The Good, The Bad, And A Glance into the Future of CX – An Interview with Leesa Wytock

What happens when companies have technological deficiencies? Why do people still think one-size-fits-all? What are the CX trends you need to pay attention to?

Leesa Wytock, Director, Digital Experience at Siegel+Gale, has agreed to share some inside information with us, together with her tips to success.

147178537542324-3With a broad history in branding, marketing and communications, Leesa prides herself in leading clients to build immersive and standout experiences, both digital and physical. As a digitally-focused creative leader, she is foremost concerned with innovating brand experience by building strong, interdisciplinary teams of diverse thinkers and doers.

Prior to joining Siegel+Gale, Leesa spent time at Jack Morton, where she created their Digital practice and later evolved to a Creative Technology practice—fully integrated within strategy and creative. Her efforts there, which touched on brand marketing, business development, experiential, and thought leadership, redefined Jack Morton’s approach in the realm of brand experience. Prior to her time at Jack Morton, Leesa worked in communications at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health at Stanford University.

I’m pleased to share the results with you, and hope that you’ll gain from this interview as much as I have.

 

It’s no secret that the CX market is saturated, as new companies are having a very hard time acquiring, retaining and monetizing users. In your view—what are the top 3 mistakes companies make when it comes to digital customer experience? What are some key differentiators you recognize in a successful CX strategy?

From my perspective, the top three issues are:

1. Technological deficiency:

Sadly, many companies still lack technology that meets consumer expectations. Today’s consumer (regardless of age or tech-savviness) has the expectation that their digital interactions will be clear, beautiful and useful.

2. Technology overload:

On the flip side, with companies making a mad dash to be more “digital,” they’ve created overwrought systems that are actually incredibly complex, do too much perhaps and don’t actually solve a customer core need.

3. Applying a one-size-fits-all approach:

As customers (and more so as people) we all want to interact with a brand in our own way. The sooner companies can create a personalized experience that still allows for self-service, the sooner they’ll cut down on customer complaints and get some meaningful data from their users.

The biggest differentiator for a brand’s CX strategy—particularly when it comes to technology—is to be human. It’s critical that brands do not forget the humanity aspect. If you ask people about their awesome customer service experiences, more often than not there was a lovely human as part of it. So that humanity must be woven into every touchpoint. That means empathy, a friendly tone, jargon-free communications and remembering that the customer is always bringing an emotion to an interaction. Brands that recognize this will deliver a great experience.

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Which innovative trends do you recognize in CX nowadays?

I’ve noticed that brands are being a bit more proactive in their customer experience approach. They’re reaching out or connecting even when something hasn’t gone wrong, instead of just reacting to a negative customer experience. This approach can go a long way in building the “benefit of the doubt” when something does (inevitably) go awry.

I’ve also seen some delightful and useful onboarding and profile-building digital experiences. It’s as if every touchpoint has been thought through and is an opportunity to deliver on the brand—from the tone of voice, to the way things move and interact. Rockets of Awesome does a great job of this. This kind of stuff makes me the most excited, because the difference between good and great is in the tiny moments.

 

How do you prepare for a new feature launch or a new CX strategy, and how do you make sure you stand out from your competition?

I try not to focus on outdoing the competition, because then you just focus on incremental improvements. At Siegel+Gale, we do a deep competitive audit when we start a project, but we also look at best practices out of category for ambition—the industries or products that do stellar CX—and then we determine how we can take those moments and make them relevant to our client’s challenge.

I like to think of it as that moment when you say: “Why can’t this be more like___?” It’s a healthy mix of immersion and inspiration at the start, but I think a strong art + science approach helps us not get lost in the weeds.

 

We are flooded with buzzwords lately—VR /customer-centric/ Bots…where do you think the CX world is heading? 

I think data is going to continue to be a massive trend for CX. However, companies need to really do something with that data and not use sloppy statistics. There is a danger of companies replacing people with data trails. When the models are built for efficiency alone, we lose the human and emotional element that is a strong undercurrent of any CX.

I also see that if the big companies can’t pivot and match the CX of disruptor brands—they will lose. Customers are getting more and more comfortable leaving the big traditional names and going somewhere smaller that will really have their needs at heart (think Netflix over CBS All Access).

 

Let us in on some of your secrets…where do you look for innovation? For inspiration and revolutionary ideas?

Look to the fringes. I try to stay away from reading up on other agencies or their work. I read up on and look to the “fringes of movements” in society—culture hackers that are doing something slightly different from the norm. And then I try to connect the dots between various fringe and traditional communities and create a weird, beautiful hybrid of those ideas (OK, mostly weird). I always say, if the New York Times has covered it in the Sunday Style section—its moment has passed.

Also, I find the best way to do great work is to get away from work, tuck a problem I’m trying to crack way back in my mind and really focus on whatever I’m doing at the moment. More often than not, something clicks, dots get connected and I’ve solved a work problem while being far from my desk (win-win!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Matthew is the Lead Author & Editor of CXperience Blog. Matthew established the CXperience blog to create a source for news and discussion about some of the issues, challenges, news, and ideas relating to Customer Experience.