--What is the role of Lenovo's CCEO?
Mr. Bhatia (honorific titles omitted): I am the first CEO, and my role is to transform the traditional product-centered culture (culture) into a customer-centered culture and an experience-centered culture. It is a "promoter".
――Why is Lenovo trying to change to an experience-oriented culture?
Bhatia: In a nutshell, because now the only brands that can survive are those that chase the experience. Gartner, a market research firm, said, ``Customer experience will be the biggest weapon for brand differentiation in 2020, pushing price and product differentiation to the side.'' I have the same idea.
--What is the "Lenovo Customer Experience Vision"?
Bhatia: In order to focus on experience and acquire loyal customers, there are three things that are important: "Listening" from customers, "Learning" from customers, and "Improve" that continues daily activities to improve customer experience. . Addressing this is the Lenovo Customer Experience Vision.
<In the first part, Listening, we provide a variety of ways to listen to your customers.
<At the meeting held in Rome, Italy in June 2019, 90 loyal customers gathered and Lenovo explained the future roadmap for two days and provided what features. We asked them for their frank opinions, such as what they liked and what they didn't like. We also get feedback on new devices through focus group interviews. Recently, we've also heard opinions on foldable devices and dual displays.
Lenovo Customer Experience Vision
――Specifically, how do you reflect this in product development?
Bhatia: ThinkPad is developed at Yamato Research Institute in Japan, where engineers obtain information and reflect it in commercialization.
ThinkPad X1 CarbonThinkPad Yoga
--What was the impetus for starting these efforts?
Bhatia: Originally ThinkPad had something like a Customer Advisory Council. However, this was to focus on major companies and listen to their opinions.
True Insight
――On the other hand, don't you get lost in choosing which opinion to adopt when you get a lot of opinions?
Bhatia: Lenovo employees can see the results of analyzing 20 million comments per year in the Customer Insights dashboard. Here, the top 5 elements that customers are looking for are listed, and you can use this as a reference to understand what elements are required for current PCs. In addition, all customer feedback can be classified by model using machine learning and rated from -10 to +10 points.
Customer Feedback Globally Expanded ThinkPad X1 Fold
-From a global point of view, don't you think the voices of Japanese users are excessive in terms of quality (laughs)?
Bhatia: I used to work for another company, and when that company launched a new product, they always sent a prototype to Japan, had them identify all the problems, and provided countermeasures. I was doing a lecture and then putting it out into the world.
――After listening to the voices of customers, what points will be important in the development of various devices such as PCs in the future?
Bhatia: As a result of listening to our customers, we believe that the basic axis of the user experience can be summarized into three points: "time", "enjoyment", and "connection". They also want an easy-to-find experience for cluttered information, and they need a solution for that.
――How far do you think the experience-focused culture has taken hold within Lenovo?
Bhatia: To deliver an experience, it's important to listen, understand, learn, tune in to your emotions, and always take an approach for improvement. To that end, it can be said that it is necessary to establish mechanisms and tools for listening to the voice of customers, the skills of employees who use them, and the mindset of employees who are always conscious of experience, and to establish it as a corporate culture.
<Generation Z, born after 1995, is steadily entering the labor market. They interact with technology differently than they did in their 40s and 50s, and they have to adapt.
