CX Education 10: Inviting CX to the leadership table: Steps for business growth with Olga Potaptseva, Founding Director of ECC
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It's super common to hear business owners say, "customers are at the heart of everything we do" or "the customer is always right." But even with this mindset, CX is often left behind – it needs to be invited to sit at the leadership table and get involved in more conversations. Why? Because it’s what connects employees, customers, and operations.
In this episode of CX Education, we’re joined by Olga Potaptseva, the founding director of European Customer Consultancy (ECC). Olga discusses the importance of creating a human-centric culture rather than a customer-centric one and explains that such an approach helps retain top talent that’s motivated to work on a shared objective, such as customer retention.
Olga and our host Sunny Dhami, also touch upon the challenges of bringing CX to the leadership table and what it takes for an industry to achieve CX maturity.
Guest speaker
Olga passionately believes in CX as a business discipline that drives financial, organisational, and social success. She promotes this through her consulting work, as well as her role as the Executive Director at the Customer Institute, Founding Member for Women in CX, a chair of Judges at the CX Awards, an educator, author and speaker. Olga gets a lot of inspiration for her work from her international lifestyle and her family.
Olga Potaptseva
Host
Sunny Dhami
Key insights
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CX professionals must focus on processes and training
Otherwise, they risk losing top talent. Olga advocates for a human-centric business methodology. CX leaders must mentor and coach their team members, creating a supportive working environment where employees are motivated to work towards the company's core objectives. ''We must monitor our customer needs fulfillment, keep it at the same level, but make sure that it's a great organization to work for. We cannot expect our people to be advocates for a long time if we burden them with everything they shouldn't be dealing with.''
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CX leaders must be able to speak to customers and employees
However, the collaboration between CX and other teams, especially among decision-makers, is minimal or non-existent. And if CX wants to get a seat at the leadership table, silos must be broken down, and a list of priorities defined and shared with everyone involved in the customer journey. For instance, ''Why is CX important to the company? Why should you be at the leadership table? What do you bring to the leadership team? And yes, you bring the customer perspective. It's important. How is that perspective connected to the goals and objectives of the company? Maybe we should change the goals and objectives of our company based on what the customer is telling us. [...] It's about this balanced view that would drive customers' interest within the organization.''
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Focus on the basics because customers are not irrational in their needs
When ordering a product, for example, customers want it to be delivered on time and undamaged; that's all. No additional incentive will compensate for poor service. ''If you don't get the basics right, you don't have the right to delight. I always use this example. What's your basic need when you travel? You stay in a hotel. What's your basic need? You want to sleep. If your hotel room doesn't have a bed, that's a failing experience. If, at the same time, it has warm cookies and a welcome note, is that going to solve your problem? No. You can only have the right to put the extras and the niceties if the basics are satisfied.''
Episode highlights
CX Education
