Last weekend I travelled to Barra in the Outer Hebrides. I normally drive and go by ferry with dog, provisions and kitchen sink in tow, but on this occasion I was short on time and chose the Loganair small plane flight instead, landing on the beautiful beach. Amazing weather meant we had breath-taking views of the west coast of Scotland on both legs of the journey.

I needed to hire a car for a few days, or borrow one and deal with insurance. My son had used Cuvva - a new insurance app, which is apparently used by a lot of young people to car share and save money. 

As my own recent experience of car insurance hadn’t been so good, I was prepared for the usual hassle; but instead I was amazed at how efficient this app was. Within minutes I was on the road - it was intuitive, helpful, simple and clear. 

It got me thinking about the friction that makes us dread interacting with some organisations, and why some seem to adapt better than others to the consumer need for a quick and effortless experience.

Undoubtedly, newer brands can be more nimble because they don’t carry the ‘baggage’ that older companies accumulate. They are able to wrap around a customer need rather than satisfy a complicated organisational process which has silos, divisions, disconnected legacy technologies and perhaps cultures which don’t serve them well in a digital world.

And yet, when new organisations expand as they will, how do they remain easy to do business with? This is the challenge for those ‘newbies’ who are now a few years old. There’s much to learn from traditional organisations in terms of scale and resilience, and in turn there’s much that legacy brands can learn from the new kids in the block. 

With this in mind, we at CCA are taking a fresh look. New for 2020, we’ve developed Visionaries, an exclusive programme designed to support senior directors challenged with developing and delivering future CX strategies. Previously known as CCA Industry Council, the programme for 2020 has been redesigned to include input from business experts and strategists offering a unique perspective on recurring issues. 

We look forward to telling you more about it – in the meantime, have a great weekend!

Anne Marie