Architects of Addiction: Engineering Customer Centricity the Cyclists Way!

TR_Cycle_145x200It has taken some time but I have finally come to terms with the fact that I have a chemical dependence. It is a stark realisation but in many ways allows me to better understand what keeps me functioning. To give you a sense of how this plays out, I would like to share my experiences.

I love to cycle. Specifically, I love multi-day long endurance mountain bike races (well actually rides in my case – the other people race). There is nothing quite like a 30 minute steep climb where every muscle in your body is aching and you are fighting off the temptation to stop exerting yourself. Your lungs feel like they are burst, your legs are burning and yet you continue to pedal – grinding away up the hill with the aim of reaching the top and feeling an absolute rush of euphoria. It’s strange, I know, but it feels incredible. However, I have learnt over time that the ability to survive a multi-day cycling event is not something you can do without the right level of preparation. Preparation comes with setting of goals, and slowly working through those goals, one cycle at a time over a number of weeks. What I do to help me along is set targets on a cycling app called Strava. Strava lets me set cycling goals and then measures how I do against those targets, rewarding me with a “PR” or personal record whenever I meet a goal or do my best on a hill. This is a different but equally euphoric experience – setting a goal and then achieving it. I am guilty of spending far too much time admiring my achievements for a week (feeble as they may be).

Pushing through challenges and achieving goals is part of the reason I cycle multi stage events but there are at least two other reasons. One is the feeling of setting off on a large race with a crowd. There are many riders around – all chirpy, positive and absorbed in the moment. We share a common bond – warriors setting off on a quest to collectively overcome the challenges presented. Together we are going to conquer the mountains, help each other out and be part of a common experience. The weekend of cycling that happens at the Argus every year (the world’s biggest timed cycle race) is a feel good weekend of a bunch of crazy people all sharing in an experience – it’s amazing. Back to those three day mountain biking events – I really enjoy team events and happen to ride a lot with my friend and business partner. We suffer together. We train together, we laugh together and we share the joys of hopefully delivering a respectable time. I ride with the knowledge that even if I am involved in a major crash, there will be someone there who will care enough about my wellbeing to ensure that I am well looked after.

And that is why I cycle. It all seems like good clean fun so where do the chemicals substances come in? Well that is where the confession has to be made – there are lots of chemical substances involved. As I have only recently discovered, my cycling is driven by 4 key chemicals – Endorphins, Dopamine, Serotonin and Oxytocin (EDSO). These are my chemical substances of choice and it turns out they are the major drivers of all human behaviour. Endorphins are the chemicals that help dull pain. They are the means by which you get to push through difficult challenges and why crazy people like me do extreme things like cycle multi day events. Together with Dopamine, Endorphins are the “selfish” chemical substances – they drive people to achieve. Dopamine is the sense of pleasure that you get from achievement – it is the substance that gets released for a job well done, for a goal achieved, it’s the stuff that keeps humans focused on the future and stops them from butterfly behaviour – the basis of the pleasure I get from achieving my training goals.

The other two chemical substances – Serotonin and Oxytocin are the selfless chemicals. They drive us to appreciate others and drive community. Serotonin is the substance that gets released from being a part of a community. These chemicals work on our higher levels of thought processing in our neocortex. They are the basis of why I feel pleasure in doing races with thousands of others. They give you a sense of pride when working with a team of excellent people all united around a common goal. The last addiction I have is to Oxytocin – this is the substance that drives a true feeling of friendship, love or trust. It is the reason I find so much pleasure in riding with friends where we have deep relationships formed over a long period of time. While Dopamine is a substance that leads to instant gratification, Oxytocin is a substance that acts over a much longer period of time and only gets released on the basis of long standing relationships.

So that is me – hooked on chemical substances that drive my behaviour and this just gets accentuated through my cycling. So what is the link to Customer Experience Management? Well it turns out that everyone is driven by the EDSO chemicals – they are the reason we are human. When it comes to driving a strong customer experience there is a very neat and tidy overlap with the inQuba TribeX methodology.

It starts off with Endorphins and Dopamine – there are the substance that lead people to stretch themselves and achieve. Imagine for a minute a telco provider. In an organisation of 2000 people where the CEO is trying to align to better service the customer, the starting point is giving people the purpose to be successful. Without Purpose, there is no reason to do the hard stuff. Just as the purpose in my cycling is to finish my race or get up a hill, a company embarking on a journey of customer experience has to create a purpose that shows the value of a good customer experience. Next comes the people. People are the means by which the purpose is achieved. By creating goals for people and allowing regular little releases of Dopamine, there is a means by which individuals can be aligned to the purpose. Treating a customer well, achieving a high NPS score or acing first call resolution are just some of the examples of how, if orchestrated well, chemical substances can be used to drive the right behaviour in the team. Passion is, in many respects, the result of all of the EDSO chemicals pumping at full speed but particularly the leveraging of Serotonin and potentially Oxytocin. Through collaboration, through alignment of a team of people to a common goal and through being part of a winning team, the EDSO cocktail can unleash passion in an organisation. Customer Experience Management is not a simple endeavour and it needs a lot of elements to be lined up correctly to ensure the group of passionate people are correctly aligned to make a customer have a great experience. This can only be achieved through the use of a platform and a supporting program. The inQuba platform and supporting TribeX program is the means by which we model customer experience, understand the moments of truth, make sure that everyone understands their role in delivering to the customer experience and how we blatantly exploit the power of the EDSO substances. Through gamification and providing incentives to people we are able to carefully align people to the purpose of an organisation.

The Endorphin, Dopamine, Serotonin and Oxytocin foursome are very powerful. They drive someone like me to take on extraordinary challenges for no pay and no reward (I have not and will never win a multi stage event). Imagine how, with the right program, you can combine the power of these forces to achieve amazing results with your team when you have the added benefit of real organisation rewards that can be shared with a successful team. Human nature is a combination of selfish and selfless drivers. It is through this understanding that TribeX is able to deliver amazing customer experiences within an organisation.

 

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    Bruce Eidsvik

    inQuba President, North America

    Bruce is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing mainly within the customer experience space. Bruce has held senior executive roles at Genesys, a private equity backed cloud customer experience company and OpenText, a NASDAQ listed information management company, where he led their Global Growth Marketing and Sales Development organizations. Prior to these roles, Bruce was the Managing Director for the APAC region at Genesys, based out of Singapore. Bruce is also an entrepreneur and a co-founder of Insight Venture backed VoiceGenie Technologies Inc, which was successfully exited in 2006.

    This work has led Bruce to points around the globe, helping both Fortune 100 and SMBs alike. Bruce is a frequent keynote speaker at CX events worldwide, where he is more than happy to share his experiences and best practices to help others. Bruce is a team builder, has a passion for driving creativity, developing leaders and getting stuff done. Bruce strongly believes that fun is an important component of driving great results. Outside of work, Bruce is an avid skier, road and mountain biker, triathlete and in love with the mountains.

    Bruce holds a Bachelors of Science degree with Honors in engineering physics from Queen’s University. After 14 years abroad, Bruce and his family are back in Canada and living just outside Banff, Alberta.

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    With a professional career spanning 10+ years, Dasha has extensive experience across CX, Marketing, Campaign management and Data management and analysis. Dasha holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Information Systems Technology) degree from the University of KwaZulu Natal.

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    Previous to joining inQuba, Allan’s five years at On-IT-1, developing software solutions for the Bosasa Group, have given him broad perspective on design, development and deployment of software applications across various industries, including aquaculture, youth rehabilitation, fleet management and device integrations for biometric and programmable logic controllers. Allan brings this valuable experience to bear on the challenges of developing a globally distributed SaaS platform.

    Allan completed his treatise in 2006 and holds a honours degree in Bachelor of Commerce (Computer Science and Information Systems) from the Nelson Mandela University.

    Warren Reed

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    Warren is responsible for high-level software design choices and selecting the best tools, platforms, and technologies for developing and delivering inQuba’s CX software platform. He helped build the inQuba platform from the ground up, including products such as Engage, Case Management, and Journey Analytics. He implemented the continuous delivery pipeline that automatically deploys inQuba’s software solutions globally. Prior to inQuba, he spent five years at Bosasa architecting and developing systems for vehicle maintenance, youth development centres, access control security, and job recruitment. He also spent two years at Korbitec developing legal practice management software. Warren holds an honours degree in Computer Science and Information Systems from the Nelson Mandela University.

    Jon Salters

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    Prior to being strategic advisor to inQuba, Jon spent four years at Vision Critical, the world’s leader in Insight Community solutions where he launched Vision Critical’s presence in Africa, re-launched their partner program internationally and was also integrally involved in the team that executed the spin-off of Vision Critical’s Research and Consulting business unit which became a cornerstone of the newly formed Maru Group.

    Jon holds a GDE in Engineering Management and a B.Sc Mechanical Engineering (industrial Option) for the University of the Witwatersrand.

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    Antony has ten years’ experience in market research across the African continent and across all major industries. Prior to inQuba, he headed up digital research at an agency, Yellowwood Future Architects, which specialises in strategy, research and design.

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    <h4>Link to CX series</h4>

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