The Data-Driven Customer Experience: A Podcast Series with Nienke Bloem and Informatica
Consumer demand has shifted over the past decade, and then accelerated even during the global pandemic. Let’s face it, customers are in charge. They set the standard for customer experience (CX), they have the ability to switch brands with no skin off their back, and they are creating a fierce competitive environment that spans industries and even geography.
Informatica recently kicked off a podcast series with Customer Experience expert, Nienke Bloem. Nienke has over 20 years of experience as a CX leader in the telco industry and is a global keynote speaker and trusted advisor in Customer Experience. She is the co-creator of the Customer Experience Game, which is a fun and interactive workshop helping organizations raise their CX awareness.
In the podcast series, Nienke discusses CX fundamentals, real-life practices, and the impact of data driven CX with thought leaders and business practitioners. The series explores how to make use of data to successfully engage with customers and drive loyalty, revenue, and growth. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the content for the podcast series.
Episode 1: The inaugural episode of the Data Driven CX podcast series features Sarah Hillman, Global Head of CRM and Data at The Travel Corporation. The Travel Corporation, or TTC, is a family-run group of over 40 award winning travel and hospitality brands, from luxury hotels and boutique river cruises to a variety of guided travel experiences and destination specialists. Established in 1920, the company now operates across 70 countries, serving over 1.5 million customers each year who are at the heart of everything they do.
In her conversation with Nienke, Sarah shares:
- how TTC was able to prioritize customer experiences when the pandemic hit
- the role of data in scaling up bespoke services to all customers in all channels and supporting the ‘Tiny Noticeable Touches’
- her thoughts on the concept of Data Driven CX, and the very interesting intersection between technology and people, data and humans
- success factors for the use of data to power customer experiences
The key takeaway I had from listening to this episode was that “great customer experiences don’t happen by accident.” This line resonated with me for several reasons, with the primary one being that many CX concepts sound like common sense. However, just because something sounds simple in theory doesn’t mean that it is easy in practice.
As a 100-year-old company, TTC was founded before digital was invented. And with digital comes vast amounts of data. They are on a continual journey to manage, establish trust, and use data, keeping in mind that shifts in culture take time, leadership, and vision.
Episode 2: In the second episode of the Data Driven CX podcast, Nienke explores the benefits of creating a CX Data Strategy. As more and more organizations think of their data as a strategic asset (many companies are looking to include data on their balance sheets), they need to ensure they can maximize value from it and quantify ROI. Trevor Hodges, Associate Director Professional Services, introduces Informatica’s data strategy framework that can help structure your thinking, promote consistency, and decrease risk.
In his conversation with Nienke, Trevor addresses questions including:
- What is a data strategy framework for CX?
- What challenges are facing organizations?
- Why use a data strategy framework?
The Informatica Data Strategy framework is intended to provide all of the building blocks you need to succeed. A data strategy helps you maximize your data to generate the greatest business impact on the customer experience. With a framework in place, you’ll streamline communication, ensure everyone is on the same page and save time and resources with better prioritization.
The framework consists of five building blocks:
- The “CX Data Strategy” building block sets the stage for the overall data strategy, it defines your business drivers, needs, and enablers.
- “Data Capabilities” defines the set of capabilities needed to support your wider business and digital strategy, leading to higher-level business outcomes.
- The “Program Management” building block defines the ownership, governance, planning, and execution.
- The “Change Management” building block ensures attention to cultural aspects, skills, roles, training, and enablement.
- And transcending all the layers is the building block of “Measure and Monitor” — the measures you require to assess the effectiveness of your program.
Episode 3: In this episode we shine a spotlight on CX in the Financial Services and Insurance industry. Peter Ku, Industry Strategist at Informatica, discusses digitalization in financial services, common data issues, and what you can do to make sure your data becomes fit for use and drive the right customer experiences. This episode is relevant to banks, insurers and includes lessons learned for other customer facing industries on what is driving the need to improve CX.
Peter shares examples of how Informatica’s solutions address key data requirements and challenges. Questions to consider are for example:
- Is the data available to the people who need it?
- Is it clean and trustworthy?
- Is it complete enough to be actionable?
- Is it protected and secured?
There are more episodes in this series coming soon. Nienke will hear about the evolution of CX to BX, or the Business of Experience, from Gene Cornfield at Accenture in a two-part discussion. Put your thinking caps on for this one because the Business of Experience is truly the future.
A huge thank you to Nienke for engaging with Informatica experts, client leaders, and business partner innovators in this thought-provoking and information-packed podcast series. I hope you can listen and take away some truly valuable insights that you can share with your colleagues and teams on how to win with data driven CX.
Listen to the Data Driven CX podcast series here, or on your favorite platform such as Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify.
