As part of GMC Software's commitment to stay in tune with a rapidly changing market we often conduct roundtable discussions. This works especially well in Asia, where we always generate a lot of lively conversation about serious challenges and interesting solutions. In November, we had two of these round tables, one in Hong Kong and another in Singapore.
Our Hong Kong roundtable was hosted at Mettā, a startup incubator in Lan Kwai Fung. This space is a collaboration space for startup Fintech companies, a change of scenery for innovation teams, and a place to perfect new ideas. Getting a chance to work in unique surroundings helps to shift perspective, and our discussion shifted several times.
The primary topic was the behavior of Chinese millennials who are using smart phones in ways that differ from the rest of the world. Instead of breaking up apps into smaller apps, major Chinese social media firms are adding features. As Zennon Kapron pointed out, “Transactions in China’s Singles’ Day did the equivalent of the US’ Black Friday in under 10 minutes for Alibaba.” With a large range of activities in a single app, the economics of payments are changing. The group discussed the shift from Mastercard and Visa to the China-based UnionPay system.
While those macro trends were important, the response within the business is important. Participants included innovation experts, CXOs, Product Managers, CCOs, Growth Managers, and a FinsurTech Director. They discussed how their organizations are looking to react by offering banking and insurance services that are tailored to the behavior of these new customers.
In Singapore, it was a slightly different story. The event concentrated on customer experience, featuring Forrester’s Ryan Hart. He led a discussion about measuring customer experience in new ways that better reflect the emotions present during a client interaction with the brand. This roundtable was at Lattice80, a sponsored startup space that selects occupants based on their business plans. Instead of being in a hip area of town, it was within walking distance of over 20 of the world’s most recognizable names in banking and insurance.
The Singaporean crowd talked about the ways they use communication advancements to improve the customer experience. Nearly all participants expressed frustration that many of their technology teams are not moving as fast as their experience teams need them to move in order to win on the battlefield of customer experience.
While these were two events, with two crowds, the common theme is that great communication is critical to the delivery of excellent customer experience. This cannot be an afterthought. The experience has to be one of the initial focuses of the projects in order to work. We also learned that any customer experience project without executive sponsorship is likely to fail. If you get a chance, go out to a startup space. Lattice80 and Mettā will happily let you in for a coffee.
Related Resources - Podcast playlist recorded on location in Hong Kong
