Last updated: In a CX minute: Thoughts on customer experience, May 25, 2021

In a CX minute: Thoughts on customer experience, May 25, 2021

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Well, here we are again.

This weekly writing event is so very cool for me, it allows me to compile and synthesize my thoughts and ideas into a common thread and organize it into bigger ideas. It works very well for me; hope it does for you as well.

Today’s a treat.

First, I want to share with you that my brand-spanking, shiny, new article was published in ZDNet.  I am stoked.  Seriously.  I love the reach and distribution, and the idea that I am finally, finally – able to compare myself to Vala (hehe).  Although he has way more cool content than I do….  Still, check it out?  Thoughts, comments, etc. are always welcome, and as I said before, the idea is to compile the data points from here into bigger things there.

Speaking of content…

Former SAPer (like the Marines, once an SAPer always one – Oorah!) and now Chief Strategy Officer for ServiceNow Nick Tzitzon (hope I got the name right) did a fantastic job last week interviewing Soledad O’Brien. It was a 20-something minutes conversation that covered a lot of ground, but the part that got me the most was when she described herself as a content creator and how that changed her perspective on her role, her job, and her position in life.

Now, you know me – I am nothing if not a dot-connector… and to that end, I see content as – well, structured data. And in that moment, your honor, was when I realized that she was right – we are all digital beings and content and data is all around us, we just need to learn how to use it well (which she covers as well).

This was awesome, and you may need to register to access it – but it’s free registration and contrary to the liver donation sketch from Monthy Python’s Meaning of Life – no one has come to my house yet to claim anything.

Speaking of connecting data points – I am stoked, as I said in LinkedIn earlier, to have had the opportunity to have a conversation with who’s likely the smartest person I know.  She sent me a message last week saying that the content I’ve been producing here was greatly aligned with what she is doing – and that meant I had to have her in the video show “I Still Don’t Know What I’m Doing – with Friends”.  She is a data maven, a connector of remote data points, and a digital dragon wrangler.  Need I say more?

Ladies and Gentlemen – it is my privilege to introduce a tangential conversation on data and experiences and everything in between with Dr. Lauren Vargas. Probably 17 minutes and 49 seconds you will not regret having spent in front of the screen this week (unlike that re-run of 30 Rock or that extra episode of Anne with an E).

What else has been going through my mind this week? Thanks for asking!

I spent a lot of time refining the narrative for CX and I think I finally, finally nailed it. Did a presentation earlier this week internally and it went well, and no one told me I lost it – so may be almost ready for external sharing.

Here are the top 5 talking points of this narrative:

  1. The pandemic was an accelerant for trends under way: business transformation to optimize processes, digital transformation to understand data usage
  2. Brining these two together we can finally focus on customer-centricity – not as the customer is always right (they seldom are), but to balance business outcomes and customer expectations
  3. The technology onslaught (I don’t think so, but most people do) of the last decade resulted in a need to become more flexible, dynamic, and personalized, which concluded (so far) with the pandemic exposing that massively (like the California drought bringing a lost town back to the sunlight)
  4. Businesses are demanding a better way to support that with technology, and this gave way to the rise of platforms (for real, though) and service-based execution of distributed work (if only we had a simple word like “cloud” to describe that – oh, wait)
  5. We are aligning our design principles, core values, roadmaps, and storylines behind this model, and you will see that emerge in product-in-the-market next few months

It has been a lot of fun to do this narrative.  Last week I introduced you to the five areas where I (and the people collecting data) saw the potential for CX to deliver value and this week I spent time correlating that to this new wave of stories and strategies – and it works, very well actually.

OK, will make it short this week because you must watch that show with Lauren. OMG is she smart and sensible and – she knows what she’s saying because she’s done it. I admire her, and hope you see that when you listen to her and passion for this.  Will be back next week with more links and diatribes – if I survive my first post-pandemic Rumspringa in Vegas this week. Wish me luck!

I write this every week – if you miss any of the past ones (and your friends told you that you MUST see them – yeah, right – they’re all here.  Reach out to me with questions, comments, etc. and you too may be featured in a future episode of “I Still Don’t Know What I’m Doing – With Friends”.

You know where to find me – LinkedIn or the world’s worse kept secret – via email at SAP.

Thanks for reading, again.

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