CX1 Conference 2019: Creating better Customer Experiences together

CX1 Conference 2019: Creating better Customer Experiences together

A large warm room on the banks of the Spree, high windows, subdued purple light and in the middle a covered table with breakfast buffet – sounds like a morning in a Berlin luxury hotel – but it wasn’t. It was the opening of this year’s CX1 Conference powered by zenloop.


On October 24, 2019, numerous participants from different industries gathered at the Spreespeicher in Berlin – including many heads of the digital sector. Following the motto “Making Every Moment Matter”, interesting aspects of customer experience were discussed and hotly debated. Among the speakers were industry experts from leading companies such as Zalando, Bain & Company, Mister Spex, Metro and Jochen Schweizer mydays Group.

CX1 Conference Kickoff with a Breakfast Buffet

The day was well structured with master classes, keynotes and roundtables. But before the visitors could dive deep into the topic, they were firstly welcomed with coffee and breakfast, because at this conference, customer experience should not only be discussed but also experienced.

Keynotes of CX Experts

At 9:30 am sharp, zenloop co-founder Paul Schwarzenholz opened the CX1 together with moderator János Joskowitz. During keynotes in the first half of the day, zenloop, Metro, Mister Spex, Momox and Jochen Schweizer mydays Group presented their marketing highlights.

Based on the motto “Why every customer contact counts and how that strengthens your brand” Paul Schwarzenholz held the first keynote of the morning. He reported on his first start-up Flaconi, which he founded with his colleague Björn Kolbmüller in 2011 and sold to ProsiebenSat.1 four years later. At that time, both founders were struggling with an increasing customer churn rate, which formed the basis for their second start-up, the customer experience platform zenloop. From the years at Flaconi, Paul Schwarzenholz drew the conclusion that an exciting customer experience is the key to sustainable growth – or as he emphasised in his keynote speech:

> „Nowadays it is no longer enough to lure customers with cheap prices – competition is too tough for that. You can win or lose customers at every moment of the customer journey. That’s why you have to look at the entire journey and that’s possible with the Net Promoter System.”

Customer orientation is also the main business for Metro’s Head of CX Maria Iankova. In her keynote “NPS @Metro”, she explained how the wholesaler uses the NPS system, and raises awareness among all employees how important customer experience is for the business.

<imgclass=”img-fluid” src=”https://zenloop1.wpengine.com/user/pages/blog/27.knowledge/02.blog/cx1-konferenz-2019-berlin/CX1-keynotes.jpg” alt=”Interesting Keynotes by CX Experts” width=”730″ height=”450″ />

Dr. Mirko Caspar, CEO of Mister Spex, bases the satisfaction of his clients on market research. In his keynote speech, he explained how Mister Spex defined customer needs in just a few steps and used these findings to establish a high level of customer satisfaction. Anyone who believed until that day that eyeglasses are only sold in retail outlets was proven the opposite: Dr. Caspar presented how, with the right strategy, eyeglasses can also be successfully sold online.

Carlos Yniguez, CDO of the Jochen Schweizer mydays Group, also discussed the fact that online and offline marketing strategies are not mutually exclusive, but complement each other. The ability to transfer online personalization to offline print mailings has enabled the company to offer its customers what Jochen Schweizer and mydays stand for: An extraordinary customer experience.

Besides the Cross-Channel Experience, Momox CEO Heiner Kroke addressed another, extremely relevant customer need: The combination of sustainable but also convenient shopping opportunities. In his keynote speech he showed how a smooth service process favours the willingness to buy and creates positive experiences among customers.

After the first five keynotes, the participants had already gained insights into different marketing approaches. Over a delicious lunch buffet, they were then able to exchange views on the topics which had been presented.

Knowledge Sharing in Masterclasses and Roundtables

While CX topics were discussed extensively in the morning, the participants were able to gain deeper insight into specific CX areas in the afternoon in master classes and roundtables. The visitors had the opportunity to address those topics most relevant to them and to discuss them in smaller groups.

A total of eight roundtables and six masterclasses were held, covering various CX specialist areas. Speakers included industry leaders such as Bain & Company, Dynamic Yield, Flaconi and Zalando.

In his master class, CX1 partner Oliver Merkel from Bain & Company explained the complexity of the Net Promoter System® in line with the topic of customer experience. The survey method was developed by the company in 2003 and the NPS now serves as a key metric for several thousand companies. Oliver Merkel also showed what good customer satisfaction really depends on and how it can be achieved.

The Afternoon Was Covered with Insightful Masterclasses

After a very theoretical masterclass, the event continued with a practical case study: Dynamic Yield and Flaconi presented best practices in their case study “Personalization along the customer journey at Flaconi”. The biggest discovery for the cosmetics retailer: the customer has a different understanding of beauty than the industry itself. With this knowledge, the company was able to switch from a rationally designed approach to a personalized and customer-oriented marketing strategy.

Svetoslava Babacheva, Product Lead at Zalando also proved that NPS and Customer Experience are intertwined. In her presentation “How do we use data-based insights and tools to promote customer focus at Zalando?”, she showed how Zalando uses the voice of customers to tailor its products precisely to the customer. The German fashion retailer uses NPS as key metrics for its KPIs.

Summing up CX1: Insights into Hot Topics and Valuable Content

After a day full of marketing insights and knowledge, the participants concluded the conference with drinks on the terrace. The reactions of all visitors were consistently positive. In particular, the contents of the roundtables and presentations were seen as especially valuable and inspiring for their own work:

„Of all the CX conferences I’ve been to, the CX1 is the one with the best content!”

Get-Together and Networking in the Evening

In fact, the CX1 produced a good mixture of theoretical strategy development and practical experience reports. The keynotes provided a good introduction to customer experience, customer retention and NPS. The combination of roundtables and master classes was very appealing. Both formats offered a wide range of current CX topics, allowing a deep dive into current marketing trends in different industries.

The highlight of the CX1 was the interactive communication between speaker and audience. With the goal of building a customer experience community, the event provided numerous discussion panels and networking opportunities.

We are very happy that so many participants joined our event and can’t wait for the next CX1 in September 2020.


Tags:
article-page-author-thais

Thaïs Kaiser

Junior Content Marketing Specialist