Elly Domene
Vice President Global Customer Experience
SES
Luxembourg
As a provider of global satellite and communications services, SES networks’ north star vision statement is a powerful one: “Do the extraordinary in space, to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on Earth”.
But how does such a luminary declaration translate into actionable customer experiences on the ground? For Elly Domene, this has been her mission since first forming and heading up a CX function with O3b Networks, back in 2013, and then with SES in 2017, following its acquisition of O3b.
In the early days there were challenges. As Elly describes, CX was understandably, “a foreign concept to rocket scientists and engineers”. But there was also a blank sheet of paper to work from. What followed, was the launch of a voice of the customer programme, CRM-connected surveys, a customer advisory board, service design (under the guise of business process management), and a concentration on customer service, as O3b began to establish the benefits of adopting a customer-led focus throughout its organisation.
Then, following the SES takeover, there was the process of bringing O3b and SES together under the same CX philosophy, something Elly was able to head up, creating two customer experience functions across the SES brands in the process – with both replicating the complete CX program that Elly and her team had put in place.
A multiyear CX strategy called heartbeat was also created and has since been expanded to become part of SES’s wider transformational program, including HR, a focus on employee experience, and business culture. Every year, Elly and her CX team create a roadmap and decide how to embed CX deeper into the company.
SES has experienced a 27% growth increase over the past 3 years and in no small part can that be connected to its customer-led approach. As someone who reports directly to the CEO, Elly has spent many years involving her senior leadership team in the role of customer experience within the organisation, and educating colleagues about the benefits of CX.
Storytelling is massively important. I had to master that fairly early on, to motivate fellow employees to use their budgets for CX - helping them see that by creating value for customers, we all win.
