Customer-Centricity – Talking CX at the CXP Ghana Conference 2023

Last Friday, 6 October 2023 the third edition of the now indelible CX conference took place successfully at the Labadi Beach Hotel. Again, as always, there was a great array of industry players in attendance; professionals actively engaged in Customer Experience, advocates, proponents, and key drivers of the Customer Experience agenda in Ghana and internationally, notably President Esther Dokuuwa Ofosuhene, Vice President Kojo Dugan, and the team from CXP Ghana, whose tireless efforts keep the ship sailing as they drive the CX agenda relentlessly to change the narrative of how we engage customers.

This year’s conference theme, “Customer-centricity:  Re-orienting Business, Technology, Process, and People around the Customer” focused on developing synergies in those key areas to keep the ship sailing in terms of how we strive to deliver on our promises to the customer. According to President Esther Dokuwa Ofosuhene, this year CXP Ghana has raised the bar even higher, “setting new standards for excellence, and fostering unparalleled connections that will shape the future of customer experience in Ghana and beyond”. These wise words set the tone for a powerful and engaging conference.

The Association’s patron Margaret Takyi-Micah founder of Nest of Ideas, had some very poignant thoughts to share about Customer Experience. She identified seven key handles for a successful CX campaign in organizations. These according to her are; first, a customer-centric culture, “the happiness of the customer should be at the heart of every service”. Second, every decision must be driven by data, and be exact about the customer’s preference. Third, ensure that you deliver an omnichannel experience by focusing on the end user, the customer must find it easy to engage you on their preferred channel i.e. digital, in-person etc.

Fourth, develop empathy for your customer, and have a human connection. Fifth, Continuous Improvement is key as CX is evolving you need to work consistently at improving things. Sixth, employee engagement, “Happy employees lead to Happy Customers”, invest in employees to deliver exceptional service. Finally, encourage and act on feedback. CX is not just about satisfying the customer, it’s about creating brand advocates. Powerful pointers from a veteran in the field set the tone for a phenomenal conference. The conference was laden with a bevy of experts in the Customer Experience space both locally and internationally. The host was George Sappor, of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.

He was supported by Amanda Akushie of CXP Ghana, a customer experience (CX) and Digital Marketing consultant and coach, who moderated the panel discussions. Together they ran the ship all morning keeping us all at the edge of our seats. The theme for this year focused on technology, people, and processes and how these can be harnessed to enhance the experience holistically.  As usual, there were presentations and panel discussions as well as Q and A follow-ups from the audience to complement thoughts shared by our experts. The line-up was enthralling as the resource persons and audience alike took turns debating the Ghana experience.

Challenges faced by businesses in managing the experience were identified under technology where the major concern was the need to know what to look for in deploying technology. Also, regarding people, it is important that our roles reflect the customer experience. The employee experience is therefore critical as it was observed generally that “Happy employees will provide excellent customer experience”. The final spoke in the wheel is process, It is the wheel on which all the things we put in place to serve our customers run. The sessions were a mix of panel discussions, keynote addresses, and presentations.

Technology

The panel discussion, technology in CX, included industry stalwarts namely; Anthony Fesu, Lead Architect at ABSA Bank, Benjamin Akuffo, a Principal Consultant at MultiThread ICT solutions, and Ernest Osei-Wusu, CEO of Rancard Solutions Limited. They shared insights on the role of technology in enhancing customer experience delivery in organizations. One of the concerns highlighted was the tendency where businesses went ahead to invest in technology without first considering the need for the specific product or solution acquired. They advised that the critical questions be asked prior to investing in technology.

In other words, what is needed is an assessment to determine if the technology is suitable for the business. Whether the business has the capacity for the choice of technology is also pivotal. There were also concerns about the existence of a plethora of data and the potential threat to customers in terms of how this data is managed and shared. The issues of data protection is very important at this stage. Customers are now required to share their information at different places such as the bank and when engaging with public institutions. Panelists advised that we balance technology with human requirements to ensure that there is alignment.

The task of digitizing our operations must be thought through carefully to ensure that we have the right mechanisms in place backed by appropriate technologies.  What is happening in most organizations today is that the technology is chosen without the required needs assessment. Consequently, the technology comes in and fails to provide the needed solution. CX is then called in to “nurse the wounds” caused by the wrong (or unsuitable) technology choice with its implications in cost and service delivery challenges. Three principles, were shared on how we reorient to prioritize customer centricity; segmenting customers, targeting, and positioning.

The key challenge is Change Management. To overcome the bottlenecks identified in technology deployment we need the education to see customer-centricity as what drives how we manage our processes and determine the technologies that would serve the needs of our customers efficiently. The way forward is to develop hybrid approaches and escalate the high-value requirements. Customers want to engage us on their preferred channels. One question raised was the issue of loyalty. If we seek loyal customers as ideal partners then the question is how loyal are we to our customers?

Reorienting People and Process

An insight shared here worth noting is, “How we engage our customers is half the problem solved”. The panel discussants were, Dr. Birago Antwi-Agyei, Assistant Commissioner, Customer Experience, Ghana Revenue Authority, Paa Kwesi Barnes, Managing Consultant, Senrab Consultech, and Senyo M. Adjabeng, Labour Consultant and Director, WBHO, Ghana Limited. Together they shed light on the importance of people in the mix and how we engage through our processes. One of the issues highlighted was the importance of involving everyone in the customer-related operations.

This way the response to customer needs is synonymous across all touchpoints and levels of engagement. For example, at Amazon customer issues are resolved very quickly because they are deliberate about training everybody to be able to function at the frontlines. Especially where we have contact centres do we know what issues customers raise frequently and how equipped we are to deal with them? From Exco members to operational lines customer issues must be at the forefront of what we do to enable us to respond promptly to their needs. How employees feel within the organization is also critical to delivering the experience.

CEOs should be encouraged to visit the frontlines to see what challenges they face and this should be regular (e.g. monthly) and not only during Customer Service Week. It would do a world of good for decision-makers to enable them to empathize with their frontline staff and to motivate them and support their career development fairly. How we set our KPIs in organizations determines how performance is assessed. One’s ability to deliver on the KPIs will form the basis for HR to recommend the due reward for excellent performance. Furthermore, it is important that we acknowledge those at the backend who are addressing customer issues regularly.

It was also stressed that leadership does not just happen emotionally. People must grow into leadership. We must be intentional about working on ourselves and taking time to understand the business. The concept of expenses and revenue must be clear to us if we want to move up the corporate ladder. Information flow is critical in ensuring that everyone is apprised of any challenges that may arise from the operations. Internal communication channels must be in place to support every initiative. It is inappropriate for information to go outside the organization ahead of employees being informed. Finally, we must also drive values very strongly.

Audience and Speaker Contributions

The contributions from the audience were equally enthralling. There was talk about some organizations having a customer compensation system where frontline staff are allowed a reasonable threshold to make mistakes. If frontline teams get punished then they must also be empowered to compensate customers where necessary. Regarding processes, we must understand that there are people behind processes and that processes can break down as a result of poor execution. The goal of every process should benefit the customer we must look at the dynamics of customer experience both nationally and internationally.

Also emphasized was the need to address the business case. Three things were identified here as key enablers. These are; The experience divide, CX is everyone’s responsibility, customer-centricity – who is in the conversation, and also the fact that you cannot give what you do not have. It is said that customers may not know what they want but they certainly know what they don’t want. Another assertion about CX; CX is not an event, we must work continuously to improve the experience. Customer Experience and the Employee Experience are linked if this is not right currently, we must change the landscape to bring it to fruition.

A keynote speaker Claire Boscq, a Customer and Employee Experience Keynote Speaker and BizShui Creator, gave an inspiring talk virtually on the link between EX and CX. When we feel happy, we think happy and we behave happy. We can only give great service when we feel happy. According to research by Oxford University, “Workers are 13 percent more productive when they are happy”. Another keynote speaker Sylvia Nkoom, Executive Director, First National Bank Ghana, shared poignant some thoughts. As practitioners, we know the value of the customer in every business. She posed the question why the conversation about business? A few developments have made the business conversation critical to customer engagement.

Customers have become more sophisticated and are better placed to evaluate key areas such as pricing, channels, and quality of service. As a result, we must step back and look at the customer in line with our business model. We must avoid the constitutional trap, (the way we do things around here). The effect of falling into this trap is that we lose the customer, and we become internally focused. In CX this then becomes “navel-gazing” (my reflection). Listening to the customer is necessary to ensure that we have the customer in mind when we plan our journeys. Big data and data analytics have enhanced our capacity to listen and respond intuitively.

The CXP Ghana 2023 conference has demonstrated that the driving force behind Customer Experience in our ecosystem is intensifying. I refer once again to Esther’s quote from the conference last year, from Alice Walters, “This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: in a word, more alive.” CXP Ghana is driving the customer conversation all the way to the boardroom. I daresay that next year we will see a greater representation from the public sector well represented. The narrative for customer engagement is changing. The journey is stepping up I can’t wait for the next milestone!