On the latest episode of Movers & Shakers, Rob Bailey, COO of Kustomer, discusses customer experience (CX) and everything that goes into making the online customer experience the best it could be.
In the episode, Bailey defines the customer experience as ‘everything that touches the customer and is involved in their experience’ – from a retargeted ad to an ongoing relationship. He attributes Kustomer’s success to its strategy; it starts with clearly defining the buyer/user personas, understanding their needs, and then figuring out how your company fits into that. Kustomer acknowledges that one of the biggest pain points in the customer service experience is customer support. CX teams are one of the most important teams within a company because, according to Bailey, “service is the new marketing”. But support agents usually lack the proper tools to execute their job efficiently. With people paying less attention to ads and watching less television, a good product, paired with good customer service, will ultimately lead to company success.
Bailey believes that in order for Kustomer to be successful, there must be alignment within its internal teams. This starts with hiring the right people, delivering the right CX, having a product and processes in place that are highly customer oriented, and stressing honesty and authenticity in order to build customer relationships. Customers come first, their needs are important and should be recognized as such.
In terms of success, Bailey says that it is measured by overall corporate metrics as well as individual team metrics. Additionally, in terms of authenticity, he says that it can be determined by the difference between what you are telling people and the truth as you believe it to be.
Finally, we asked Rob what he thinks the future of CX holds and he said that “in the past, it has been reactive, isolated, cost focused, robotic, secondary, and transactional where people have been treated like tickets and cases”. In the future, he believes that CX will be “proactive, integrated into a company, revenue focused, fun, strategic, and all about relationships and treating customers like people which will generate an overall positive customer experience”.
