Uncomplicate Your IT and Customer Service | Mika Yamamoto

Hey CX Nation,

In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #264, we welcomed Mika Yamamoto, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Freshworks based in San Mateo, CA. 

Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) builds uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional customer and employee experiences. 

Their enterprise-grade solutions are powerful, yet easy to use, and quick to deliver results. Their people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, making employees more effective and organizations more productive.

Over 74,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks’ customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) software to fuel customer loyalty and service efficiency.

In this episode, Mika and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that her team at Freshworks think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.

**Episode #264 Highlight Reel:**

1. The power of reflection & attention to the customer journey you're building
2. Enhancing customer experience through employee engagement 
3. Building your playbook on tech-stack efficiency and utilization
4. Breaking down silos to build world-class customer & employee experiences
5. Investing in "Voice of Customer" (VOC) & "Voice of Employee" (VOE)

Click here to learn more about Mika Yamamoto

Click here to learn more about Freshworks

Huge thanks to Mika for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring her work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & customer success space into the future.

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Go tell one of your friends or teammates about CXC's custom content,  strategic partner solutions (Hubspot, Intercom, & Freshworks to name a few) & On-Demand services & invite them to join the CX Nation, a community of nearly 15K+ customer focused business leaders!

Want to see how your customer experience compares to the world's best CX-driven companies? 

We recently launched CXC Healthzone, an intelligence platform that shares benchmarks & insights for how companies across the world are tackling The Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback & how they are building the pillars upon an AI-powered foundation for the future. 

Huge thanks for being apart of the "CX Nation" and helping customer focused business leaders across the world make happiness a habit!

Transcript

CXCP 264 Summary

Customer Experience Journey Discussion

Adrian welcomed Mika, the Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Freshworks, to discuss her journey in customer experience and marketing. Mika shared her background, including her experience before Freshworks, and expressed excitement about the conversation. They briefly addressed some technical issues with audio feedback but eventually got started with the interview.

Career Journey to Freshworks Leadership

Mika shared his career journey, highlighting how roles in consulting, Microsoft, Amazon, SAP, and F5 prepared him for his current position at Freshworks, where he focuses on marketing, sales, customer success, and support. He emphasized the common threads in his career, including impacting company trajectory, collaborating with curious and high-performing teams, and simplifying complexity for customers. Mika's experience across various industries and markets has equipped him to work with Freshworks in expanding into new customer segments and improving customer experiences.

Consulting Insights and Team Success

Mika discussed the importance of consulting work and how it provides valuable insights into different companies' approaches to similar problems. He emphasized the significance of teams in driving success, highlighting Freshworks' unique culture focused on customer service and collaboration. Mika explained that Freshworks supports organizations in empowering their employees to better serve customers, drawing parallels between their internal team ethos and their customer service approach.

Enhancing Customer Experience Through Employee Engagement

Mika discussed the importance of employee experience in creating world-class customer experience, highlighting Freshworks' focus on customer advocacy and quick onboarding to support customers' career and organizational success. She outlined her role as CCO/CMO, overseeing marketing, customer advocacy, sales, and support teams, emphasizing the privilege of working end-to-end with customers from discovery to adoption. CXChronicles agreed, elaborating on the comprehensive nature of the role, which spans customer awareness, sales, onboarding, and customer success, making it one of the most fulfilling jobs in business.

Building Cohesive Team Culture

Mika discussed the importance of building a cohesive team culture based on shared values and trust, which he believes is the key difference between good and great teams. He also shared Freshworks' approach to tools and technology, emphasizing the need to ensure efficiency across the organization while maintaining customer satisfaction and security. Mika highlighted the importance of using tools to enhance customer relationships and make systems easy to implement and use, without unexpected costs or surprises for customers.

Enhancing Customer Experience Through Technology

Mika emphasized the importance of customer support and tooling, stating that a company's true character is revealed when things go wrong. CXChronicles discussed the evolution of their work, from chronicling customer experience leaders to focusing on technology as a key driver in customer experience. They highlighted that despite companies spending $1.27 trillion on software, only 30-40% of this technology is utilized effectively, emphasizing the need for easier-to-use tools that can help customer-focused leaders implement and manage these technologies more efficiently.

Tech Stack Integration for Efficiency

Mika discussed the importance of connecting various tools in a company's tech stack to avoid creating tech debt and complexity, which can hinder employee productivity and ROI. He shared an example of how Freshworks helped Citizens Advice consolidate their customer interaction data into a single view, reducing inefficiencies and improving customer service. Mika also expressed frustration with companies that fail to provide a unified customer experience, despite having the tools to do so, and emphasized the need for accessible customer service tools for businesses of all sizes.

Breaking Silos for Better Customer Experience

Mika emphasized the importance of connecting silos within organizations to improve customer experience and operational efficiency. He suggested that companies should focus on the customer journey by involving different functional areas and using customer feedback to drive continuous improvement. CXChronicles highlighted the value of regular customer journey mapping and the creation of cross-functional task forces to address customer needs comprehensively. Both speakers agreed on the need for companies to effectively gather and act on customer, employee, and partner feedback to remain agile and competitive.

VoC Practice for Customer Delight

Mika discussed the importance of developing a mature voice of the customer (VoC) practice at Freshworks to capture feedback at every stage, aggregate it, and prioritize actions based on urgency and innovation potential. He emphasized empowering teams to address customer issues promptly and creating a positive work environment for employees to delight customers. Mika also highlighted the need for tools to capture feedback, such as NPS and CSAT scores, and mentioned the importance of employee feedback to ensure employee satisfaction and collaboration.