The holiday season is a time often spent with family, friends and… shopping carts. Retail sales over this season are expected to reach a record high of $655.8 billion. And with purchases going through the roof, companies are highly focused — for good reason — on customer experience.
Alaska Airlines is a company that puts customers first. “We are trying to deliver amazing experiences in the most caring way possible,” said Veresh Sita, former CTO of Alaska Airlines.
And what do consumers care about most? Time.
To provide the fastest, most enjoyable experience for customers, companies need back-end systems, platforms, and tools that provide a high degree of stability and enable rapid customer engagement.
“We were the first airline to do online booking, the first airline to put kiosks in the airport and the first airline to have a website. So that’s what’s behind the push for velocity — a large investment in infrastructure and applications to enable customer facing systems to operate.” — Veresh Sita, former CTO, Alaska Airlines
But no matter what industry you’re in — whether you’re selling travel, consumer electronics, home supplies, software, or education — what really matters is the final product or service the customer sees. How the customer interacts with your company is paramount, so your whole team needs to be working toward the same goal.
Adam Mikeal, IT Director at Texas A&M, agrees:
“If individual teams define success as a smaller component [than the final product or service], they are looking at something too small. They have to be looking at the final product, and that creates a sense of shared responsibility between teams.”
And that’s why customer-centric organizations like Texas A&M, Alaska Airlines, and Hearst Business Media use DevOps.
“The root of DevOps is open, honest communication,” said Aaron Blythe, Senior Automation and Systems Engineer, Hearst Business Media. “You want to make sure you have something your market actually wants.”
So this holiday season, listen to your customers, save them time, and provide an experience they’ll keeping coming back for.
Looking for more tips to become a customer-centric organization? Join us at ChefConf 2017 in Austin, Texas from May 22-24.