The Three Questions That Ground You in Disruptive Times (Part Three)

Are you listening to me?

Technology is at the core of everything we do at Conduent, but it’s vital to never forget the human aspect of any relationship. That’s why before we build a customer interaction for any Conduent client, we make sure to ask three questions.

As my colleagues covered previously in this series, we’re in the middle of a disruptive era, when competitors seemingly come out of nowhere. So a good relationship with your customers is vital. The first question is, Do you know me?, followed by Is your experience built around me?

The third and final question is much more difficult than it may appear:  Are you listening to me?

In personal relationships, listening to others may be the most difficult — but most valuable thing we do. The same holds true in commerce:  A customer who doesn’t feel listened to is likely to leave you for your competitor. Employees who don’t feel listened to aren’t likely to remain with you. In short:  the good listener wins in the marketplace.

Good listeners respond to feedback— it’s a critical facet of experience management. There’s no doubt that companies that prove to be responsive to customers have a competitive advantage. It builds loyalty and employee retention.

There are many opportunities to listen. With social technology, companies have a unique opportunity to engage with their users. They can listen to customer and employee sentiment and make improvements to their user experience in a predictive and sustained manner. We are potentially at the start of a new era of active listening.

Because this is the last in our series on three questions that can ground you in disruptive times, I thought I’d give you a concrete example of a Conduent product that was built as an answer to these three questions…

The Three Questions answered

When we built Conduent’s Life@Work, our suite of HR policy solutions, we wanted to answer the three questions seamlessly. Life@Work is a digital presentation layer that we use for all of our HR services. It drives the user-experience we would want all our clients, employees, and retirees to have.

• Do you know me? Life@Work leverages all available HR data and employee physical and fiscal wellness information that we have available to create targeted action plans and messaging for employees based on variables such as their age and geographic location. The information is specific and relevant to him or her. It knows who it’s interacting with.
• Is your experience built around me? The latest version of Life@Work creates a more intuitive experience for activities such as open enrollment, which have traditionally been confusing and intimidating. In an upcoming release, users will also be coached digitally, step-by-step in the process, to lessen the anxiety usually associated with open enrollment.  
• Are you listening to me? Life@Work 6 captures data around the user’s interactions and applies to the digital experience — in effect, Life@Work 6 “listens” to you by learning your objectives.

I hope these three questions guide you in your efforts to drive a personal digital experience. They are fundamental because while the digital realm is a new one, the old rules still apply: We need to know who we’re talking to; we need to serve our customers in ways that are built around them; and we need to listen to our customers so we can serve them better. Companies that can do this will win the battle for differentiation in the competitive marketplace.