00:00:01
our guest today is Sita Hari Helen who
00:00:03
is a general manager at TCS and we are
00:00:06
going to talk with her today about
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customer experience in the age of
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digital transformation see that thank
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you so much for joining us today on
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knowledge at Wharton mokou thank you for
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having me here we hear so much about
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digital transformation these days and
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perhaps a good place for us to begin
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might be to look at the state of the
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digital economy globally
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what are some of your thoughts on that
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Mukul thank you for the question as we
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all know digital tools technologies and
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platforms have seen an unprecedented
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rate and pace of adoption just in the
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last three years and they have changed
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how we live how we work and how we
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interact with each other most
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importantly how we interact with
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companies that we do business with let's
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look at some statistics world's
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population is approximately seven point
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six billion we have nearly four billion
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active Internet users today about 5.1
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billion unique mobile users and nearly
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3.2 billion social media accounts what
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is even more interesting is that we
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added nearly a billion two billion and a
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half users in each of these categories
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just in the last three years between
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2015 and 2018 now add to this mix
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Internet of Things in 2018 we will have
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nearly 28 billion Internet of Things
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think about it 28 billion
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everything from cars to doorbells to
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bracelets to cameras to appliances at
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home
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even my garbage cans my car today can
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accurately predict where I'm headed
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based on the time of day and day of the
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week my vacuum machine informs me when
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my house is clean and my garbage can
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tells me
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when I need to clear it this is
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absolutely an exciting time both for
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customers and businesses businesses need
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to figure out how to interact with their
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customers how to deliver superior
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customer experiences that's exactly
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right Sita and so the bills and
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everything you just said what are some
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of the implications for the way in which
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cust companies go on defining the
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customers experience or the customers
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journey and and even more interestingly
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what do you think this means for the
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kind of expectations that customers have
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of the way in which they'll relate to
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companies that they deal with in the
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past I mean even just a couple of years
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ago the company said that I need to be
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online and if I have to survive in the
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digital world people are spending about
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a billion years on the internet every
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year so I need to be able to provide
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access for my customers to my business
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online so they said let me have an
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online presence that isn't enough
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anymore because every business even the
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mom-and-pop stores that we know have
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online presence so what can businesses
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do more than that how do I ensure that
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the experiences that I provide to my
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customer is consistent across all of the
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channels how do I differentiate between
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my the experience that I offer versus
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what some of my competitors are offering
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to my customers so these are some of the
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challenges that businesses across
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industries or grappling with today well
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I think what you're saying is is very
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true everywhere you know we look we find
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retailers are getting hammered based on
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what you said how do you think companies
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should relate to their customers and and
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even more interesting portent Lee what
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has changed about the relationships
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between customers and their
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companies and their customers and what
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has not changed in in this entire
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digital transformation if there is one
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thing that is constant that is the
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customer who could have described
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customer experience better than some of
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the entrepreneurs here in US as well as
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in Britain right some of the names that
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come to mind or John Wanamaker Marshall
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Field's Harry Gordon Selfridge the
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catchy phrases that these guys came up
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with some of them ring true to me even
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today give the woman what she wants
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customer is the king and customer is
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always right what has changed with the
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digital technologies is that it has put
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more power in the hands of the customers
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and businesses need to figure out how to
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interact with their customers better so
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what kind of examples do you think you
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could we could consider to give some
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specific instances of so let's take a
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case of insurance company or actually
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two insurance companies the mission
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statement of the first insurance company
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is to offer health insurance policies to
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its customers in the digital world this
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company says that I'm going to make sure
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that my services and products are
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accessible to my customers both online
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and in the physical world they can
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interact with me any way they choose to
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interact with even on their mobile
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devices so the second insurance company
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on the other hand says my mission
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statement is to be a partner to my
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customer on their wellness journey
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consistent with the mission what they do
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is yes they of course sell health
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insurance policy but in addition to that
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they care for their customers well-being
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so they connect their customers to the
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local gym they encourage their customers
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as an example to exercise regularly they
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motivate them using gamification and
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they even remind their customers to
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get their annual physicals so this is an
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example of a company that cares for its
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customer and the healthy and healthy
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customer means that fewer insurance
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claims will be submitted and that would
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also mean that their insurance premiums
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could go down over a period of time so
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if you look at the example this
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particular example two companies the
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first one has a transactional
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relationships with its customers the
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second one based on its stated mission
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as well as its behavior is able to
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deliver connected customer experiences
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thereby on the journey of its customer I
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wonder I could drill down a little bit
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deeper into what you just said well
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that's very interesting what do you mean
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by a connected customer experience that
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of connected customer journey let's take
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the case of a grocery store as an
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example everyone will understand grocery
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store we all shot that almost every week
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so always I have thought of grocery
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stores as someone that does mass
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marketing at the best demographic waste
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marketing I've been frustrated that my
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grocery store even though I have shopped
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with them for the last 20 years I have
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their loyalty card they just don't
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understand me they still send me coupons
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by snail mail for products that I've
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never bought from them so as an example
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for me I'm a vegetarian so I got really
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excited Mukul when a couple of months
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ago one of my customers a grocery store
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came to us and said they wanted to
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understand their customers better they
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wanted to do behavior based segmentation
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they wanted to understand the personas
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of each and every one of their customers
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what they meant by that is I want to
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understand where they live where they
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work what is their education level what
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they consume how they shop why they shop
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what motivates them to shop what
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motivates
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them as an example to come into my store
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and based on all of this information
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which is the persona of an individual
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they wanted to drive customized
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campaigns so that is the first right
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step for them but then what I explained
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to them got them even more excited
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I painted a vision for them on how they
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can own the journey of their customer
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McCool let us assume that you are one of
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their customers and they know that
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you're uh fluent you work here at
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knowledge at Wharton you are highly
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educated you shop with them regularly
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and you show up on Saturdays with your
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wife
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one Saturday you walk into the store and
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you pick up a bottle of champagne
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because you have guests coming to your
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place and as you are walking down the
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aisle the store sends you a short video
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notification you open the video you are
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curious and you see people enjoying that
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bottle of champagne
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that you just picked up along with some
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beet and cumin soup and bread and cheese
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as you are watching the video the store
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sends you another notification they ask
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you do you want to purchase some
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beetroot
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you say yes to your further surprise a
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store a tenant comes to you and hands
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over some beetroot and bread and cheese
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this is a very simple example of
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connected customer experiences that's a
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great example Seeta and and what I
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wonder is but the question that it
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raises in my mind is that to do
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something like this for a customer at
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this level of elaboration and intricacy
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would be quite would be quite an
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expensive kind of exercise so the
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question is do you do it for every
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customer or do you select a few
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customers to do this for and if it's the
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latter case how do you make that choice
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how do you whom do you target with this
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lever
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of service and whom did not target so
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this is where the persona based
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segmentation comes into play personas
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help retailers understand what sort of a
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customer they are dealing with there are
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some customers that shop based on sale
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and so what kind of campaigns and what
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kind of experience do you want to
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deliver to them there are customers such
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as yourself that shop at their store on
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a regular basis you're extremely loyal
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to that store and so they offer
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differentiated experience such as the
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one we just spoke about so persona based
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segmentation is what is key to
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understanding the customer and how to
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deliver customized campaigns towards
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them and you know today what makes it
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easier as you know is we have
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technologies to do that I mean one
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example that came to mind as you were
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speaking about the grocery stores was
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Amazon's recent acquisition of Whole
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Foods and and and these days when you go
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to any Whole Foods store they ask you if
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you are an Amazon Prime member and if
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you are then you immediately get some
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discounts now what what I found very
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clever about this was that Amazon Prime
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already has very detailed information
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about customers and it would make it
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fairly easy for them to build such
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customer personas as you were describing
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by combining the online and offline
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experiences the question is in this kind
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of an age how do companies deal with a
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giant like Amazon and and how I watch
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what's what should other retailers be
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doing to react to this you're absolutely
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right as much as Google has become the
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de facto standard for searches Amazon in
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the last few years has become a de facto
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standard for product searchers and
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product for chasers and I absolutely
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love what Amazon offers me the comfort
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and the convenience and as you said even
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with the Whole Foods merger the
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experience was seamless
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you just had to have the app and they
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knew if you had the Prime membership so
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that experience at Whole
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foods that I had several weeks ago was
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quite seamless but I believe mikkel that
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customers will do business with
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companies that offer them differentiated
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experiences memorable experiences I was
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talking to my friend David very recently
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he has four dogs and he buys a lot of
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dog food from Amazon okay and I asked
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him David what would make you go into a
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neighborhood pet store
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he said Alexa reminds him when he needs
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to order dog food and the prices on
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Amazon as we all know are quite
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competitive and he simply orders them
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from the convenience of his home he
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didn't see a reason why he would change
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that behavior why he would go into a
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neighborhood pet store so I asked David
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would you go into that store if they
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offered to shampoo your dog he
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immediately said yes I would even go in
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if they offer to brush my dog's teeth so
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you see that is the motivation for David
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to change the behavior to go into a pet
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store businesses need to understand what
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motivates understand their customers to
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start with as individuals personas of
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the customers they need to understand
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what would motivate them to change the
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behavior of the customers once David
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goes into the pet store pet store can
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understand more about David they can
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understand that he travels a lot he
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would need pet sitters so they could
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offer even those services and figure out
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how to secure his loyalty just take my
00:15:05
example Bed Bath & Beyond I buy all my
00:15:08
appliances or I would prefer to buy all
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my appliances from Bed Bath and Beyond
00:15:13
because when my appliance doesn't work
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even if it is beyond the warranty period
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I can take that into the store no
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questions asked
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they even they even give me a refund
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without me having receipts
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many times that is a differentiated
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experience that motivates me to buy
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products from Bed Bath and Beyond so in
00:15:39
this age of Amazon what is important is
00:15:42
how do you understand your customer and
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how do you deliver memorable and
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differentiated experiences for them to
00:15:51
take one more pass that what you have
00:15:53
been saying about the way in which
00:15:56
companies can understand a fairly deep
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level the customers behavior and and
00:16:04
perhaps work with not just their own
00:16:07
business enterprises but across almost
00:16:09
like a network of companies that do to
00:16:12
deliver unique experiences to customers
00:16:14
all this can't really be done without a
00:16:17
tremendous understanding of data and and
00:16:21
and one of the biggest issues where data
00:16:23
that we keep hearing about these days is
00:16:26
privacy what are some of your thoughts
00:16:29
on some of the implications for
00:16:31
companies and customers of how this is
00:16:34
going to play out so we all know that GD
00:16:37
P R which is a European regulation for
00:16:40
privacy came into effect May 25th of
00:16:43
this year 2018 and companies have been
00:16:47
working towards complying to those
00:16:50
regulations and I am 100% certain that
00:16:53
we will see some form of those
00:16:56
regulations here in US as well and my
00:16:59
view has always been that the privacy
00:17:02
regulations the data regulations is a
00:17:04
good thing for customers as well as for
00:17:07
businesses in the case of the customers
00:17:10
it makes it clear that customers own
00:17:13
their data companies need to get
00:17:16
explicit permission from the customers
00:17:19
to use their data they need to be
00:17:20
transparent and explaining to them in
00:17:23
simple language that they can understand
00:17:26
in two to three minutes instead of 70
00:17:27
pages of legal document on how they plan
00:17:30
to use the data and GDP or even goes a
00:17:33
step further it says that if there is a
00:17:35
breach you need to inform your customers
00:17:38
within 72 hours along with a timeline
00:17:42
for action
00:17:43
so it's it's a good thing for customers
00:17:45
now your other question was what does it
00:17:47
mean to businesses and I sincerely
00:17:49
believe it's a good thing for businesses
00:17:51
now if you go into an enterprise today
00:17:53
and look at where the data is stored
00:17:56
it's stored across various silos of the
00:17:59
organization the data customer data
00:18:02
exists with an IT within CRM systems
00:18:05
with an Operations in marketing and each
00:18:09
of these silos have their own data
00:18:11
strategy as well as the data governance
00:18:13
strategy so enterprises are struggling
00:18:16
to figure out how to get a handle of my
00:18:19
customer data any kind of privacy data
00:18:22
regulation will force
00:18:24
I think the businesses to rethink their
00:18:28
data strategy and their data governance
00:18:30
strategy the first step that they will
00:18:32
take is how do I get handle of my
00:18:34
customer data and as you and I know
00:18:36
getting a handle of the data allows you
00:18:39
to understand your customer and that is
00:18:41
key to delivering superior customer
00:18:45
experiences and so there is a silver
00:18:48
lining even for businesses when it comes
00:18:51
to these regulations I think a part of
00:18:53
the challenge around data is I think
00:18:56
people are concerned about who has
00:18:57
access to what data and even more
00:19:00
importantly how that data is used there
00:19:04
have been some recent moves towards
00:19:06
technology companies and social media
00:19:08
companies wanting access for example to
00:19:11
financial information this is already
00:19:14
going on in other parts of the world
00:19:15
what do you what are your views on how
00:19:18
this is likely to play out yeah we
00:19:20
recently read about Facebook just
00:19:23
yesterday and the Facebook reaching out
00:19:28
to many of the financial companies to
00:19:30
see if they can get access to customers
00:19:33
financial information checking account
00:19:36
information saving accounts their credit
00:19:38
card transactions in my opinion
00:19:41
delivering customer experiences start
00:19:44
with transparency and understanding that
00:19:48
customers owned the data and we need to
00:19:52
be transparent as companies we need to
00:19:54
be transparent with our
00:19:56
to us on how we plan to use the data
00:19:58
coming back to the customer experience
00:20:01
issue I'm sure in your role at TCS you
00:20:05
come across a number of companies that
00:20:08
are trying to figure out the best way to
00:20:10
use technology and their systems to
00:20:13
engage more deeply with tech customers
00:20:15
and build relationships rather than
00:20:17
transactions what some of the challenges
00:20:21
are mistakes that you have found
00:20:24
companies make in this area and what
00:20:28
could others learn from from their
00:20:30
experiences one is I would say what I
00:20:35
saw in the last few years is Enterprise
00:20:37
was thinking that maybe I should bring
00:20:42
people that are focused on data or
00:20:44
digital so they fill their c-suite with
00:20:47
chief data officer chief digital officer
00:20:50
chief strategy officer x' people are
00:20:55
important to any organization however
00:20:58
they aren't going to solve the problem
00:21:00
what I also have seen which is a little
00:21:02
bit disappointing for me is that there
00:21:05
have been departures of these high-level
00:21:08
execs from the organization one of the
00:21:12
second challenges is with digital
00:21:14
transformation the business has to work
00:21:18
hand in hand with the IT it is something
00:21:21
IT has made traditionally made decisions
00:21:24
on technology the businesses have always
00:21:28
run campaigns as an example trying to
00:21:31
attract customers or increase the basket
00:21:33
size of revenue per customer
00:21:36
now this forces the IT and businesses to
00:21:40
work together and so those are a couple
00:21:43
of challenges that I have seen the key
00:21:46
to solving digital transformation is how
00:21:50
do you keep customer in the middle of
00:21:52
everything that you do have this
00:21:55
unfailing commitment to listen to your
00:21:58
customers what they want how they want
00:22:01
to interact with you and provide
00:22:04
memorable and differentiated experiences
00:22:07
to them
00:22:09
in my opinion is key to solving the
00:22:12
problem and challenges that enterprises
00:22:14
face technology will certainly follow
00:22:18
and one last question and that is let's
00:22:22
say just as you presented me with a
00:22:25
hypothetical situation that we present
00:22:27
you with one let's say you are asked by
00:22:30
the CEO of a company that wants to
00:22:34
improve its customer experience and its
00:22:37
customer journey and wants to know where
00:22:39
would be a the right place to begin what
00:22:42
advice would you would you give the CEO
00:22:44
where should they get started that's not
00:22:48
a hypothetical question well it happens
00:22:50
to me every single day when I walk into
00:22:52
a customer the first thing for me to
00:22:55
understand is where they are in their
00:22:57
journey and where do they want to go
00:23:01
what are their ambitions can I help them
00:23:04
to understand what it means to deliver
00:23:07
connected customer experiences in the
00:23:10
context of their industry because that's
00:23:13
what is going to be differentiator for
00:23:16
any company to provide to their
00:23:19
customers so start with where they are
00:23:22
understand their ambition how do I
00:23:24
bridge the gap between the two as well
00:23:27
as move them towards thinking that they
00:23:30
need to own the journey of their
00:23:32
customers to survive and that's how I
00:23:33
start the discussion great see that
00:23:37
thank you so much for joining us
00:23:38
acknowledge at wardens
00:23:39
it it's been great having you here thank
00:23:42
you Michael for having me it was a
00:23:43
pleasure for more insight from knowledge
00:23:47
at Wharton please visit knowledge
00:23:50
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00:23:51
pen edu
00:23:53
[Music]
00:23:55
you
