Customer Perspective: An Ipsos Podcast Ipsos

In some of our Customer Perspective podcasts over the past year or so, you may have heard us talking about Convergent Commerce – the blurring of
physical and digital commerce environments and touchpoints. In this episode, we’re continuing our Convergent Commerce journey, but from the angle of the
bricks and mortar store.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that with all the talk about digital channels, the physical store is dead. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Its roles are expanding not contracting. And depending on the category, often a majority of shopping task time and purchases are made in physical stores.

We’re joined by Norrelle Goldring, one of the authors of our recently published paper, ‘The Morphing Store: bricks and
mortar evolution in a convergent commerce world’. We’re discussing how the physical store is changing, how its roles are expanding, and, of course, what this means in terms of designing for, delivering, and measuring success.

Ipsos’ latest CX and Channel Performance and thinking may be found via these links, along with ways in which our CX – including Service Design,
Shopper Insights, Mystery Shopping, and  Execution Measurement experts can support organisations as they face the challenges and opportunities posed by
the ‘morphing store’.

We’re delighted to welcome Sybil Nicolson and Kristian Green to the first episode of our sixth season of Customer Perspective.  Sybil is an Insights Executive for Transport for London, which many of you will know as TfL.  Kristian is a Director in Ipsos’ UK Channel Performance – Mystery Shopping team, and a transport and tourism sector expert.

For those of you not familiar with TfL, this is the organisation which runs the operation of London’s public transport network and manages London's main roads – no small task given we’re talking the likes of 1.4bn tube travellers every year, 2.3 bn bus passengers – when every journey matters… that’s quite the organisational challenge!

Sybil and Kristian describe some of TfL’s research activities, including their large-scale, long-term Mystery Shopping programme: London Underground Customer Care Monitor (CCM).  They explain how it remains fresh after more than 10 years, the research and logistical challenges associated with such a major initiative and how to overcome, and, most importantly, how TfL puts this to work, to drive positive change across the organisation and improvements for customers.

For more information about how to build a successful mystery shopping programme, head to Designing a ‘Smarter’ Mystery Shopping Programme | Ipsos. And do check out our latest Ipsos CX and Channel Performance thinking.

We live in volatile times that are influencing customers’ expectations, needs and opinions. Understanding and empathising with customers and the context of ‘their world’ needs to be at the heart of experience design.

We welcome experience design experts, Helen Bywater-Smith, Ipsos’ Global Head of CX Service Design and author of our latest Ipsos whitepaper, CX Service Design: Creating emotional attachment and driving brand growth, and Jean-Francois (JF) Damais, Global CX Chief Research Officer.

Helen and JF share best practice and service design guidelines for brands to create emotional attachment and drive the right behaviours, leading to increased retention, share of spend, advocacy, operational efficiency, and, ultimately, an improved Return on CX Investment: ROCXI … and, yes, the line “designers of memories, expressers of brands, impacters of bottom lines” may have been uttered!

Check out the paper for a more in-depth look at CX Service Design case studies and actionable frameworks. And when you’re reading it, think about a specific journey or experience that you would like to design, refresh or repair, to improve your relationship with your customers. Consider it a ‘mini CX design clinic’!

Head to these links to find out about more Ipsos  CX and Channel Performance thinking.

We welcome Alison Chaltas, Ipsos’ Global Head of Shopper and Omnichannel, and Norrelle Goldring, global consultant, co-authors of a recently published Ipsos whitepaper, ‘Beyond omnichannel to convergent commerce ecosystems’.

Last season (S4, Ep5), Alison joined us to speak about convergent commerce, including what this actually means, those emerging channels where convergent commerce is evident, and the impact on the consumer/customer journey.  In this episode, we take the conversation to the next level, to discuss convergent commerce ecosystems, including what that looks like, what this means for means for brands and retailers, including what they need to do to align themselves to consumers’ ecosystems, whilst keep the customer at the heart of such a move (always!) and not developing ‘things’ for their own sake.

We’ll be inviting Alison and Norrelle back to speak about another new paper in our series, but head here if you simply cannot wait to know more about ‘The Morphing Store: bricks and mortar evolution in a convergent commerce world’.

Ipsos’ latest CX, Channel Performance and Omnichannel specific thinking may be found via these links.

We welcome Kate McLaren, General Manager - Customer Quality at Kia Motors UK to our Customer Perspective podcast.  David Hart, Kia Customer Experience Manager, joined us back in Season 3, speaking about some of the drivers of Kia’s success, and we’re delighted to share the next episode of that story, and to provide a glimpse of what the future holds for Kia.  We welcome back Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service, another season 3 favourite, as well as regular guest and host, Ipsos’ very own Jamie Thorpe, Head of Experience Management.

The conversation between these three true CX experts is enlightening and wide-ranging, with topics including how Ipsos, The ICS and clients work together and the benefits that brings.  They discuss how, in these challenging times, Customer Experience has never been more important, along with the associated challenges, and what really makes a difference when driving those desired business outcomes.  They dive into trust, authenticity, empathy and the value and ways of creating emotional attachment with a brand. But, of course, it’s all about the impact, with ROCXI (Return on CX Investment), all important.  Jo points to data that shows how companies that succeed in achieving higher than average customer satisfaction results over a sustained period of 5-8 years, deliver 10% higher than average levels of EBITDA.  And as Jamie says, if you cannot tell that story for your own organisation, identifying that financial return on the back of improving employee engagement and the Customer Experience, then there’s work to be done!  Head to Money talks or budget walks | Ipsos, co-authored by Jamie, for some advice.

Check out our latest Ipsos CX and Channel Performance thinking.

We are delighted to welcome Attila Szabo, who is Managing Director at Ford of Poland, leading the national sales company. We’re also joined by  Annamária Földes, who leads our Ipsos Customer Experience and Channel Performance business in Hungary. Attila speaks to us about Ford’s electric future and what that means for the future Ford Customer Experience, including the opportunities afforded by the electric CX journey to further strengthen the customer relationship.  He describes some of the learnings from the pandemic and those new digital, and subsequently phygital, touchpoints which were introduced by necessity, but which have been retained and enhanced the experience, and so driving better customer outcomes.   Attila is a big fan of mystery shopping, describing it as the “moment of truth … irreplaceable”, along with Voice of the Customer (VoC) research.  Of course, as a CX savvy organisation, the importance of CX is recognised throughout Ford, with the ‘Chairman’s Award’, the top award for dealerships, having CX as the primary measure.   The future is bright, the future is partially here … Customer Experience is ever more important – we agree, Attila, and look forward to welcoming you back to share the next instalment of Ford’s story.

Find out more about our latest Ipsos CX and Channel Performance thinking.