIoF0G.png","path":null,"size":298.12,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_N_Uos5_Pee_Rfu3_N_Ob_Io_F0_G_e96d0bf126.png","hash":"thumbnail_N_Uos5_Pee_Rfu3_N_Ob_Io_F0_G_e96d0bf126","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_NUos5PeeRfu3NObIoF0G.png","path":null,"size":34.88,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"N_Uos5_Pee_Rfu3_N_Ob_Io_F0_G_e96d0bf126","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":339.86,"url":"/uploads/N_Uos5_Pee_Rfu3_N_Ob_Io_F0_G_e96d0bf126.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-03-24T09:46:42.864Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T09:46:42.910Z"}]},{"id":45,"Title":"How Proximus Implemented Customer Insight & Feedback to Upgrade Their Customer Journey ","slug":"how-proximus-implemented-customer-insight-and-feedback-to-upgrade-their-customer-journey","Content":"Proximus is one of four major telecom operators in Belgium, and a trusted ICT partner supporting companies in their digital transformation. As the country's leading telecom operator, Proximus aims to become the reference operator in Europe, opening a world of digital opportunities, so people live better and work smarter. To achieve this, they use customer feedback and actionable insights to drive project prioritisation, roadmaps, and coaching efforts towards customer-facing teams.\n\nThere are four main telco operators in Belgium, and the competition between them is very strong. If they intend to stay in the market and prosper, they need to ensure that their customer experience is exceptional. The team at Proximus had to face several questions of vital importance. Why would a prospect choose them instead of another telco provider? What makes them better and unique? And why would an existing customer recommend Proximus to their family and friends?\n\nIt was clear that all of this depended heavily on the experience the company offered. Therefore, Proximus decided to transform into a truly customer-centric digital company and become the reference telco operator in Europe for customer experience. However, to achieve this, they had to go forward with several transformational initiatives.\n\n**Voice of the Customer**\n\nIn 2018, Proximus implemented their relational NPS survey & dashboards via email invitations. During 2019-2020, they added mass market customer surveys & dashboards via email, web popup, and mobile app. In 2021, the focus shifted toward personalising invitations via SMS, applying text analytics on verbatim feedback, smarter questions & clearer dashboards to boost actionability. The goal was to improve the way the company gathers customer feedback and acts on it:\n\n- collecting actionable feedback specifically from targeted customers across various channels of communication\n- covering relational, product usage, journey and (non-)digital touchpoint experiences without spamming customers\n- enriching the 360-view of the customers and combining CX feedback with operational data increasing employee awareness and having a deeper, more thorough understanding of the customers' needs\n\n**End-to-End Journey Redesign**\n\n'End-to-End Journey redesign' identified journeys as a series of interactions initiated by a customer, and these interactions should provide an effortless solution to that. Teams delivered better solutions faster, thanks to an agile project approach and co-creation of the digitalised solutions. Listening to the customers showed Proximus to look at their experience end-to-end and with a digital-first mindset. \n\nFor that purpose, the team identified journeys based on crucial moments for their customers; they improved and digitised them via design thinking exercises in co-creation with the customers. Each journey has been defined as a series of interactions initiated by a customer's need, focused on providing a solution with minimal effort for them.\n\nThe company set up an agile Customer Experience train composed of multi-disciplinary teams, with profiles from across the company, and with support from change managers, agile & design thinking coaches. The work was organised incrementally: planning and demo sessions with all stakeholders and bi-weekly sprint reviews at the team level. The co-creation process with the customers helped define better solutions; the agile approach improved predictability and speed of delivery.\n\n\n*If you want to find out more about Proximus' winning initiative, and the results they achieved, download our CX ebook and learn from the best practices! The ebook contains three winning initiatives in total, along with actionable tips you can use for your own business. Get the ebook for FREE at the following link: [https://internationalcxaward.com/resources](https://internationalcxaward.com/resources)*\n","Date":"2022-07-27T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-07-27T13:07:14.500Z","created_at":"2022-07-27T13:07:12.932Z","updated_at":"2022-07-27T13:07:14.512Z","Images":[{"id":725,"name":"1000x329.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":330,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_1000x329_88239b1c91.png","hash":"small_1000x329_88239b1c91","mime":"image/png","name":"small_1000x329.png","path":null,"size":108.22,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_1000x329_88239b1c91.png","hash":"medium_1000x329_88239b1c91","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_1000x329.png","path":null,"size":213.48,"width":750,"height":248},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_1000x329_88239b1c91.png","hash":"thumbnail_1000x329_88239b1c91","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_1000x329.png","path":null,"size":33.93,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"1000x329_88239b1c91","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":188.81,"url":"/uploads/1000x329_88239b1c91.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-07-27T13:07:05.856Z","updated_at":"2022-07-27T13:07:05.876Z"}]},{"id":27,"Title":"What is Journey Mapping for Customer Experience?","slug":"what-is-journey-mapping-for-customer-experience-?","Content":"How to understand your customers better? How to understand their buying decisions and their overall experience during the purchase process? One of the best ways to do this is journey mapping. But, what is journey mapping in the first place? This article will give you the basics of journey mapping and why it is essential for offering exquisite customer experience in the long term.\n\n#### The customer journey map\n\nAs the name itself suggests, the purpose of journey mapping is to create a journey map (or a customer journey map). This is a graphic representation of the entire buyer journey, from start to finish, including all the expected touchpoints. \n\nA good customer journey map helps you plan all the moments of interaction much better, thus leading to improved customer experience. It allows you to describe each stage of the buyer journey, along with the level of awareness and emotions connected to it.\n\nAlso, a good, well-developed journey map enables you to:\n

Anticipate your customers' needs
Craft much better offers to meet your customers' needs
Place all the expected touchpoints in the right order
Eliminate all the unnecessary parts of the buyer journey
Deliver your products/services more effectively

\n\n#### What is customer journey mapping?\n\nThis is the process of researching, planning, developing and creating a customer journey map. It transforms all you have found and compiled in your research with the visuals and text that further explain how your customers feel about what they expect from your business.\n\nIt starts with analysing the customer personas, and listing out all communication channels and touchpoints along the way. \n\n

Here's an example: a sales executive in their 40s will discover the product on social media and then go to the website and opt to buy the product. They will start by having zero knowledge about the product but will learn more about it along the way and feel happy and satisfied for having bought it.

\n\nThis is highly simplified, of course, but it is the essence of what customer journey mapping should be and how it can help improve your day-to-day interactions with customers. The more in-depth you are in research and development, the better your customer journey mapping will be.\n\n#### Why is it essential for customer experience?\n\nWell-prepared and detailed customer journey mapping leaves very little room for unplanned or unwanted scenarios in the purchase process. You can optimise and tailor customer experience according to specific needs, track them and measure the level of customers' satisfaction. \n\nWhether you're running a large company or a mid-size to small enterprise, customer journey mapping is equally crucial for all types of businesses. Customers are still customers, regardless of the size of a company; they have the same needs, and they all want to be respected and cherished. \n\nWhen you create a customer journey map, you will be closer to your customers to understand their innermost needs much better. And when they interact with your product or service, they will know exactly how it can benefit them. As a result, you will have a higher chance of increasing your revenue and creating a community of happy customers for the long term.\n\n\n\n","Date":"2021-08-11T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-03-24T10:32:24.800Z","created_at":"2022-03-24T10:32:19.809Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T10:32:24.812Z","Images":[{"id":250,"name":"6JP3uywrT4QlLQI8hVdl.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":329,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_6_JP_3uywr_T4_Ql_LQI_8h_Vdl_2bdbd6705c.png","hash":"small_6_JP_3uywr_T4_Ql_LQI_8h_Vdl_2bdbd6705c","mime":"image/png","name":"small_6JP3uywrT4QlLQI8hVdl.png","path":null,"size":173.41,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_6_JP_3uywr_T4_Ql_LQI_8h_Vdl_2bdbd6705c.png","hash":"medium_6_JP_3uywr_T4_Ql_LQI_8h_Vdl_2bdbd6705c","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_6JP3uywrT4QlLQI8hVdl.png","path":null,"size":374.1,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_6_JP_3uywr_T4_Ql_LQI_8h_Vdl_2bdbd6705c.png","hash":"thumbnail_6_JP_3uywr_T4_Ql_LQI_8h_Vdl_2bdbd6705c","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_6JP3uywrT4QlLQI8hVdl.png","path":null,"size":45.35,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"6_JP_3uywr_T4_Ql_LQI_8h_Vdl_2bdbd6705c","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":459.8,"url":"/uploads/6_JP_3uywr_T4_Ql_LQI_8h_Vdl_2bdbd6705c.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-03-24T10:32:15.626Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T10:32:15.639Z"}]},{"id":66,"Title":"Turning a 2-star App Into a Leading Dutch Staffing App","slug":"turning-a-2-star-app-into-a-leading-dutch-staffing-app","Content":"The team at Timing was aware of the fact that it's important to have control over your working life. This is even more important in times of prolonged or increased economic uncertainty. Therefore, they decided to create an app that will provide total control over one's working life at Timing. Timing is in the top-3 staffing agencies in The Netherlands, matching 15.000 flex workers with jobs weekly. \n\nTheir team ensures that production, logistics, cleaning and administration get done, providing clients with a secure basis to maintain business and thrive. Their previous app had already been used by a large group of workers, so they wanted a smooth transition to the new app. They also wanted to ensure the new app provides convenience and takes away any obstacles in the journey of the workforce.\n\nThey created an e-mail campaign for the end-users, informing them about what was planned and what the effects would be. When the time came to go live, they rolled out in different phases; this gave them time to monitor the adoption of the new app and ensure there were no operational issues. \n\nTo validate functionality prior to launch, the team worked closely with beta testers and the customers. For the in-app company onboarding module, 4 pilot customers were involved in the process, giving feedback to optimize the functionality before rollout. The module has quickly received positive reviews from customers, job consultants and end users.\n\nFor this initiative, Timing won Silver in the category Customers at the Heart of EverythingTM - Under 1,000 Employees at last year's ICXATM. For this blog, we had the honour of talking to Stijn Bossink, app Product Owner at Timing about their award-winning initiative and the reasons for taking part in the International CXA® programme. Enjoy the read!\n\n**Going back to your initiative, what was the most challenging part of the implementation? What would you single out as the biggest problem your organisation had to overcome in reaching the results?**\n\nAs the app was already a vital pillar in the digital service to our flexible workers, we couldn’t afford downtime caused by the major update of our app. People rely on our app to show their planning. Unavailability of the app itself could result in no-show of our temp workers at the customer, causing issues in the continuity of vital processes in factories, distribution centers, call centers and so on. A seamless transition was key to the success and adoption of the renewed Timing app. To tackle this challenge, we made sure our end users, job consultants and customers were informed prior to launch. We prepared F.A.Q.’s and tested the new app with a group of users prior to launching. We also used a phased rollout approach, giving us more control over the speed of the launch. I’m glad to report that this effort has resulted in a flawless launch!\n\n**Are you happy with how your customers responded to the new app and onboarding module? What is it they love the most about these improvements?**\n\nYes, the feedback and appreciation of our user base has really confirmed that we are on the right track. It’s great to learn that all of our hard work delivers the value we’ve intended to create. Users are happy the app gives them everything they need for their work, taking away day-to-day hassle around planning, salary, document flows and more. The onboarding module is adopted nicely by a lot of our customers. This module offers a tailor-made welcome package to new temporary staff, pro-actively answering questions they might have. This helps both the employee, our job consultant and our customer by taking away stress and uncertainty of a first work week. The result is that our job consultants can focus on the human interaction, in stead of dealing with practical issues.\n\n**What helped you decide to enter ICXATM and showcase your achievements?**\n\nThe strong jury panel and the international podium drew our initial attention. The fact that this is a jury rated awards show, with multiple rounds of written entries and a presentation, convinced us that participating would be valuable for us, as we would be given feedback by a strong panel of peers.\n\n**What are Timing's current plans? Any news and updates you'd like to share?**\n\nOne of our challenges is to retain flexible workers at Timing. This is a common problem all temp agencies have to deal with. Retention of temporary staff is key to our business and the business of our customers. The Timing app was initially focused on the working population of our temporary staff. Now, we’re preparing an update which will open the door for all app users to find their next job with Timing. We’re very excited to bring this functionality to the app as we will attribute to an increased lifetime value of our valued group of ‘Timers’. \n\n\n","Date":"2022-09-29T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-09-29T07:43:20.231Z","created_at":"2022-09-29T07:43:18.520Z","updated_at":"2022-09-29T08:51:10.340Z","Images":[{"id":1272,"name":"1000x329 blog 5 (1).png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":330,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_1000x329_blog_5_1_6fec04d9d1.png","hash":"small_1000x329_blog_5_1_6fec04d9d1","mime":"image/png","name":"small_1000x329 blog 5 (1).png","path":null,"size":112.02,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_1000x329_blog_5_1_6fec04d9d1.png","hash":"medium_1000x329_blog_5_1_6fec04d9d1","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_1000x329 blog 5 (1).png","path":null,"size":265.4,"width":750,"height":248},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_1000x329_blog_5_1_6fec04d9d1.png","hash":"thumbnail_1000x329_blog_5_1_6fec04d9d1","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_1000x329 blog 5 (1).png","path":null,"size":31.38,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"1000x329_blog_5_1_6fec04d9d1","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":379.06,"url":"/uploads/1000x329_blog_5_1_6fec04d9d1.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-09-29T08:51:07.430Z","updated_at":"2022-09-29T08:51:07.449Z"}]},{"id":26,"Title":"4 Key Phases of Creating a Customer Journey Map","slug":"4-key-phases-of-creating-a-customer-journey-map","Content":"The customer journey map represents all the interactions your customers have with your company, from the awareness stage to the moment they decide to make the purchase.\n\nHaving this map helps you understand your customers better by knowing all the touchpoints along the way and the channels of communication.\n\nIt also helps you anticipate your customers' needs and wants by knowing what you can offer to them and when depending on where they are in the journey.\n\nBut, how to create a customer journey map? Here are the five stages of creating one for your business.\n\n#### 1. Engage your customer personas\n\nYou cannot have a good customer journey map if you don't know who your customers are. This is why it's crucial to define your customer personas first and then move on.\n\nSo, start with going through each of your customer personas, improving and refining them. Once you are happy with them, start integrating them in the journey map. Point out your customers' motivation and challenges: what excites them, what makes them fearful, what their biggest problem is, etc.\n\n

Use this as the starting point of their journey. For example: [name] is a bit apprehensive because they don't understand [problem] well enough, and they want to have [desired outcome] as the solution.

\n\n#### 2. Research your customer feedback\n\nThere is no way of understanding your customers well unless you listen to them attentively. Customer feedback can help you get a better picture of what they want, need and expect from your company.\n\nAnalyse your past surveys, comments of social media, online reviews, testimonials, etc. Also, you can conduct new research to gather fresh information and then compare it to what you already have.\n\n

Once you have gathered good feedback, analyse it all and think about what you can use in the customer journey. For example: a lot of our customers complain about our customer support not being responsive enough; let's improve upon that.

\n\n#### 3. Start mapping out the journey\n\nOnce you have refined your customer personas and researched your customer feedback, it's time to sketch out the blueprint for the journey map. This is still far from the finished map, so consider it a working version of the end product.\n\nNow it's time to set up the touchpoints and write out the expected level of understanding and emotional state of the customers for each of the touchpoints. This will give you a clearer picture of how the actual customer journey can look like.\n\n

Here is one example: a slightly frustrated customer because of [problem] interacts with our [type of content] on our [communication channel]; then, they go to our website, learn more about [product/service] and decide to [expected action] and are happy and satisfied for having solved [type of problem].*

\n\n*This is highly simplified to give you an idea as most customer journey maps are far more complex and intricate, with dozens of touchpoints and various channels of communication.\n\n#### 4. Find and eliminate all roadblocks\n\nIn order to be fully prepared, your map needs to be free from any potential roadblocks. Roadblocks are all those things that make the customer journey more difficult or things that complicate the interactions and confuse your customers.\n\nGo through the entire journey map point by point, and analyse it in relation to your customer personas. Will they have a hard time understanding your message? How difficult is it to use the info you provided? Will they be able to get to the end of the purchase process by themselves quickly? Is there anything you forgot to add or include?\n\nBy removing all potential roadblocks, you will further improve your customer journey map, and it will be ready to help your customers facilitate interactions with your organisation.\n\n\n\n","Date":"2021-08-25T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-03-24T10:25:59.777Z","created_at":"2022-03-24T10:25:16.151Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T10:25:59.787Z","Images":[{"id":249,"name":"Wu5qEqEBSCXAG0zTmngF.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":329,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_Wu5q_Eq_EBSCXAG_0z_Tmng_F_739ef3e166.png","hash":"small_Wu5q_Eq_EBSCXAG_0z_Tmng_F_739ef3e166","mime":"image/png","name":"small_Wu5qEqEBSCXAG0zTmngF.png","path":null,"size":160.76,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_Wu5q_Eq_EBSCXAG_0z_Tmng_F_739ef3e166.png","hash":"medium_Wu5q_Eq_EBSCXAG_0z_Tmng_F_739ef3e166","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_Wu5qEqEBSCXAG0zTmngF.png","path":null,"size":352.49,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_Wu5q_Eq_EBSCXAG_0z_Tmng_F_739ef3e166.png","hash":"thumbnail_Wu5q_Eq_EBSCXAG_0z_Tmng_F_739ef3e166","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_Wu5qEqEBSCXAG0zTmngF.png","path":null,"size":41.7,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"Wu5q_Eq_EBSCXAG_0z_Tmng_F_739ef3e166","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":383.93,"url":"/uploads/Wu5q_Eq_EBSCXAG_0z_Tmng_F_739ef3e166.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-03-24T10:25:47.372Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T10:25:47.396Z"}]},{"id":29,"Title":"5 proven methods to create a CX strategy","slug":"5-proven-methods-to-create-a-cx-strategy","Content":"You won't be able to offer excellent customer experience to your clients without a solid CX strategy. But what is a customer experience strategy, anyway? It is the detailed plan for all the processes within your company that will improve your customer experience and help improve your business.\n\n How to create the best customer experience strategy? Here are five methods that will help you along the way.\n\n#### Define your objectives\n\nBefore you start implementing specific practices, you need to decide where you want to go. What direction would you like your company to take? Where would you like your results to take you? What are the specific benefits you want for your customers? Answers to these questions will help define your objectives better.\n\n Once you have the objectives mapped out, you will be able to move on to the next stage: securing the logistics. Consider the following questions. Do you have enough staff to take care of everything? Do you have enough financial resources for your day-to-day processes? What are the aspects of the work you don't have but need to have? How much will you need to invest in achieving the objectives?\n\n Answers to all these will help you prepare the ground for the next phase.\n\n#### Analyze your competitors\n\nIf you want to create the best customer experience for your business, you will need to check your competitors. It will help you understand your current position much better.\n\nYour research should include how your competitors handle complaints, how they provide value, how well they have branded themselves, what new aspects they are introducing, and so on. Make sure to note down two essential elements: what they are doing well and what they should improve. When you identify these critical aspects, it will enable you to see where you are exactly and what you need to improve.\n\n#### Refine your customer personas\n\nYou probably have customer personas already, but if you're just starting to create a CX strategy for your business – you may need to redefine your customer personas. Go back to the beginning and check how you initially approached customer personas. Are they the same people you want to address now and in the future? Is there anything you would like to add?\n\n The most crucial aspect of CX is creating the perfect journey for the specific customer persona. Therefore, make sure that your customer persona – or personas – are detailed and created according to your business objectives. Remember: customer personas should not be perceived as abstract people,but rather as real people, with their wants and needs. The more accurate you make them, the better they will be, and it will reflect on your CX efforts.\n\n#### Map out the customer journey\n\nOnce you have all the objectives clearly defined, your competitors analyzed, and your customer personas redefined, it's time to map out the customer journey.\n\nThe customer journey is the total of all the interactions your customers are expected to have, from start to finish. It can be a visual representation or a textual description, but you must describe each stage of the journey in depth. This will help you understand:\n

Where your customers are coming from.
How they are expected to behave during the purchase process.
What the results are supposed to be.

\n\nA well-planned, detailed customer journey will help you improve upon all the touchpoints along the way.\n\n#### Track your CX results\n\nYou won't be able to know whether your CX efforts yield tangible results unless you track your metrics. It's not enough to rely on random customer feedback and word of mouth. Mind you, it's great if you hear that the customers are satisfied with your business, but you need more than that to say that your CX efforts are genuinely effective.\n\n You can easily trace your CX results by following the KPIs (key performance indicators); simply put, KPIs are measures of performance that you can further analyze. KPIs are helpful because they help you know exactly what to track, and you get to store them in your datasheets to compare them with previous and expected results. This will significantly facilitate the tracking of all your CX efforts, and you will know precisely whether you're making progress in offering premium customer experience.\n\n","Date":"2021-07-14T10:00:00.000Z","Author":null,"blog":null,"published_at":"2022-03-24T10:43:40.128Z","created_at":"2022-03-24T10:43:37.633Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T10:43:40.141Z","Images":[{"id":252,"name":"axgAjogK65ee8sOZxVy6.png","alternativeText":"","caption":"","width":1000,"height":329,"formats":{"small":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/small_axg_Ajog_K65ee8s_O_Zx_Vy6_83a9414e36.png","hash":"small_axg_Ajog_K65ee8s_O_Zx_Vy6_83a9414e36","mime":"image/png","name":"small_axgAjogK65ee8sOZxVy6.png","path":null,"size":231.71,"width":500,"height":165},"medium":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/medium_axg_Ajog_K65ee8s_O_Zx_Vy6_83a9414e36.png","hash":"medium_axg_Ajog_K65ee8s_O_Zx_Vy6_83a9414e36","mime":"image/png","name":"medium_axgAjogK65ee8sOZxVy6.png","path":null,"size":492.49,"width":750,"height":247},"thumbnail":{"ext":".png","url":"/uploads/thumbnail_axg_Ajog_K65ee8s_O_Zx_Vy6_83a9414e36.png","hash":"thumbnail_axg_Ajog_K65ee8s_O_Zx_Vy6_83a9414e36","mime":"image/png","name":"thumbnail_axgAjogK65ee8sOZxVy6.png","path":null,"size":61.18,"width":245,"height":81}},"hash":"axg_Ajog_K65ee8s_O_Zx_Vy6_83a9414e36","ext":".png","mime":"image/png","size":429.61,"url":"/uploads/axg_Ajog_K65ee8s_O_Zx_Vy6_83a9414e36.png","previewUrl":null,"provider":"local","provider_metadata":null,"created_at":"2022-03-24T10:43:33.174Z","updated_at":"2022-03-24T10:43:33.201Z"}]}]}],"seo":{"id":288,"metaTitle":"Blog | International Customer Experience Awards 2023","metaDescription":null,"preventIndexing":null,"structuredData":null,"meta":[],"metaImage":null},"Submenu":null}]