Joining us for a special episode of Conversations That Matter is someone with a passion for employee experience. She’s a constant innovator with a knack for driving change where it matters most, and has been recognized as one of The Peak’s 2023 emerging leaders.

Welcome to the show, Suzanne Knight! Suzanne joins guest host Kim West for a deep dive into better understanding your customer’s journey. Suzanne shares the most effective ways to innovate and gather feedback, the importance of assessing internal resistance to new initiatives, and why your metrics should revolve around the customer, not the channel.

Takeaways:

• When it comes to better understanding your customer, a survey just doesn’t cut it. The best way to understand your customer is to get as close to the front line as possible, and try to experience what your customer experiences in the way they experience it..
• When stakeholders resist internal changes, it’s usually unwillingness, or inability. If push back is because they are unwilling to change, you need to help bring them along on the journey. If it’s because of inability, you need to help enable them to adapt to the change.
• When driving transformation for the customer, your work needs to be tied to the success of the customer. While it’s easy to fall in love with your solution, it’s important to not let your vision restrict you from truly addressing the customer’s needs.
• As an omnichannel business, you need to avoid siloing your metrics to your channels. By revolving your metrics around the needs of the customer regardless of channel, you create a better outcome for your business.
• The best way to gather internal feedback is to involve those who are operating in the current setup. By closely aligning your development team with the frontline team, you can design both more quickly, and more effectively.
• To improve cross department collaboration, leaders should look to democratize the visualization of work. With increased visibility, it makes it easier for other departments to get involved in projects, and help keep things flowing at an effective pace.
• A unique way to assess your customer’s wants is through their use of the search bar. When a customer searches for a product, they are telling you what they are looking for. Regular searches for a product you don’t offer is a strong indicator of what will sell well.

Quote of the Show:

• “What do we need to do to create willingness and ability to bring people along on this journey?” - Suzanne Knight

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skknight/

Ways to Tune In:

• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversations-that-matter-podcast-for-contact-center/id1525650658
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6Xx9G8w6bntQayIpbkgxc5?si=cNeVuJicSHagsftlpL8-tg
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9jb252ZXJzYXRpb25zdGhhdG1hdHRlcnBvZGNhc3QubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M