When your market is the entire globe, you need to look at brand consistency differently.
To start, brands need to determine their North Star — and choose one that is ubiquitous across all areas. Then, they can determine how much latitude teams receive within the boundaries of those core values.
In this episode, we speak with David Resnick , Chief Commercial Officer at A2X , about tackling customer experience now that the market is global, remote, and asynchronous.
Join us as we discuss:
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"Consumers expect more speed, more value, more on demand, more access across channels — physical, digital, mobile — regardless of the time or geography."
Holding an MBA from one of Canada’s most prestigious universities and over ten years experience at Google under his belt, David is a business transformation maestro, with a passion for technology and sustainability.
As the CCO at A2X, he’s dedicated to delivering exemplary CX that’s made their organization the gold standard in ecommerce accounting to clients all over the world.
As more brands expand to international markets, companies can no longer scrape by with subpar service. It’s way past time to invest in new CX tech.
"Can you respond quickly? Can you respond accurately? Can you show human, personalized touch? These are basic human needs that transcend all borders."
Customers demand ease of use and satisfaction throughout the entire buying journey and across every channel. They can also spot an imposter a mile away. You need more than just a bit of Google translate to prove the authenticity of your brand experience.
It's important to establish the common set of values and behaviors that you want your brand to represent worldwide, “regardless of those geographical or cultural differences, and then be relentless in driving and measuring those,” David advises.
He calls these the “ubiquitous CX metrics that transcend beyond borders,” like:
Align these with the universal values that your brand needs to uphold across all markets and set that in stone for your team.
Knowing all this, it’s crucial to hire managers with a global perspective and natural curiosity about the world. Diversity is key, as well as experience traveling and living in different cultures. Your team should have the autonomy to adapt to specific regional needs and customs. Local CX agents can help gather feedback and customize the experience to fit the community.
David recommends that “CS processes, scripts, and chat engagements need to be double checked to ensure that they're locally nuanced.”
But recruiting staff with the right values alignment is always a challenge. For authentic global growth, you need a solid foundation of talented and highly skilled workers. Don’t rush or scrimp just to fill seats — it will come back to haunt you in the long run.
"The earth is your total addressable market, as long as you can communicate with that customer and deliver something to them."
With seemingly more social channels popping up almost daily, sharing your core values consistently across all of them is actually getting easier due to new opportunities for communication.
Creating global online communities where your customers can bond and get guidance from your local CX teams also yields useful insights on their unsolved problems and how you can meet those needs according to your unbreakable North Star values.
Processes that work at a major global corporation aren’t always replicable for a smaller scale company when it comes to expansion. What’s needed is a sense of structure — a framework with leeway for experimentation.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, it’s become increasingly easier for smaller businesses to attract and service global customers via the IoT. People are also more interested in trying “local” products from around the world in the comfort of their own home.
The seismic shifts that began in the spring of 2020 show no signs of slowing down. David reveals that it’s best to go back to basics: “what makes humans who they are, what makes them tick.”
In this way, you can deliver on your brand’s inherent promise, delight your customers, and assure a perfect customer experience every time, regardless of location. “It comes down to that,” David says, “human empathy and basic human needs and being able to fulfill that.”
The new world has allowed us to come back to this old world principle. And as technology advances, brands will have more and more ways to reach out to customers and offer personalized assistance where and when it’s really needed.
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