Are you ready for the Customer Experience change?

By Reka Ando, Tamara Barner, Nancy Callahan, Cristiana Grigore, Estelle Lagorce, Roxana Marcu, Heidi Viik

We are living in a world, where technology and business environments are changing rapidly. Traditional ways of doing business are challenged because of the digitalization. We need to change our mindset to be more innovative, flexible and fast, and support simplicity instead of complexity.  The customers are ever more demanding. Traditional product-oriented way of thinking does not apply anymore. It is not the product itself which satisfies our customers. They are seeking the “wow” effects and base their purchases on feelings. From the business point of view, this requires completely new skills from the employees and management.

Every touchpoint matters when customers are looking to us as a company. It is not only about the Customer Service or other customer-facing functionalities. Everyone in the company needs to understand how and why our work is related to Customer Experience.   As Simon Sinek has said: “We often know what we do, but do we know why we do it? “ What a great guideline to remember every day! There is also another excellent guideline to use. It is called empty chair strategy. Think of your management board meeting and picture an additional empty chair beside you where your customer is sitting. What would the customer think about your decisions?

SAP LEAP program gives us an excellent way to further develop our management skills. It gives guidance on how to lead exactly this change, acquire strategic and financial skills, develop and inspire others, and drive innovation, among many other things Paolo Coelho has said “There are always two things in life. You either put up with the conditions as they are, or you try to change them”. That’s what the LEAP program is all about. We are preparing ourselves to help SAP in major cultural and business change by learning from the best and implementing the best practices in our organizations.

You can find more information about our SAP LEAP program from following previous article.

SAP LEAP: Developing Women Leaders