Tennis legend and businesswoman, Serena Williams and former Home Depot, CEO Frank Blake were among the keynote speakers at Conga Connect 2021. The online event focused on how digital transformation can make businesses more agile and better equipped to deliver exceptional customer experience.
We attended the event on June 10 and picked up four important lessons from the roster of accomplished business leaders and Conga customer success experts who shared their valuable insights.
Success comes from absolute customer obsession.
A laser focus on solving customer problems is essential to the success of an organization, Blake shared as he talked about his experience at Home Depot and as the current chairman of the board at Delta Air Lines. Taking a long-term perspective is just as important; customer-centered investments may not necessarily pay off on day one but it must be a key part of brand building.
Conga CEO, Noel Goggin also highlighted customer-first orientation as their primary focus for the company in the coming year. In making customer success their single largest area of investment, Conga is launching innovative programs and initiatives to enhance speed to value, ensure optimal outcomes for customers, and strengthen engagement with customers across different channels.
Having a customer-first mindset is central to driving technological innovation, implementing a robust go-to-market strategy, and committing to continuous product improvement.
The core of leadership is to differentiate the meaningful from the shiny object.
Blake talked about the concept of leadership as an inverted pyramid.
“Gravity is not your friend. Everything you need to do, you’re pushing up through an organization. This is both a weight-bearing position because the whole organization is resting on you... and it’s a structure that requires you to radiate out through the organization,” he said.
With such weighty responsibilities, leaders need to distinguish between substantial initiatives that actually drive value for their customers and trendy practices that turn out to be mere distractions. They will also have to effectively communicate these priorities throughout the organization and ensure that the compensation structure is anchored on the goals they aim to achieve.
For instance, in Conga’s priority of championing the customer, they introduced Net Promoter Score as a key metric for rewarding bonuses for employees. As Blake said, “You get what you recognize and celebrate.”
Customer success relies on creating customer-centered teams.
Serena Williams emphasized that building a good team was crucial to achieving her monumental success in sports as well as in business.
“One of my strengths is building teams. I hire slow but long term,” she said. Hiring for the long term ensures that team members are invested in the shared vision and goals of the company on how to best deliver a great experience for customers.
In hiring team members, Williams looks for hard working, humble people who are always looking to collaborate. As for Blake, he wants team members who are endlessly curious about their customers and who understand how customer success can drive the economic engine of the business. He also looks for people who have the energy to listen and communicate well within the organization.
Working with reliable partners is key in achieving sustainable growth.
As Conga evolved to become a market leader in business process automation, Goggin recognized the pivotal role that their partner organizations play in scaling up their operations. With about 13,000 customers globally, the company needs a fundamental ecosystem of partners who have the right experience and expertise in a variety of areas, from change management to integration and transformation.
“They are an extension of our brand. We can’t grow at the scale we want to grow without having the reach and partners who represent our brand competently and credibly,” he said.
Over to you
Prioritizing customer experience is critical for any business, but it requires significant resources, focused leadership, and strong partnerships. Are you looking to scale your CX team? Let's talk.
.png)
