Background

Twimbit recently completed a study on the top companies in Malaysia excelling in customer experience. We benchmarked all companies on four pillars; customer service, digital experience, employee experience, and brand experience. As a result of this study, we narrowed down the top 10 companies that ace CX. Martine Williamson, Director Customer Experience, Astro shares what Astro did to make it to this list.

Manoj Menon 

Welcome to Twimbit  Podcast. In today’s episode, we talk with Martine Williamson, Director of  Customer  Experience with Astro. Twimbit  recently completed a study on the top companies in Malaysia to ace customer experience.

We benchmark all companies in Malaysia on four pillars;  customer service, digital experience, employee experience,  and brand experience.

As a result of this study, we narrow down the top 10 companies who ace it. And congratulations to Astro, which is in one of the top 10 companies to ace customer experience in Malaysia. So  delighted that Martine Williamson is here to talk to us about what they do at Astro to help them be in the top 10 in Malaysia. So welcome, Martine, and thank you very much for joining us. 

Martine Williamson  

Thanks very much for having me. Delighted to come and chat about customer experience. 

Manoj Menon   

Thanks, Martine, so we did a study on the Malaysian market to identify the best companies to ace customer experience. We benchmarked companies on four distinct parameters. We looked at customer service, employee experience, digital experience, and brand story. And we aggregated the score and the performance of companies across about 16 different parameters in these four categories. And Astro emerged as one of the top companies in that regard.  

First up, I wanted to start off by asking Martine, well, Martine - tell us a bit about your journey in customer experience. Where did you start your career? How did you end up in customer service, customer experience, and your role here at Astro? 

Martine Williamson  

Sure. So, you obviously know by my accent, I’m obviously not Malaysian. I’m originally from Scotland in the UK, started my life, I spent probably the best part of 20 years, which makes me sound quite old, actually, when I say that out loud. 

Working in various different sectors; in finance, in telecoms, in media, transforming companies to focus on customer experience.

And last 10 years, I spent at Sky TV in UK, in the media, and they went on a huge transformation journey over a period of seven years, really focusing in on putting the customer at the heart of their business and transforming their products and their services. And that brought me to Malaysia, to come and join Astro. I’ve been here for 18 months. And it’s been an absolute pleasure to come here.

Obviously very different world from where I’m used to. But actually, when you strip it back,  customers;  actually,  their expectations are the same world over. And so, from a customer experience perspective, it’s been great to try and understand how can we deliver what customers want to see from a pay TV provider here in Malaysia. 

Manoj Menon   

What is the biggest difference, Martine, between customers in UK and customers in Malaysia? 

Martine Williamson  

I would say the only difference is probably time. And actually, they’re more digitized in the UK.  So,  things like automated payments through your banking is the norm now, but it wasn’t certainly 10 years ago.

And so customers now definitely want to do things more from a digital perspective. But other than that, actually, they just want great content, right? They want great entertainment, they want to be able to watch on various devices. But yeah, they’ve got more similarities than differences, I would say. 

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