EPISODE 33: Inconvenient Truths: Why Technology Won’t Create The Perfect Customer Experience In Cybersecurity
Welcome to Compromising Positions!
The award-winning tech podcast that asks non-cybersecurity professionals what we in the industry can do to make their lives easier and help make our organisations more prepared to face ever-changing human-centric cyber threats!
This Episode we are joined by John Sills, managing partner at customer-led growth company, The Foundation and author of the book ‘The Human Experience’
John joined us last week and shared with us fantastic tales of his time working for a major bank and how the IT team decided to rollout a new cybersecurity control without talking to the customers insights team - spoiler alert, didn’t end well - do go back and listen if you haven’t already!
This week we continue the conversation from last week as John guides us on how to design for positive intent to build trust, how to lean into inconvenient truths around the data you source from feedback, and why you should treat people how you’d like to be treated, but instead, treat every customer like they are your gran.
Key Takeaways:
Incentives Shape Customer Outcomes: We explore how incentives can lead to poor customer outcomes. If incentives are solely focused on preventing fraud without considering customer satisfaction, they may succeed in their primary goal but fail the customer.
The CIA Triad’s Missing Element: While the CIA triad emphasises confidentiality, integrity, and availability, it overlooks the customer experience. Availability does not guarantee a positive user experience, which is crucial for customer satisfaction.
Perception vs. Reality in Customer Experience: There’s a stark difference between the perception of providing a good customer experience and the actual holistic experience received. We discuss how customer perception is a driving force behind their behaviour and the importance of aligning functional experiences with customer expectations.
The Role of AI in Customer Experience: AI is reshaping the customer experience. However the human element remains irreplaceable, especially when things go awry. Empathy and understanding are key to customer support, and technology alone cannot create perfect customer journeys.
Designing for Trust and Positive Intent: In cybersecurity, should we design systems for the majority who are well-intentioned, or for the minority with malicious intent? We examine the dangers of designing for the minority and the importance of maintaining user autonomy.
Links to everything we discussed in this episode can be found in the show notes and if you liked the show, please do leave us a review.
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We hope you enjoyed this episode - See you next time, keep secure, and don’t forget to ask yourself, ‘Am I the compromising position here?’
Keywords: cybersecurity, customer-led, banking, apps, AI, customer service, feedback
Show Notes
Christian Hunt’s episode on Compromising Positions
Rory Sutherland on ‘Minority Rule’ as featured on The Human Risk Podcast
The real dangers of being left handed
John talked about crash test dummies being based on men, likely taken from the brilliant book Invisible Woman: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed For Men by Caroline Criado Perez
About John Sills
John Sills is Managing Partner at the customer-led growth company, The Foundation.
He started his career 25 years ago, on a market stall in Essex, and since then has worked in and with companies around the world to make things better for customers.
He’s been in front-line teams delivering the experience, innovation teams designing the propositions, and global HQ teams creating the strategy. He's been a bank manager during the financial crisis (not fun), launched a mobile app to millions of people (very fun), and regularly visits strangers’ houses to ask very personal questions (incredible fun).
He now works with companies across industries and around the world, and before joining The Foundation spent twelve years at HSBC, latterly as Head of Customer Innovation.
His first book on the topic - The Human Experience - was published by Bloomsbury in February 2023, and he's pretty much everywhere you look online.
LINKS FOR John Sills
John’s Book The Human Experience
John’s Newsletter
John’s Instagram
John’s Twitter
John’s LinkedIn
