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Differentiating customer experience from customer culture
To clearly explain the difference between these two concepts, Guillaume gives us the image of a flower: “Let's imagine that the customer experience is a flower and the company wants to offer a beautiful flower to its customers. The flower of the customer experience. We want to show our customers a flower that is a little different from the others, that makes you want. For this flower to grow, companies will look for slightly original seeds (...) The problem is that sometimes the seed does not grow because the soil is not fertile. Nobody cares about the soil. (...) The problem is not the seed, it is the state of mind of the company. We are dealing with a cultural problem.”
This metaphor clearly explains to us that in order to offer a beautiful flower that lasts, that is to say a good customer experience, we must work on the customer culture beforehand. It is based on the values, mindset and commitment of the entire company, long before the experience is lived. A strong and customer-centric culture creates the ideal conditions for providing an unparalleled customer experience.
The concept of customer culture as seen by businesses
Maxime Santilli (Sqwad) : “So how is this subject, how is it perceived and are they digesting it, are they aware of it? ”
Guillaume Antionietti (COS System) : “I think that over the last 2/3 years, the subject has been emerging.”
According to our expert, businesses are beginning to realize that their customer experience efforts are not yet generating a sufficient return on investment. This leads to questions “What are we missing? ”, and the answer seems to be customer culture: an element that is often overlooked, but crucial to improving the impact of their initiatives on customer performance. The idea is not to question the expansion of the customer experience, but rather to integrate work on culture to maximize its benefits, emphasizes Guillaume.
Impact of AI on customer culture: finding a balance
Maxime Santilli (Sqwad): “The customer culture that comes later with AI in this frontline aspect but also in the back office, how do you interpret it and how do you educate your customers? ”
Guillaume Antionietti (COS System): “Artificial intelligence will help and equip my employees to respond better, but there is a problem in terms of culture: if I need to work on the state of mind of my teams, I also need to work on their level of play.”
The trigger for the evolution of customer culture in recent years lies in the integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
By facilitating customer interactions both in the front office and in the back office, AI helps employees to respond in a more precise and appropriate manner, in particular by detecting emotions such as irritation or annoyance. However, the risk is to focus only on technology at the expense of the continuous improvement of human skills and customer culture. According to Guillaume Antionetti, the evolution of customer culture must take place in parallel: it is essential to continue to “strengthen” teams and provide them with technological tools so that they reach a level of excellence while benefiting from the advantages of AI. “The ideal is to continue to raise their level of play in terms of customer concern and in addition to providing them with help tools” explains Guillaume.
Measuring and strengthening customer culture: from KPIs to team trust
Maxime Santilli (Sqwad): “In terms of performance and KPIs, can you give me some information on the metrics you follow to justify performance and the relevance of your actions? ”
Guillaume Antionietti (COS System): “We identified that the level of customer culture, which is measured very scientifically through our diagnostic tool, is directly linked to the NPS, i.e. to the level of customer satisfaction.”
Our expert declares to mainly follow the NPS (Net Promoter Score), that measures customer satisfaction. He was able to see that the level of customer culture, measured scientifically using a diagnostic tool, is directly linked to the NPS. The more the teams' customer culture is developed, the more the NPS increases, which translates into an improvement in the commercial performance of the units: “This is demonstrated by scientists on meta analyses. But we see it experimentally, as the missions we can carry out.”
Maxime Santilli (Sqwad): “In your opinion, if you had to have a list of essential pillars for the success of a team, whether small or large, what would those pillars be? ”
Guillaume Antionietti (COS System): “First of all, I need to identify two dimensions: the first is the working environment of my teams (...) and the second pillar: my own beliefs and individual values.”
Our expert explains to us that for a successful team, it is essential to create a favorable work environment, where employees feel supported and empowered. Exemplary management, clear management of priorities and a good connection with customer expectations are essential. Giving teams autonomy in their daily decisions reinforces their commitment and allows them to better meet customer needs. Guillaume explains: “The manager must be present and attentive, able to guide his employees in the continuous transformation of their practices.”
At the same time, it is crucial to work on the beliefs and individual values of employees. For them to adopt a true customer culture, they must be allowed to understand the importance of customer relationships and to transform their automations. Among other things, this involves working on their behaviors and reflexes, so that they fully integrate the company's culture and become key players in the customer experience.
Maxime Santilli (Sqwad): “So concerning this corporate culture, this customer culture and the customer experience, is the concept of trust important in your opinion? ”
Guillaume Antionietti (COS System): “It is fundamental. It is part of this pillar of the work environment.”
Trust is essential in customer relationships and corporate culture according to our expert. According to him, an employee who does not feel confident with his manager will not dare to take initiatives, which is however crucial in an environment where customer expectations are diverse and evolving. Trust gives teams the freedom to react quickly and make the right decisions for the customer, without always having to wait for superior validation. As he explains : “It is essential to have managers who trust employees. Of course, some will fail, but we have much more to gain than to lose.”
Recruitment and customer culture: identify and cultivate engagement from the moment of hiring
Maxime Santilli (Sqwad): “Can we, as early as the recruitment process, identify profiles that will have an additional faculty or capacity or proximity with the audience or with a sector to facilitate this, or can it be improvised? ”
Guillaume Antionietti (COS System): “It has to be detected. At the very least, during the interview, we must detect in our interlocutor, in his capacity to be able to manage a complex situation independently.”
For Guillaume, it is possible, as early as the recruitment process, to identify profiles with a particular ability to react to complex situations and to take initiatives. This is detected in particular during interviews, where it is necessary to observe the candidate's ability to manage ambiguous situations without systematically referring to a supervisor. He highlights the importance of identifying those who, faced with a problem, take the initiative to find a solution, even if it is outside the usual framework, before requesting validation. However, it addresses a limitation: “What's not easy is that sometimes teams are ready to do it, but managers don't want to.”
Maxime Santilli (Sqwad): “At Sqwad, with more than 25,000 agents, recruitment takes into account both geographic proximity and customer affinity (...) do you think that this proximity to the audience is a determining factor for the success of the customer experience? ”
Guillaume Antionietti (COS System): “For me, I test this subject in a scientific way with my implicit measures (...) it allows me to identify very quickly, regardless of what the person is saying about himself”.
According to Guillaume, to assess the true capacity of a candidate to genuinely engage in a customer relationship, it is crucial to use scientific tools such as the implicit association test. According to him, this test makes it possible to measure the loyalty of a candidate by analyzing his unconscious reflexes, regardless of the speech or behaviors learned. He insists on the fact that”This test helps us to see what is in the belly, in the brain, and to identify those who, despite their good face, take on themselves rather than acting spontaneously.”
The specialist also emphasizes the importance of management in the training of automation among employees. By consistently reinforcing positive emotions after successful interactions, “we help the brain to establish good reflexes”, he specifies. By conducting debriefs where employees are invited to express their positive emotions, we create an environment conducive to the activation of authentic behaviors. He adds that “if this practice is ritualized, it makes it possible to strengthen the collaborator's automations, thus making empathy and commitment natural in future interactions.”
Key factors for a successful customer culture
For Guillaume Antionetti, all businesses have their strengths and weaknesses in terms of customer culture. He emphasizes that what makes the difference is the involvement of top management, not only through verbal support, but through concrete actions. The most successful businesses when it comes to customer culture are those where leaders make strategic decisions that, while they may hurt financial results in the short term, are aimed at strengthening customer relationships in the long term. The exemplarity of managers and their ability to demonstrate leadership, such as the acceptance of cutting off non-strategic customers, is essential.
The expert also observes that some managers have been able to evolve and transform their management approach, by integrating practices such as strengthening positive emotions and managing internal behaviors. He states that simple but effective actions, such as preventing negative customer comments within the company, can profoundly change the state of mind and thus behavior. These small actions, while seemingly trivial, have a major impact on customer culture and team engagement.
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