The one with Customer Trust - Ilenia Vidili Customer Centricity Advisor E163

🎤🎞️Find customer centricity in “The one with Customer Trust” with Ilenia Vidili Customer Centricity Advisor in CX Passport Episode 163🎧 What’s in the episode?...

CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction

2:52 Understanding Customer Centricity

6:49 The Business Value of Customer Centricity

10:42 Consistency and Commitment in Customer Centricity

13:31 Building Customer Trust

19:05 The Digital Nomad Experience

22:49 1st Class Lounge

25:58 European Women on Boards (EWOB)

29:07 Current Customer Experience Pain Points

30:50 Contact info and closing

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I'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport

Episode resources:

Website: https://www.ileniavidili.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ileniavidili/

European Women On Boards (EWOB): https://europeanwomenonboards.eu/

Transcript

Ilenia Vidili: 0:00

How do we differentiate these days when there is a commoditization of product, we differentiate with customer experience streamlining processes, minimizing efforts with customers by adding value to customers. It's not just with products and services, it's actually with the experience.

Rick Denton: 0:20

You're listening to CX Passport, the show about creating great customer experiences with a dash of travel talk. Each episode we’ll talk with our guests about great CX, travel...and just like the best journeys, explore new directions we never anticipated. I'm your host Rick Denton. I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport. Let's get going. Y'all, how have we not been to this country before? Well, at least how have we not had a guest on CX passport from here before it is one of my favorite countries in the world? Well, today we get to correct that error by heading to Italy to talk with Alenia Vitali, a driving advocate for customer centricity, a celebrated keynote speaker and an accomplished author dedicated to revolutionising business practices through improved customer experience. Since 1998, eladia has been at the forefront of customer strategy, CRM, and customer experience collaborating with brands across many industries. Her mission is to guide businesses towards customer centric transformation, urging them to rethink processes prioritize human connections and elevate value for their customers. Through these speeches and immersive workshops, Elena has enlightened leaders and C level executives at organizations like Coca Cola KLM and one of my favorite places in the world Harrods. You want to grab a copy of a Lanius best selling book journey to Centricity which serves as a roadmap for leaders seeking a journey towards customer centricity in the era of stakeholder capitalism. Beyond consulting as a dedicated member of the European women on boards eladia advocates for gender diversity and equity in corporate leadership, Amplifying Voices and fostering inclusion in boardrooms all across Europe. When she described herself to me as a digital nomad starting at age 19, I knew Alenia would be perfect. Firstly, X passport, Alenia Welcome to CX passport.

Ilenia Vidili: 2:29

Thank you so much for having me. Right.

Rick Denton: 2:30

You know, Elenia, I'm excited to have you on here. This is fun, not just because of Italy. But because of what I've seen. You talk about content you're putting out there and LinkedIn and one of those topics that you spend a lot of time talking about your headline, just champions, it is all about customer centricity. Now, that's a phrase that we hear a ton. We also hear it misused often. What does customer centricity mean to you? And then why is it actually important to a business?

Ilenia Vidili: 2:58

So since I started my career in corporate marketing years ago, I noticed that there was a big clash between how businesses think they do business, and how they actually do business. So an internal perspective, and an external perspective. So basically, this is a sort of like contrast, you know, how customers want to be served, and our businesses that actually serve them. And this is the way I started my experience in the customer experience world by noticing how these two entities would behave, right, so there was a also a really interesting study by Bain and Company that reveals this contrast 80% of surveyed companies say that they deliver superior customer experiences. But then when customers were, were actually asked if that was true, only 8% of customers agreed. So this is the kind of contrast that I often talk about with. And this is this happens because companies usually have this inside out perspective in thinking. And that means focusing on internal goals like outperforming competitors, putting the best product in the market, and focusing very much on internal capabilities, right. But we need to really think that fulfilling customer needs, it really starts by seeing the world from the customer perspective, and listening, understanding those customer needs and expectations and doing all the efforts and commitment to try to fulfill those needs and expectations with our product solutions services. And when there is a problem that shows up by a product that we sell then. So this is what customer centricity is about, you know, it's customer centric approach. It starts by looking from the customer perspective and incorporating that perspective into all aspects of a company's operation into all aspects of departments and level of seniority, etc. And another asks that I see, and that I believe is important when we talk about customer centricity is that delivering a good positive experience once or twice or occasionally, doesn't really make us a customer centric business. We need to consistency, commitment, and care. That's the kind of misunderstanding that you talked about a minute ago, I misuse of the word.

Rick Denton: 5:53

I don't want to get into that a little bit Elenia. That once, twice, three times that because you're talking about sustainability, that process that discipline, that execution around customer centricity. I want to ask kind of two threads, though, about what you're saying about customer centricity. 80% versus 8%. Any of us that are customers are going to kind of laugh and smile and nod, right? Yeah, we know that customer service sucks out there. It is not a surprise to any of us. And it's not a surprise that companies think they're the best thing ever. They've got posters of customer centricity and the customers first and all that sort of stuff. So that's not a surprise. What is it when you're talking to a company about customer centricity? How do you help them understand? Look, this isn't just some soft fluffy idea. This is actually tangible business value, what it how do you guide them from customer centricity as a concept to this is going to affect your bottom line? So the

Ilenia Vidili: 6:50

first thing I learned when I first worked for big multinationals, like their year, arm, ABC, etc, etc? Was that the reason any other factor in business that offers a better ROI than listening to people who buy from you and serving them the way they want? That's a very simple sentences that answer that question. When we talk about, of course, like customer centricity is something that it feels like it's fluffy, it feels like it's soft. Why? Why though, because customers are not seen, very seldom seen as a priority in businesses, right? Sales are seen as a priority in business. The bottom line is seen as a priority, right revenues and cost and budgeting and targets, etc. One of the biggest problems that I see in companies today is wanting to boil the ocean. In other words, to wanting to do a huge cultural transformation all at once. You know, everybody wants to be customer centric these days, it's is the new trend. And you know, is the new kind of cool thing to be. Right. Right. But then if we don't have that commitment, especially from the executives, and across the organization, it's really, really difficult to do. It's basically impossible. And my advice with my clients is to start with small steps prioritize what are the biggest challenges for the customers the biggest pain points for the customer and for the business, resolve those measure the success of those small improvements, a show tangible results to the executives, for example, if we want to get the buy in that we are looking for, and if we want to show that is not just a soft thing, or is not a fluffy kind of strategy that we want to implement because we want to copy others right. So that's the kind of solution if you want to call it as that you know, proof that we want to that we that we meet.

Your CX Passport Captain: 8:59

This is your captain speaking. I want to thank you for listening to CX Passport today. We’ve now reached our cruising altitude so I’ll turn that seatbelt sign off. <ding> While you’re getting comfortable, hit that Follow or Subscribe button in your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode. I’d love it if you’d tell a friend about CX Passport and leave a review so that others can discover the show as well. Now, sit back and enjoy the rest of the episode.

Ilenia Vidili: 9:25

There was also misunderstanding on customer centricity, as that we often think and hear that customer centricity and being a customer centric, is delivering memorable experiences. Right? We talk him here a lot about this memorable experiences, right? I'm not a big fan of dim customer delight on top of bad processes and bad experiences. Which is oh yes, mostly what happens in companies, right? It doesn't make any sense really, right. But what really, really matters to customers East He minimize effort, minimize friction as much as possible. That's what really gave us improvements. And the customer experience that was really gave us the first layer of loyalty that we're looking for. Oh

Rick Denton: 10:14

my god. So love every bit of this lady, like, you have hit on two of my biggest passion points, I'm feeling this just absolute CX connection to you right now. And that is, don't go after the big thing, go after the small incremental wins and gain your buy in, right? Because how much of CX has been historically, we've lost our our buy in, because we're not showing tangible results, because well, sometimes we didn't even think about results. But other times, we tried to do too much show the tangible business results, you'll get the buy in. And then the second part is, you know, it's really easy to be great once, it's really hard to be good all the time. And you're describing exactly that. Deliver on your brand promise in a consistent, stable way. And your customers will create or your customers will find that loyalty towards your brand. I love every bit of that you have spoken to my art Alenia today.

Ilenia Vidili: 11:11

I'm glad that we aligned. Yeah, well, no, I'm

Rick Denton: 11:13

not surprised as seeing what I've seen you put out there, do you have a course out there that talks about customer trust. And I find that to be a little an interesting phrase, we don't talk about that phrase that much. And then there may be a little kind of feeling that we have around it. But I'd like to know more about what do you mean by customer trust? And then what are the results a company should expect when they really focus in on customer trust.

Ilenia Vidili: 11:40

So I have two courses coming out on LinkedIn learning this summer. One is on customer centricity, which I will expand and talk about the ins and outs of customer centricity, but in an holistic way. So talking about streamlining processes, and cross functional collaboration, breaking Tyler's or this kind of things that they're not really, you know, integrated in an into a customer centric strategy. So that's that. And then, as you said, as you rightly said, I have a course coming out on customer trust. So Portreath, Forrester, have defined customer trust has the topic of the year of 2024. And in very simple terms, is trustees, making promises and keeping those promises consistently over time. So is the, as we know, is a very important factor that glues all relationships, right is the glue of relationships. And if you think about it in business, everything is made up relationships, our relationship with employees, our relationship with customers, with investors, partners, etc. And so everything like trust is what ties everything together. Loss of trust can manifest in many different ways, such as poor quality products or services, bad customer experiences, or failed brand promises. Everything we do as a business is we put a promise out there, we build a product, great will tell you that the product will work for X amount of years. That is a promise, right? If we break that promise, then we're not going to trust as much that business study carried out by Gartner, for example, tell us that 81% of customers who refuse to buy from a brand that they don't trust and 89% of customers engage expected to disengage from a brand that are breaches their trust. So how do we build trust or earn trust you know, there is this kind of double use of words. So trust building happens through four main drivers. The first two drivers we have competence and reliability competencies, the ability to perform tasks effectively and efficiently. It entails delivering high quality products and services and demonstrating expertise in addressing customer needs, or solving problems of our customers. Right? If you have been in a in a shop and a retailer for example that you were looking for a product and the sales assistant didn't quite know how to answer your questions regarding that product wasn't quite knowledgeable. And eventually you left the shop without buying and and you left the shop without really trusting much that person or trusting the shop much in their ability to communicate with you and to share the features of the product etc. For the product that they perhaps built, or you know. So this is the kind of the first driver, we have also reliability as a second hard driver. And reliability depends on two things is really based on time. And is it depends on two things. One, the first one is responsiveness, which involves how the company shows up on time or answer questions. And the second one is consistency of behavior over time. So, if you notice that, for example, sometimes you you call customer service agents, and they'll tell you, Oh, I don't have an answer, right? Now, I will find an answer, I'll find a solution for you. And I'll call you back, say two hours, and then you never heard from them. You don't They don't call you back. So that's the kind of lack of reliability but the lack of trust, you know, it creates that creates a gap, a trust gap,

Rick Denton: 15:55

that competence and reliability, I see a very logic embedded in that, right, it seems very, you know, tangible, it's something that I can really, almost even quantify it, whether I quantify it or not. What are the other two factors like?

Ilenia Vidili: 16:12

So the other two factors are the cold or the soft drivers. One is integrity. And the other one is empathy. So the integrity involves honesty, transparency, ethical behavior, integrity for customers means doing what's right ahead of what's easy, you know, and so we see this, in everything. Like in every product we buy, or we in every interaction we have with, with companies, every brand promise that we see out there every sort of communication we see out there, if it's not kept a maintain that brand promise, then obviously, there is a trust gap created. So for example, I'll make an example say that, you know, errors and mistakes happens all the time, for example, these days, we have a lot of issues with customer privacy, and you know, customer data and etc. There are a lot of customer data breaches, for example, many comm companies are not able to, honestly, and transparently, transparently communicate what happened, right, you know, they try to hide things, and they try to find easy solutions. But actually, customers are much more forgiving when there is transparency and honesty behind a big error. Yeah, so that's the kind of integrity that we're talking about. You know, I'm just making a very easy example about it. But we also have empathy is the ability as we know, to understand and share the feelings of others. So in terms of customer trust, entails to recognize and understanding concerns, experiences of our customers, and really answers the questions such as, do you understand me as an individual customer? Do you understand my experiences with all the technology and AI we have in business these days, we shouldn't really leave empathy and the human touch upside. Because, yeah, because this is just so important. So we earn customer trust, also by demonstrating empathy by actively listening to customer concerns and frustrations. So that's also an important aspect for factor for earning customer trust.

Rick Denton: 18:34

I love what I really enjoy about that is kind of that middle observation there of, Hey, these are logical, and these are emotional, and I'm grossly simplifying it because there's actually repeatable things that you're describing. And there is when it comes to integrity, did a company follow the process of communicating clearly when something bad happens, right? We know bad stuff happens. But what did you do with me when that bad stuff happened? Did you restore my relationship and so those two things that does that brings a lot of clarity into what customer trust is why we need it. illenium I certainly have a greater understanding of customer trust. Now. I want to take you in a completely different direction because this is Cx passport. We've got our passports that we love talking travel here. And you mentioned being a digital nomad starting at age 19. Those years have to have been fascinating me on the road. A lot of us fantasize about the digital nomad life, you've lived it. Both the good, the bad, what was that like? And how has it influenced your approach to customer experience today?

Ilenia Vidili: 19:34

Good question. Good question. So I left to Sardinia when I was only 19 years old. I left a Fest in Spain and then I traveled to across Italy and then I ended up being in the UK for my studies. That's where I spent the most of my 20s actually. Then I left again the UK in 2017 when traveling for another year. The years where that's where I basically started my nomadic life. In working at the same time, that's the that was solid. Yes, I mean, I had a wonderful experience a wonderful life experience. Doing setting up my business, the business that I'm running right now sitting on my business, and at the same time, time traveling across the worlds, discovering new cultures, and, and really enjoying life on a deeper level. So, when I was only 19 years old, my aim was to travel and discover the worlds. And then when I left to the corporate world, to set up my own business and travel at the same time, I had, obviously, I had experienced not only life and travels on a different level, but also working at the same time earning money at the same time. Yeah, which was fantastic. So I discovered that I didn't have to be tied to a desk, and be closed up into a cubicle to experience things. And it was so enriching, such an amazing experience of freedom, of independency independence of independence, and mostly freedom, you know, you feel like just, you get up and you see the sunlight, and it's beautiful. Whereas when you have to work in an office, you get up, yes, you see the sunlight, but you need to be closed in a cubicle for nine hours a day. And you when when you leave the cubicle, you don't see the sunlight anymore. And that was depressing. And then so I loved it. It was amazing. That's what I can say. And I learned so much. He led me to lead me in Asia. My travels are when I first started my business in Singapore, doing consultancy and training programs in Singapore, for companies in Singapore. And then I realized that if I wanted to grow the business, I wanted to go back to Europe, what I realized really was like the difference in cultures difference in how customers want to be served in different countries, right, their expectations and needs in different countries, and also how businesses behave in the different countries like the leadership side management styles in different countries. So it's very diverse, you know, and it was beautiful to experience it. And I recommend that once in a lifetime I recommend it to everyone to do an experience such as this

Rick Denton: 22:49

Alinea I've totally would love to do that kind of a digital nomad lifestyle. Would love to get get out there. I did a taste of it. When I came out of university doing the cliche did a taste of it when I did the cliched backpacking trip after university for a month but I was in Europe, it was a month. But I do know this, it was a grittier lifestyle. And there were times that I would have loved to have taken a break in a first class lounge lounge in general. And now that was a little beyond backpacking budget, but today we get that opportunity. We're gonna take a little break here we're gonna stop down in the first class lounge. We've quickly here and have a little bit of fun what is a you may have several what is a dream travel location from your past? Yeah, was that part of your knowledge? Or was this just a vacation that you were on? No,

Ilenia Vidili: 23:33

I lived there for eight months. A was part of my nomadic journey. It was beautiful. It's such like valleys such different worlds is a completely different world. It's amazing. Yeah, well, we

Rick Denton: 23:47

could spend the whole podcast talking about that because you saw my eyes light up and just I almost get to feel a little chilly here today. And so I love the idea being on some warm ocean breezes. Maybe that's on my future. What is the dream travel location for you in the future that you've not been to yet?

Ilenia Vidili: 24:02

Japan? I would love to Oh man.

Rick Denton: 24:05

So Japan has come up multiple times in the recent past on this podcast so whatever energy is out there whatever Japanese Tourism Board is out there. It's working because people talk about all the time I had the opportunity to go listeners and viewers know this about a year or so ago when my son was studying abroad there. Brilliant place love it. So yes, get their food is fantastic. The people are wonderful. And my gosh, the logistics are spectacular. Service. Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm gonna get this right. Omotenashi I believe is the term and it is a brilliant Japanese concept. If I've slaughtered it. I apologize for those of you that know the Japanese language better than I do. What is Elenia a favorite thing of yours to eat? I

Ilenia Vidili: 24:49

love Italian food, obviously. And porcini risotto is my favorite dish.

Rick Denton: 24:58

Oh, that sounds delicious. It's I mean, it's at 930 in the morning, I shouldn't be hungry and yet oh my gosh, that sounds really, really good. Let's go the other way. Something you were forced to eat while you were growing up but you hated as a kid

Ilenia Vidili: 25:09

beans. I really did not like beans. Okay,

Rick Denton: 25:13

there's there's something here now the episodes may not release back to back but yesterday I recorded Francesca and I'm forgetting her last name I apologize, Francesca, and she's Italian living in France. And her answer to that question was beans as well. So I got to do a little exploration of the Italian culture to understand this aversion to beans. It's just interesting that two days in a row that's come up. I can understand it though. Let's get back to travel as we exit the lounge here. What is one travel item not including your phone, not including your passport that you will not leave home without my

Ilenia Vidili: 25:46

camera? Is that allowed? No phone camera, my camera?

Rick Denton: 25:58

You know what I love about the way you answer that question. It's not what you answered, although I like the what the way? What's one thing camera? I mean, I barely had finished the question. So I can see how capturing those photos. And those memories are vital to you. We spent a lot of time talking about customer centricity. We talked about digital nomad life and that sort of aspect, you've got another side of the work that you do that I really want to explore. And it's I want to know more about your work with the European women on boards. What is the impact of that been on you personally, and on the wider community of professional women,

Ilenia Vidili: 26:32

the impact it has had on me personally, is the understanding of the gap between men and women, the equality gap in businesses, especially in leadership positions, so I wasn't quite aware until I joined them. And so what will they do they create programs for women to Well, first of all, the create awareness. That's important, they create a light ship with men, so they prepare men to be allies, for women to go into leadership positions, but also they prepare women to be leadership positions. So what we're trying to do really is to close that gap and to align men and women to earn the same to be treated in the same way to have the same rights. You know, so that's the kind of work we're doing. And, and I love it. It's a beautiful community, and it's so needed in today's society.

Rick Denton: 27:43

You know, what's what I'm intrigued to hear from my brain kind of freezing a little bit. And that is, it's a shame that something like that is still needed. And yet, I'm so glad that it does exist, because some of the things you're describing, you know, equality should not just be a basic, right. And so there's there's times that I, what I'm thankful for organizations like that are what you just described, and that as like visibility, and even sort of overcoming maybe even the fatigue that people like, me or you or others out there that might be like, Wait, why are we still focusing? Well, because we need to still focus on this. And I admire an organization like that. And I'm glad that you've been involved in that. And, and, folks, I'll get it into the shownotes the link so that you can find out more about that, and find out how you might advance that mission as well. Elena, we have come to the end of our time together. I don't want to leave though without asking you this question. It's March. And by the time this releases, it may even be several months into weeks into April or even May. We're well into 2024 at this point. So all of those earlier predictions beyond all the kickoffs and so now that we're past all that beginning of the year hype, what matters to your clients. Now, when a potential client is reaching out to you and says lainnya help? What are the pain points that they are seeking to solve right now.

Ilenia Vidili: 29:11

So most companies come to me because they're experiencing different challenges such as loss of relevance, due to commoditization of products, low customer satisfaction, scores, and difficulty in engaging and retaining customers. These are the three main pain points that I see, but especially the first one loss of relevance. And due to commoditization of products. This is the main one that a lot of companies ask me, that's interesting.

Rick Denton: 29:41

Like, I wasn't expecting that answer, the loss of relevance. It seems very, very logical when you say it, how if we can amplify and pull it this thread just a little bit longer. How are you helping folks with that loss of if it's commoditized? What's the solution for a company in that scenario? Or solution. I don't want to make too simplistic. No,

Ilenia Vidili: 30:03

of course. But how do we differentiate these days we differentiate with high level of trust, we differentiate with excellent customer experiences and customer service, you know, when there is a commoditization of products is because there are so many products out there. And that's the way we we differentiate these days with customer experience streamlining processes, you know, minimizing efforts with customers, that's the way that they that that's the way that companies want to improve their processes and operations, you know, that they reflect eventually in the customer experience. So providing value to customers is not just with products and services, but it's actually with the experience as well.

Rick Denton: 30:50

We're ending right there. That's it. We are stopping that as the episode. Ilenia, if listeners viewers, if you heard or saw nothing else, listen to that last section because you hit on so many things that I love and believe experience is what matters process and execution. love every bit of that Alenia folks wanted to get to know a little bit more about you, your book, European women on board, where should they turn so

Ilenia Vidili: 31:13

they can go into my website? Alinea Vidyalay bore. I'm very active on LinkedIn as well. And I share weekly tips on customer centricity on LinkedIn so they can follow me there, DME, if they have any questions. I'm very happy to help. Awesome,

Rick Denton: 31:31

I will get that link to the book link to European women on boards that in the show notes, scroll down and click the links and get to know Elena and all the things she supports a little bit better lady, I really did enjoy having you on the show today. I do admire maybe envy a little bit of that digital nomad experience, and what that was like and how that shaped you. And then I love not only just the customer centricity explanation, but the practical approach to how it can be created is so important Delaney, this was a treat for me. I'm glad that we had the chance to talk today. Thank you for being on CX password.

Ilenia Vidili: 32:06

Thank you so much.

Rick Denton: 32:13

Thanks for joining us this week on CX Passport. If you liked today’s episode I have 3 quick next steps for you Click subscribe on the CX Passport youtube channel or your favorite podcast app Next leave a comment below the video or a review in your favorite podcast app so others can find and and enjoy CX Passport too Then, head over to cxpassport.com website for show notes and resources that can help you create tangible business results by delivering great customer experience. Until next time, I’m Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.