Eat Your Own Lunch: The B2B Client Experience Handbook, Second Edition

PREFACE

WHO IS

nlightencx is recognised as South Africa’s leading multidisciplinary CX specialist. We are a multiple award-winning company with two decades of experience serving clients predominantly in the B2B sector.

In both 2023 and 2024, we were honoured to receive the ARCET Global CX Agency of The Year award, a testament to our commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences and results for our clients.

Our clients count on us for our no-nonsense approach to CX, as well as our failproof CX strategies and tools that deliver results, most notably our signature True Voice of Customer Programme, purposely designed to increase a company’s sales by up to 30% in just 24 months.

We have seen first-hand how the power of CX can transform a business, and we are passionate about sharing this knowledge so that businesses can thrive. Notorious for ‘eating our own lunch’, our customer satisfaction scores are consistently as high as 95% year on year.

NATHALIE’S STORY

When nlightencx opened its doors two decades ago, there were many times during those early days when I questioned the leap from making the decision to leave the ‘cushy’ corporate life to being crazy enough to start my own shop. Crazy, because, at the time, in 2005 (and certainly in South Africa), customer service, as it was referred to back then, was not a popular concept in terms of differentiating one’s business proposition from that of one’s competitors.

Why was I so determined that this was a great business concept? Simply put, the fundamental model (which is the backbone of our business today) was a tried and tested methodology that I used in my corporate role to ensure a 90% market share in what was a highly commoditised service: temporary staffing. I ran a division of Quest, one of the largest white-collar workforce businesses in South Africa. My competition attracted the same workforce, we all offered the same ‘service’, and we all fished in the same client pond.

My particular division was responsible for the financial services sector, and, on any given day, we were responsible for a workforce of up to 2,000 people. I was exceptionally fortunate at the time to have autonomy in running my division without having to constantly check in with my directors. They understood the importance of empowering staff.

I knew instinctively that if I wanted our business to stand out from the crowd, I would have to do three things. First, I’d have to make sure that my team delivered prompt, personal, and responsive service to our temp workforce and our end client. Next, I needed to ensure that our temp workforce preferred working for Quest rather than heading over to our competitors. They needed to feel valued and respected and that they belonged rather than just being seen as a ‘temp’. I also had to ensure that the temp was properly onboarded and oriented and that they felt part of the Quest family. Then I had to make sure that the clients who were using our services knew that their business was appreciated, that they received fast and efficient service, and that we would match the job specification and ability required to the correct temp staffer. Lastly, I had to make sure that the key account manager in charge of each client’s account was visible, effective, super responsive, and good at building relationships.

My challenge in terms of running such a large workforce was how do I – being one person – ensure that no one drops the ball? I came up with a continuous improvement research model for both my temp workforce as well as the client (that’s the one who pays the invoice). The feedback we received was used to guide our key account managers to understand how our temp staff and our clients were thinking and feeling in real-time.

The results of our research helped shape our strategy on many levels. It helped us understand and get closer to the different client audiences we were serving. It worked as a great tool for performance measurement for my team on the ground who were responsible for placing and managing their designated workforce while also helping them understand their clients’ particular needs and wants. The research also formed part of an early warning system that would allow us to nip problems in the bud before they become real issues.

Our temp workforce was loyal to our brand because their problems were addressed, and they felt heard. Our clients felt valued because we invested in independent researchers to get their unfiltered and unbiased feedback. They could see that the information they shared was taken seriously and that it was not just lip-service – we were genuinely interested in hearing their opinions, good and bad.

There were some changes in Quest’s holding company at the time, which significantly impacted its subsidiary companies. It was at that time that I decided to take this business model to market and start nlightencx. I wanted to offer the service to other businesses that shared a similar problem: being able to differentiate themselves in commoditised environments.

While that was all good and well, South African businesses weren’t quite on my page yet. I am not going to lie; those early years were incredibly tough. I came from working for an organisation with specialist departments (as they do) – HR, IT, Finance, Legal, Marketing – and suddenly, I was all of the above, including sales. It was a tough gig, and not in a month of Sundays do I ever want to repeat those early years. I cashed in my pension and all my savings and had many, many sleepless nights as I worked to get the business off the ground. With large parts of the developed world having gone from customer service to customer experience, I spent a great deal of time in the United Kingdom, researching best practices and attending as many conferences and seminars as my Frequent Flyer Miles would allow.

I won’t bore you with any more pity party moments but fast forward to 2010 when corporate South Africa suddenly cottoned onto the whole customer experience idea. Perhaps SA hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup had something to do with putting our best foot forward. Whatever it was, our services were suddenly in demand, and we were officially on the map.

Over a decade later, nlightencx is now a successful, well-established, and respected business with a sound track record for delivering on our promises. Our clients reap the reward of trusting us to partner and guide them to create solid relationships with their clients. The cherry on the cake is that we get to work with our extraordinary nlightencx team, all of whom are super passionate about what we do and how their individual contributions impact our clients’ success.

BRENDON’S STORY

I started my career path with a deep-seated interest in human behaviour and was drawn to studying clinical psychology. However, it soon became clear that psychology was not going to be the right long-term fit for me, so I took a sabbatical and travelled abroad.

Interestingly, in my time overseas, I found myself working in the hospitality industry, the birthplace of CX. The thrill of reading what guests needed and then delivering impeccable personalised service (as it was called back then) or turning a disgruntled guest around, until they were eating out of my hands – figuratively, of course – had me hooked.

I returned to South Africa five years later and, thinking I knew it all, opened my first restaurant. Being the new kid on the block, Cape Town patrons flocked to my establishment, and the first two years were amazing. I felt invincible. I’d made it. Or had I? What I thought was my loyal customer base began to dwindle, making the two years that followed incredibly stressful. I couldn’t keep it together and eventually decided to cut my losses and close the restaurant down.

My next stop was running a property at the top of the Helshoogte Pass in Stellenbosch, a guesthouse and wedding venue. I worked hard, harder than I’ve ever worked before, but the scenery was breathtaking and the perfect backdrop for some quiet reflection. Over the next four years, I took a long, hard look at what I had done right (and wrong) at the restaurant. I started to focus on gaining a deep understanding of this thing called a customer or a client or a guest. And it paid off. By the end of my four years, I had taken a 4-star establishment to a 5-star rating and increased the venue’s sales by 600%, and we were voted in the top three venues in the Western Cape. I was able to sell and, more importantly, deliver on the promises I made.

But I was tired. Hosting 54 weddings a year, with virtually no time off, was taking its toll. I needed a change.

Over coffee in 2010, a mutual friend introduced me to Nathalie, a formidable woman. I think we both intimidated each other, but not enough to not secure another meeting. nlightencx could not afford me at the time, nor was there a position available for me. But Nathalie said, if I wanted to join the team, I could start at the bottom, and if I was willing to learn, we could see where this new relationship would go.

I was up for it, and it was agreed that I would answer the telephone for three months with no salary. What was I thinking?

Never one to be afraid of hard graft, I rolled up my sleeves and got to it. Any new work that came in, I put up my hand and said I’d do it. Even with all my years of dealing with people in the hospitality space, this was entirely new territory for me. The learning curve was steep, and everything seemed to move at an eye-watering pace. I started off in the CX facilitation space, progressing to research and strategy development, then finally honing my skills by leading and executing Customer Journey Mapping and Experience Redesign initiatives for our clients. The decision to bring me on as a business partner happened incrementally over time.

I took a chance when I joined the nlightencx team, and I’m glad I did because I found my passion and niche.

INTRODUCTION

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

MAYA ANGELOU

Picture this: you’re a customer, and you’ve just landed on your company’s website. You’re searching for a product or service, but the site’s navigation is about as clear as mud. You’re clicking around in circles, getting more frustrated by the second. Finally, you decide to reach out for help, but the contact information is nowhere to be found. When you eventually get through to someone, they’re about as helpful as a chocolate teapot.

Sound familiar? Most businesses never take the time to experience their own services from the client’s perspective. They’re too busy behind the scenes, leaving the customer-facing stuff to the IT guys or the marketing department. But here's the thing – if you're not willing to Eat your Own Lunch, how can you serve up a 5-star customer experience?

Throughout this book, we’ll be diving into the concept of Eating your Own Lunch. It’s all about putting yourself in your customer’s shoes and walking the path they take when they interact with your brand. It means being the mystery shopper in your own store, the secret diner in your own restaurant, the undercover boss in your own company.

Why? Because the devil is in the details. It’s the little things that make a big difference in the client experience – the signage that leads them to your front door, the hold music that plays while they wait on the phone, the smells and sounds that greet them when they walk into your office.

If you’re not paying attention to these details, you can bet your bottom dollar that your customers are. And in today’s world, where customer experience is king, you can’t afford to serve up a subpar lunch.

So, get ready to tuck in your napkin and take a big bite of your own business. It might not always be a Michelin-star experience, but by the end of this book, you’ll have all the ingredients you need to cook up a customer experience that will have them coming back for seconds.

WHAT IS CX?

Client Experience (CX). No doubt you have heard the term and may even use it loosely yourself. It gets tons of lip service in the boardroom and is spoken about more and more in sales and marketing meetings, and even gets a mention at the company watercooler. But how much do you really know about CX and its power to transform a business? The challenge for businesses today is to make the leap from delivering great customer service to providing a consistent all-round experience. If you’re reading this book, you’ve probably realised that it’s time to get in on the action before your competitors beat you to the finish line.

If you are an entrepreneur, welcome to the rollercoaster of being the master of your business destiny. Weaving great CX into your business from the early days will certainly ensure that your business stands out from your competition and is resilient to the economic winds of change. If you are a leader within an established business, the journey will certainly be tougher, largely caused by silo mentality, politics, and the lethargy that medium to large-size organisations face.

Many great customer experience books have been written over the years, but we really wanted to focus our many years of experience on creating a practical handbook with a specific focus for business-to-business execs and managers. There is a specific recipe for CX success in this particular sector, which we are excited to share with you. Having said this, there are many lessons in this book that would equally apply to B2C and B2B2C organisations.

We have designed this book in such a way for you to write down your thoughts and later reflect on the changes you have made, for example, your wins, your challenges, and your goals. We’d recommend using this book as part handbook, part journal. That way, you will be able to extract maximum value from it.

We take most of the money that we could have spent on paid advertising and instead put it back into the customer experience.

TONY HSIEH, CEO, ZAPPOS

Let’s start by clarifying the difference between customer service and customer experience. While both involve making the customer (in the case of B2B, we refer to the customer as a client, and we will flip-flop in the course of this book between the term customer and client) feel valued when interacting with your brand, customer service is a moment in time – a one-dimensional, transaction-based activity limited to the interactions a customer has when enquiring about or purchasing a product or service. These interactions generally fall within the ambit of specific departments or levels of an organisation, where customer service champions are employed to keep its customers happy. Great customer service is easy to spot – it’s those knock-your-socks-off moments a customer has during a singular interaction with a brand. But those isolated ‘wow’ moments don’t necessarily drive customer loyalty.

What drives loyalty is consistency, where the client knows that no matter who they deal with in the organisation and regardless of the interface they use or the nature of their requirements, the interaction will be seamless and uncomplicated and that their expectations will be met. They will be confident that they can rely on the brand to deliver on its promises, and they will be less likely to look elsewhere to have their needs met. That’s when you have a client who is emotionally invested in your brand, and that’s the kind of client who is unlikely to be shopping around at your competitors any time soon. When your organisation gets this right, when you understand that clients are human beings and that human beings are driven by their emotions – and that our emotions