1. What excites you most about joining the Consulting team at Davies?

I was delighted to secure a key role in the Consulting team as it enables me to build on previous business transformation, CCaaS technology migration, and using technology to deliver new and enhanced services. Davies’ Consulting division has a track record of strong delivery having worked with many leading brands and has nurtured many long lasting client relationships as a result.

2. With experience in managing transformations of disparate operations, what common challenges did you experience and how did you overcome them?

My assignments have been varied, challenging and above all focused on delivering measurable and improved outcomes in terms of cost, revenue and experiences (both customer and employee). If I had to select a few challenges that were faced by many clients and how these were addressed, then these are the key ones:

1. Out of date legacy technology limiting business agility – we would work with clients to help them evaluate and plan for a move to cloud delivering business self-sufficiency whilst gaining the advantages of evergreen solutions.
2. Believing that voice can be eliminated as a contact channel – the key here was analysing the demand for value and failure interactions. Improvements were defined to eliminate failure demand. The value demand then segmented into complex and simple, typically with complex being handled fully or partially by humans, and the simple demand migrated to self-serve platforms.
3. Failure to exploit knowledge to drive operational effectiveness – we would by demand type identify the knowledge needed to simplify the interaction. Analytics plays a central role in drawing out insights to target improvements to customer journeys allowing knowledge artefacts and processes to be updated to improve the user/customer experience.

3. With customer behaviour evolving at a rapid pace over the last few years, what impact does cyber security have on enhancing CX and how can organisations leverage this opportunity?

Cyber security is an enterprise-wide challenge, and it is therefore essential for businesses to have built and tested a response muscle that allows them to continue delivering their products/services whilst maintaining cash flow. Cyber-attacks are becoming more prevalent, necessitating a tested model which addresses: Impact assessment, business response plan, high performing cross-functional teams to mobilise the response effort, and an IT recovery team. Customer operations will be an integral part of the cyber response model.

4. What steps should organisations take to build a mature CX model for the ultimate experience?
They need clarity on what you want to be in the market, a clear vision, goals and objectives – and then use these to define business outcomes. They must also build a culture that encourages ownership, operates with an agile mindset and is curious and continuously learning. A mature CX model will embrace change and be easily adaptable to market, customer and regulatory evolution.

5. What do you think effective CX will look like in the next 10+ years?
Ten years ago, we were predicting more automation, better use of data, and integrated channel experiences. Things will change but not beyond recognition of what we have today. I would expect there to be a widespread use of AI providing high resolution for customer queries and transactions. No doubt we will be using forms of virtual reality and may even have virtual personal assistants helping coordinate and run our lives. Without a doubt technologies will be at the heart of enabling future CX change.

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