Accenture Interactive CEO on how customer experience can drive business growth

Brian Whipple, Accenture Interactive CEO joins the Yahoo Finance panel to discuss their recent report titled “The Business of Experience”.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: A new report here from Accenture is digging into why businesses are focusing so much on consumer experiences. And that's the focus of a new survey here, showing that a large majority of CEOs are looking to focus on just that to set them apart. Here to dig into the data from that report is Brian Whipple. And he's Accenture Interactive CEO.

And, Brian, I mean, it seems strange. We've been talking about some companies that, historically, have nothing to do with experiences like a Taco Bell opening a hotel, Atari opening a hotel. Talk to me about why that consumer and customer experience is so important in establishing that identity with your customers.

BRIAN WHIPPLE: Yeah, well, the first thing to understand is that, you know, we're, typically, talking about consumer experiences or our experiences for citizens or patients, rather than what has traditionally been measured as, quote, "customer experience," which has, typically and historically, related to individual customer measures like satisfaction or basket size or how long it takes to wait in a call center, in the queue, that sort of thing.

And the business of experience, which is why companies like you're mentioning and many others are investing heavily, really relates to a holistic relationship between a consumer or citizen or patient with a particular product and service, which includes all of the physical touch points and is not measured on any sort of isolated metric. So it's a big difference, and many of the kind of old world companies are looking to figure out how they pivot back to growth. And they're taking a lot of lessons from the new world companies, which are, inherently, business of experience companies.

AKIKO FUJITA: So how do you think that shifts when people can't leave their homes? You know, we talk about retailers for example. Experience was a big part of it. To your point, some of the more legacy names, they've tried to sort of reinvent themselves on that front. But that suddenly comes to a halt when people are not allowed to interact in person. They can go out. How do you think the dynamics of the last eight months or so have shifted the way these companies define experience?

BRIAN WHIPPLE: Yeah, I think there's been two dynamics there that we've seen. The first is that some of these changes that we've seen in the pandemic, such as emphasis on curbside delivery and the like, telemedicine, eLearning, they're not going to go away when the pandemic clears and most of us are vaccinated. Many of those are going to stick around, and they're not just going to stick around because the pandemic is over. They're going to stick around because they're, inherently, more compelling or more rewarding experiences. So that's, clearly, one dynamic we've seen.

The second one is that, I mean, there are fundamental things. I mean, there's been a tremendous amount of discussion of the move to all things commerce, but, you know, curbside delivery is up 50%, while in-store-- in-store activity was down 50% on Black Friday. And that tells you that these consumer expectations are real.

The thing I would add is that, today, consumers have a different expectation because of the many digitally native companies that have fantastic experiences, you know, the Amazons, the Netflixes. You were just talking about Airbnb. Those companies didn't build their reputation or their brand, you know, on advertising. They built it because they've got awesome experiences. I mean, you can order diapers for your child and have them at your door in two hours in just a couple of clicks, and it's fascinating that some things have been the result of tremendous innovation, whereas wholesale other areas have been unaddressed.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, Brian, you mentioned kind of that-- that boom in curbside pickup, buy online, pick up in store. I mean, at the risk of being judged by our viewers out there, this year, my quarantine purchase was a hoverboard, and I rode that around and picked it up at Best Buy.

BRIAN WHIPPLE: Nice.

ZACK GUZMAN: But a lot of that came through because these retailers saw that trend and had time to invest in it. But here, in the pandemic, we've talked so much about companies rolling back some of those investments and kind of focusing in on the trends. So how long do you think it might take for those companies out there, if they are pulling back on spending on that front, to kind of catch up and focus in on what their customers want?

BRIAN WHIPPLE: Well, most of our discussions with leaders of large companies are focusing on just one of two things really. The first is how do we get back to growth, which is the-- which is, essentially, what you're asking. And the second is, you know, which part of the pandemic experience, you know, buying the hoverboard and driving that to Best Buy and other things, are going to be here to stay. And how can we pivot our experiences to fit with a post-pandemic environment?

Most of all, what companies are doing is they're sort of taking stock and reassessing what the consumer expectations are going to be in a post-pandemic world. And they're going to have to design experiences that are fulfilling and rewarding and more meaningful like some of the tier one, digitally native companies have done. And there's a lot of room for improvement there.

And, as a result, there's tremendous business upside for a number of retailers, for companies in the hospitality spaces, in the medical spaces. There's wholesale categories of experiences that have yet to be reinvented. And that could be very much of an opportunity for them.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, a huge opportunity on that front. Brian Whipple, the CEO of Accenture Interactive, it's good to talk to you today.

BRIAN WHIPPLE: Thank you for having me.