Customer Experience: Lowe's, Ingredion, and B|O|S head toward “North Star”

Ruth Crowley, Vice President, Customer Experience Design at Lowe’s, knows well what is at stake. She points to Forrester research indicating that a one-point improvement in its Customer Experience index score can yield incremental revenue of $245 million for a big box retailer. “That one-point potential is our North Star.”

Crowley, as well as Daniel Sasu, Senior Director, Global Customer Experience, at Ingredion, and David Newson, Director, Experiences + Growth, at B|O|S, all speakers at the Conference Board’s upcoming Customer Experience Conference (October 23-24, NYC), shared their perspectives on some of the key challenges that, when grasped as opportunities, can allow organizations to head toward that North Star.

Ingredion and connecting those far from the front lines to CX

The value of engaging front-line employees who interact directly with the customer is huge and readily apparent. Daniel Sasu, Director, Customer Experience, at Ingredion says the greater challenge—and thus greater opportunity for differentiation—is to get those far from the front lines “to step into the shoes of our customers.” The B2B global ingredient solutions provider uses training and scorecards to let those in manufacturing functions, for example, see how what they do affects their customers; to “make it tangible.”

B|O|S and generational differences

For many CX leaders, generational differences in preferred modes of interaction can pose significant challenges, particularly in sectors associated with traditional and high-touch interaction. At B|O|S, a wealth management firm based in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, David Newson, Director, Experiences + Growth, sees this challenge as an opportunity to “design the wealth management experience of the future,” noting that today the innovators, young entrepreneurs and technology executives among their client base can be comfortable making trust-based decisions built on digital interactions to a degree not seen previously.

Lowe’s and endless competition for customer attention

The challenge that each of us is aware of as consumers, as well as business leaders is that we have come to expect near-instantaneous results and can turn to a nearly endless set of options for our attention the moment boredom threatens. During the average minute in 2019, Crowley says, 4.3 million YouTube videos are viewed, 18 million text messages are sent, and 187 million emails are sent. The opportunity this challenge presents is the recognition that in this environment, the emotional connection with the customer is more important than ever. Lowe’s employs Customer Experience Design to intentionally shape the customer’s interactions to deliver feelings and memories that increase emotional attachment. It may be that, even as the convenience of brick and mortar is increasingly challenged by online options, the importance of the physical location to deliver an emotionally resonant experience grows.

We hope you found these insights useful and that you’ll be able to join these and other leading CX practitioners from American Express, IBM, Carnival Corp., Google, John Hancock, Tiffany and more at The Conference Board’s Customer Experience Conference (October 23-24, NYC.)