These days, every company wants to serve their customers as seamlessly as possible, but who really owns the development of customer experience within a company? What does enhancing customer experience entail? We interviewed two leading strategists from the marketing agency Dagmar, who together have a whopping forty years of experience in developing the customer experience side of things.
Could you introduce yourselves?
Anni Haavisto: I’m Anni Haavisto, the lead strategist for Dagmar’s Data-Driven Management unit and the Insight team. I bring nearly two decades of experience from the agency world, specializing in customer experience, research, and consulting. I have extensively worked in both consumer and B2B segments. Over the years, I’ve actually become familiar with pretty much all the major industries.
Johanna Toivonen: I’m Johanna Toivonen, and I work alongside Anni at Dagmar. I serve as the lead strategist, where nurturing customer needs and fostering a client-centric culture are at the heart of my expertise. I bring over 20 years of experience in leading consultative projects in customer understanding and customer experience, working with both B2B and B2C clients across various industries.
Today, we are primarily talking about customer experience, but also about growth and marketing. How do these things fit together?
Johanna: There’s a lot in the air right now—big shifts like inflation, war, changes in the operating environment, technology advancements, a transformation in the workforce, and shifts in customer behavior. Competition is set to intensify, both locally and globally. To support growth, it’s crucial to understand these changes as well as customer behaviors and needs.
Marketing plays a crucial role here, as it should be able to initiate, build, and maintain conversations and interactions with customers. This works better if we understand the customer and their needs. Moreover, there is definitely increasing pressure to validate the effectiveness and business impact of both marketing and customer experience.
Anni: A good customer experience is an enabler of growth, and conversely, a poor customer experience can be a barrier to growth. It’s essential to understand what customers want and need so that even in a tight economic situation, the necessity of investments can be justified to them.
There is a lot of talk about customer experience, but what does it actually mean?
Anni: Customer experience is formed at all possible touchpoints where people interact with a company or brand. It starts even before the actual customer relationship begins.
Johanna: Hallmarks of a good customer experience have also been identified as ease, fluidity, and the importance of fulfilling promises. Emotions play a significant role too.
It is often mentioned that customer expectations have grown significantly. What kind of implications does it have?
Johanna: The B2B customer experience has “consumerized,” meaning B2B customers now expect digital services to provide similar, well-functioning, and clear features that we’ve become accustomed to on the consumer side. Comparisons can also be found in completely different industries than our own.
Anni: Customers expect a thoroughly pleasant, easy, and straightforward experience, both face-to-face and online. They’re becoming accustomed to things being done from a human perspective, rather than a business perspective. Examples of this include the growing importance of personalization and the overall expectation that marketing communications understand an individual’s situation and needs.
It seems that few organizations have a clear understanding of who should take responsibility for developing the customer experience. Why is it so difficult to define responsibility – and who do you think it belongs to?
Johanna: Developing customer experience is a long-haul effort, and it can’t simply be dumped on the shoulders of just one department or person, like, say, a Chief Experience Officer. The example must start from the top brass, but the responsibility still extends to the entire organization.
Anni: The siloed nature of organizations is a major challenge here. Company’s brand should define the customer experience for the entire company, but within silos, things are understood differently.
How should you get started with developing customer experience?
Anni: Let’s start by looking at this from an internal perspective of the company. It’s crucial first to understand how customer experience is currently being built and defined within the organization. What kind of tools are being used? What role does the ERP system play? How are things implemented on the ground? Secondly, it’s obviously essential for the company to have a target state or definition for the customer experience. This helps in outlining what kind of customer experience we aim to achieve. Help could come in the form of a customer promise or perhaps a brand book.
Johanna: I’m backing up Anni here, but it’s not enough to just understand the internal perspective of the company; we must grasp the customer’s point of view. Customer insights accumulate at the customer interface within organizations, like during meetings with clients and conversations with them. This is valuable information. Sometimes, it can also happen that certain isms and beliefs about customers, which may no longer be true, persist within a company, and these views ought to be updated, perhaps with the help of customer research.
Anni: That’s exactly it! The customer perspective is naturally key here.
Delivering superior customer experiences sounds great, but is it financially feasible? Is it worth investing in?
Johanna: I doubt anyone would argue that investing in improving customer experience isn’t worthwhile. The bigger question might be what kind of metrics we can use to track the return on investment or how we validate business impacts. For instance, we need to figure out which aspects of customer experience explain or support repeat purchases by customers.
Anni: I’d flip that around. Companies can’t afford not to invest in a good customer experience. It has become such an essential part of growth that it can no longer be overlooked.
Can you name examples of Finnish companies that stand out in customer experience?
Johanna: Different companies are at various stages of their journey in building customer experience. I would say that in companies that are further along, customer experience isn’t just lip service; it’s genuinely a part of the strategy. It shows in the everyday operations of the business.
Anni: Finavia and Helsinki-Vantaa Airport come to mind here. Over the years, they have clearly focused on understanding and enhancing the customer experience for both Finnish and international clients. This commitment has been reflected in various awards and recognitions, such as being named the Best Airport in Northern Europe 2023 by the SKYTRAX World Airport Awards.