The Data Economy is a video Podcast series about leaders who use data to make positive impacts on their Business, customers, and the world. To see all current episodes, explore the Podcast episodes library below.
You can often tell how serious a company is about new strategic objectives based on the roles they create to fulfill them.
In recent years, we’ve seen myriad new titles created to reflect the importance of customer experience, machine learning, and digital transformation. At Citizens Financial Group, which is among the top 25 largest banks in the United States, this is evidenced in a role created two years ago: Chief Experience Officer. It’s a customer-focused role designed to ensure Citizens Bank builds capabilities that will continuously allow it to serve customers better while leveraging data to differentiate itself from competitors.
Beth Johnson took on this role in January 2022 and has since been dedicated to improving customer experience while building a data-centric culture that embraces digital transformation. In this episode of the Data Economy Podcast, Johnson discusses the importance of using data strategically to improve the customer experience and the roles talent and culture play.
In describing her role, Johnson discusses the importance of understanding customers – who they are, what they care about, and what’s important to them. She explains that you can’t always glean those answers through conversations and surveys.
“I think the mistake people make is sometimes we think customers know what they care about and what’s important to them,” Johnson says. “But you can’t just ask them. You have to observe the behavior of our customers and how we interact to make sure we understand those needs that we each feel – and I use the word ‘feel’ intentionally – as well as rationally think about it so that Citizens can support them in their lives, and in the banking partnerships that they have.”
She hits on an important point that I believe can be easy for many data leaders to lose sight of when they’re in the weeds working with data: The need to understand the emotional side of what they’re working on and not just the technical side.
“I think the biggest mistake data and analytics organizations make is making it all about the data, or all about the math, or all about the technical components, versus tapping into those emotional components,” Johnson says, later adding: “It’s really that emotional end state for the customer that matters if we’re going to grow our business and continue to be relevant to our clients.”
In the podcast, Johnson cites an example related to customers seeking home equity loans for a kitchen renovation. From an emotional perspective, customers will be happier if they can get their loans approved faster and start their renovations sooner. From a technical perspective, that means using data and analytics to streamline the process for generating a home equity loan with Citizens.
“It’s that emotional end state for the customer that matters if we’re going to grow our business and continue to be relevant to our clients,” Johnson said.
