What does it imply to be “customer-driven”?
You’ve reached the mid-point of your yr, which suggests it time to carry the crew collectively for second half planning. Regardless of the macro challenges that proceed to persist, issues are going effectively. All metrics are trending properly and your persons are motivated. You heart the flip chart in entrance of the u-shaped tables and write “CUSTOMER-DRIVEN” on the high in large, capital letters as people take their seats. That is merchandise #1 on the agenda: how can we grow to be extra customer-driven? How can we ensure that the voice of our prospects is documented and effectively represented in our merchandise? Three hours move, and the crew has a fantastic dialogue. Concepts like “higher inner collaboration”, “buyer focus teams” and “govt briefings” all make the flip chart. The group feels completed, so that you ask them to debate the concepts with their very own groups and are available again in 4 weeks with a prioritized checklist. Time for lunch.
Is that this sufficient? Are you “customer-driven” now? It’s a great begin, however as with something, it comes all the way down to accountability to motion. “Speaking the speak” is necessary, however “strolling the stroll” is what units you aside. That is the mindset with CX Cloud, Cisco’s cloud-based digital community administration platform. It was born on the concept that our prospects ought to drive its evolution. For 2 years, we’ve constructed groups, methods and plans round this customer-driven imaginative and prescient, together with the CX Cloud Beta Program.
However extra on that later. Permit me to introduce you to Victor.
Victor Prieto is the Head of Community Supply at Enel, an Italy-based utility that has been powering properties, companies and cities the world over for 60 years, all with an unwavering concentrate on sustainability and innovation. I met Victor in October of 2021 as a part of Enel’s participation within the CX Cloud Beta Program, an unique program designed not solely to seize the voice of the client, however to amplify it. Enel joined the CX Cloud Beta Program in March of 2021, and over the past 18+ months, the CX Cloud Beta Program crew has strived to ship a premium engagement based mostly on two key principals: accountability and innovation. When Victor joined the Beta Program crew in October, it was apparent he personified these principals. So we immediately went to work.
Victor introduced us with a selected problem: provide chain visibility. Enel, not not like different corporations inside their trade, was experiencing supply delays. How may Victor and his international crew higher predict the supply of their crucial Cisco units? The great thing about this request, and the explanation Victor has been such a incredible participant within the Beta Program, is that he was not trying to Cisco and CX Cloud to resolve the world’s provide chain points; quite, he was trying to us to alleviate the difficulty. He and his crew simply wanted reduction. In consequence, the problem at hand turned manageable, and an ideal case for innovation.
What adopted was a six-month collaborative prototyping course of that, by all requirements, was customer-driven. Our gifted CX Cloud engineers, together with the CX Cloud Beta Program crew, deployed an iterative design course of, holding bi-weekly conferences with Victor to current progress and take his suggestions on enhancements and modifications. The tip consequence was a functioning prototype inside CX Cloud that allowed Victor and his crew to all the time know the situation of their Cisco shipments throughout varied phases inside the provide chain. This led to higher predictability, higher planning, and fewer guessing. We took a world drawback and shrunk it in to a manageable, solvable alternative. All with our buddy, Victor, main the way in which.
As we speak, CX Cloud continues its journey to being customer-driven. Outdoors of the Beta Program, CX Cloud has a suggestions channel inside the person interface that enables our prospects to supply concepts and options on easy methods to make CX Cloud even higher. In case you are already a CX Cloud buyer, we encourage you to reap the benefits of this function and submit your suggestions. We need to hear from you. In case you are not a CX Cloud buyer, begin right here to study extra. And to listen to extra from Victor, take a look at his tackle the worth behind Enel and Cisco’s long-standing partnership right here.
Have a fantastic 2023!
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