This week, how to get customer experience (CX) right and how Switzerland can get its multinational groove back. Plus, reading picks from Steve Reis, a senior partner in Atlanta. The Shortlist is taking a brief Memorial Day hiatus next week. See you back here on May 31. |
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Not everyone’s going to be a CEO, but pretty much everyone’s going to be a customer. So, thinking like a customer should come naturally, right? Perhaps, but executives tell us their organizations struggle with this concept, even though the benefits of a customer-centric perspective are apparent: higher revenues, lower costs, more engaged employees, and more loyal customers. |
The magic word used to be touchpoints—all those moments when the company and the customer interacted, whether a sale, a bill, or a service call. Now, it’s about connecting those moments into a unified progression with a beginning, middle, and end, a.k.a. the customer journey. Drawing on behavioral science, companies use “nudging” and other methods to address biases that drive customers’ day-to-day decisions. |
And as the lines between products, services, and user environments have blurred, more opportunities are emerging for businesses to design an integrated customer experience. Telecommunications, automotive, and consumer-product companies have already boarded the convergence train, while other industries, such as insurance and energy, are still on the platform. Here’s a look at CX transformation in banking. |
Smart execs also know to look inward as well as outward and treat their own employees in support functions—like IT, finance, HR, and purchasing—as customers. This builds organizational loyalty and energizes the workforce to translate individual experiences into effective outreach to end customers. Here’s how they do it. |
Be forewarned, however: CX transformations can easily go awry. Leaders should be familiar with the seven deadly sins of CX transformations—and how to avoid them. |
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OFF THE CHARTS |
Why the Swiss miss multinationals |
Twenty years ago, Switzerland was the top choice for half of multinational companies that chose Europe for their headquarters location. Since then, however, the country continues to lose ground to other locations in Europe and abroad. Here’s how Switzerland could change that. |
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MORE ON MCKINSEY.COM |
How young Chinese consumers are reshaping global luxury | For young Chinese consumers, luxury is a powerful form of social capital—which means big opportunities for global brands. |
Brexit: The bigger picture | Whatever the outcome of Brexit, companies should view today’s high-uncertainty environment as a spur to rethink their supply chains and make them more resilient. |
Healthy wealth management in North America | Financial advisors at North American wealth-management companies enjoyed record-high revenues in 2018. Many found growth by updating their books’ demographics and by adding more clients born after 1965. |
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WHAT WE’RE READING
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Steve Reis |
Steve Reis, a senior partner based in Atlanta, helps companies improve their performance via analytics, digital, and agile principles. He also supports civic engagements to enhance the region’s development.
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Even though other partners have mentioned Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, I have to list it as well. A deep dive into the rise and collapse of the biotech start-up Theranos, the book is a fascinating reminder of how all of us—no matter how smart or accomplished—can be deceived into believing something without factual evidence, especially when it’s something we want to believe in. |
I found Tara Westover’s Educated: A Memoir, both completely captivating and difficult to read, because of the detailed accounts of her painful childhood. Born to survivalist parents in Idaho who kept her out of school until she was 17, Tara nevertheless went on to Harvard and Cambridge. Her story is an inspiring reminder of human resiliency and our capacity for critical thinking. |
When looking for a distraction and a quick laugh, I love reading David Sedaris. During the holiday season, my wife and I often reread his Holidays on Ice, about how the holidays bring out nutty behavior in people, starting with his own charmingly dysfunctional family. |
Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood was hard to put down. His story gave me a new appreciation for the utter brutality of apartheid. At the same time, it reminded me how one person can make such a difference in another’s life—in this case, Trevor’s mother, who fiercely protected him from a future of potential poverty and violence. |
Traveling as much as I do, I have frequent downtime waiting to board flights. A few years ago, I started filling those hours with podcasts. Right now, I’m about 100 episodes into The Axe Files, a podcast with David Axelrod, the longtime adviser to Barack Obama. His interviews with public figures feed the public-policy junkie in me. And in today’s political environment, I enjoy the respectful dialogue from leaders across the political spectrum. |
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BACKTALK |
Have feedback or other ideas? We’d love to hear from you. |
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