The Experience Perspective: An Ipsos Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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.

We are delighted to welcome Yvette Steyn who focuses on growth and innovation at Distell, Africa’s leading producer and marketer of alcoholic drinks, which are sold across the world. We’re also joined by Zibusiso Ngulube who heads up Ipsos’ Channel Performance business in South Africa.  Zibs is one of our experts in retail measurement, including within the indirect/informal channel.

Distell’s purpose is ‘Creating memorable moments. Crafting a better future’, and in this episode Yvette and Zibs tell us about the industry coming together in an incredible sustainability initiative, in South Africa, to drive a better future for the industry as a whole, advancing licensing in particular and a reduction in alcohol abuse, contributing to an upliftment of society, in a meaningful way. They discuss the challenges faced, the practical aspects of mapping the size of the market, including the number of independent retailers – licensed and unlicensed – and gaining a deep understanding of this unique alcohol landscape, which has been hit hard by Covid lockdowns. They uncovered some surprises, so settle in and be prepared to be inspired by what they’ve achieved and the impact this initiative is having.

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

We’re dishing up a ‘mash-up’, between our Customer Perspective and Educated Conjecture Ipsos podcasts, to give a customer and citizen perspective on the world.  We’re joined by Mike Colledge, giving us the ‘citizen lens’, and Ray Kong, with the ‘customer lens’.

Ray and Mike talk to us about what matters to today’s citizens – what’s keeping them awake at night, of course recognising that customers are citizens too. Among the topics covered are: customers’ expectations of brands in helping them address pressing concerns – cost of living and sustainability among them; liquid expectations, including those crossing from the private into public sectors; executives’ challenges, including staffing; and, on a positive note, disruption breeding innovation.

As a flavour of the conversations they’re hearing:

“ … when my income hasn't risen as fast as my cost of living … the expectations (of organisations) are not that they are going to solve the root causes, (but) … how do you help me navigate these times?”

“I vote every four years, but I spend every day, and I'd like my money to have a similar impact to my vote on those broad social issues”

And from a business leader: “I know that this (staffing) is a problem. I know that we need to find ways to do better, but I just have no tools to solve this, because I cannot get people … and I cannot develop alternate tools fast enough”.

Mike leads Ipsos Public Affairs in Canada, and is co-host of Educated Conjecture, our podcast that examines a current or emerging issue – what’s happening today, the future impact, and steps that might need to be taken to generate a better outcome for tomorrow.

Ray Kong is a President in our Ipsos Client Organisation and has previously led Ipsos CX business in both South Africa and Canada.   Ray is representing Customer Perspective, which our loyal listeners will know is aimed at all of you who are concerned with helping your organisation deliver on its Brand Promise to customers.

If you’d like to add another podcast to your favourites list, head to Educated Conjecture.  And, yes, we’ll be inviting Darrell Bricker to educate us, but if you cannot wait and would like to read his book, Empty Planet, head here for details. Find out more about our latest Ipsos CX and Channel Performance thinking.

We are delighted to welcome Jasper Lam from TD, which serves 24 million customers around the globe, and is the sixth largest bank in North America, by branches. TD’s mission is to give clients the best banking experience possible, every day.  Jasper’s team is responsible for Customer Experience Strategy, Customer Experience Measurement and Analytics, CX Metric Operations and Transformation, and the Customer Journey Framework.  We’re also joined by Ray Kong, a President in our IpsosClient Organisation, and he’s previously led our CX business in South Africa and Canada – so also a man who knows a thing or two about CX!

Jasper and Ray share their views on how customers’ needs and expectations have changed over the past few years, great examples of organisations who are ‘getting it right’ (Shaun at buybuy Baby, please tell us you’ve heard Jasper’s story about the great experience you delivered!), and how TD Bank creates the culture that enables their staff to deliver that ‘legendary service’.  We know Ben Page will certainly appreciate the ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ (Drucker) reference!  Jasper and Ray also give the lowdown on customers’ changing relationships with money and their banks, how the ‘value equation’ is evolving, and what that means for brands.  We’re already looking forward to Jasper coming back to talk more about CX and EX.  There are so many quotes I could pluck from this interview – enjoy!

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

New Ipsos research shows men having expressed increased interest in purchasing male cosmetics in recent years, exposing an opening for brands to target this cohort, and signaling a likely evolution in the definition of masculinity. Overall, 15% of heterosexual men aged 18–65 in the U.S. currently use male cosmetics and makeup; an additional 17% would consider using it in the future.

We’re joined by two expert guests, both from Ipsos in the U.S.: Carlos Aragon, a Vice President, in our Channel Performance business and Kristy Click, Senior Client Officer – and they’re co-authors of our recently published PoV, ‘There’s a market for men’s cosmetics – and a generation gap’.  Carlos and Kristy share a brief history of men’s grooming, skincare and cosmetics products, describe how expectations and behaviours have changed, tell us about the products that are being added to routines and benefits sought, conversations that are taking place on social media and what’s/who’s topping the social media chats, and give advice to brands wanting to reach men searching for skincare and cosmetics products, and tap into the massive growth potential in this area.

Head here to read their paper, or here to watch Carlos’ and Kristy’s recent webinar.

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