I had the Irish luck to attend the CXPA European Insights Exchange event and workshops in Dublin, Ireland not too long ago. Though I had never before taken part in any international CX events, as an active CXPA meeting participant in all the meetings and events arranged in Finland, I was both anticipating a great event and great people. As my field of business is IT, and the conferences usually vast, I am not an easy gal to satisfy.

The first day consisted of intense workshops followed by two days of customer experience insights with European flavours. I got several good takeaways from the event as a whole, but my golden nuggets are now shortlisted as CX management, CX metrics, and CX discipline.

From CX strategy to ROI value

Both of the workshops on the first day were presented by Ian Golding and Diane Magers, two of the head chiefs of teaching this profession (calling someone a guru might not make it anymore to describe a pro who knows the subject inside out). No lectures, but discussing through the subject matter, involving customer cases of the workshop participants, lively humour and gathering building blocks of knowledge that in the end formed a great foundation.

The first workshop was about Customer Experience Management, providing a framework and tools of the trade. For the first time, I got a full, conscise picture of how to manage and lead customer experience as a capability within my organization.

The second workshop was about customer experience metrics – from CX strategy to ROI value. We learned how CX – this soft discipline, this customer “pampering” side of business – could be presented to business stakeholders as monetary value to the company. I still smile when thinking about the group’s enthusiasm about the C-Suite and showing CX metrics in their Excel sheets.

It’s not about selling, but a free flow of ideas

The next two days were spent in the main European Insights Exchange event. Unlike ordinary conferences, where you wander from lecture to lecture, we enjoyed presentations from different sides of CX life, commented and made honest, hard questions, did group work on different future-looking subjects, stopped by every fair stand outside the meeting rooms and networked.

You can tell when the presenters are your people, and not people who just want to sell you something. Of course we want to know about the cool new stuff and tools, but discussing the possibilities makes our CX ideas flow much better than hard selling – maybe it’s the customer experience of the situation!

Attention to detail and stubbornness

I must mention my favourite presenters from both days: Paul Barber, Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club’s CEO, gave an opening keynote to remember. The attention to detail on any fan or community-related touchpoint his organization handles is to be envied, as well as the combination of data-driven intelligence with knowledge of local engagement with the sport.

No wonder his organization ends up selling more! They treat well also the fans of the opposing team – they understand the culture. Paul himself was an excellent presenter, and his answers to CX questions well thought out.

On the last day, the most interesting presentation was given by Katie Stabler, CCXP, of Lowell Group. I was definitely interested in hearing about how to manage CX in a business environment, where your customers do not actively choose to be your customers – like Lowell’s business debt collection. Katie was honest about their struggle from low beginnings of bad NPS scores to where they are now: with happy customers who have their finances under control, much better employee retention, and huge income growth.

I was impressed by the pure stubbornness to give value and to respect each customer at every step of their process – even if at first the changes they made toward better customer experience did not show outside their company.

All in all, the European Insights Exchange was a great example of the customer experience professionals meeting each other, people with same interests belonging to this busy community.

The CX discipline brings together like-minded people to discuss – and, yes, debate! But most of all, to share the great stories, examples and ideas. I feel once again equipped with the latest tools of the trade.

Nora likes to combine Customer Experience with IT capabilities, at the moment driving the digital transformation in Finnish government sector.

Interested in more insights into customer experience? Ian Golding will be leading the CX Masterclass training on May 7th and 8th. Ian’s last visit to Finland was in 2019, but this year it has been expanded into a two-day event with more know-how than ever before. Get your tickets soon at www.cxmasterclass.fi. We look forward to meeting you there.

Ian Golding is a renowned CX specialist, who advises leading companies with their CX strategies, as well as measuring and developing CX and listening to your employees. He is the first one to have achieved the Certified Customer Experience Professional certificate and acts as CXPA UK Ambassador.

”Ensure that you do right by your employees first, so that they in turn are able to delight your customers.”
– Ian Golding, Founder, Customer Experience Consultancy