Ken Raley, Director of Innovation at CEC sat down in an exclusive one-on-one interview with Glenn King, CEO of Property Exchange Australia (PEXA).

Glenn is known for his ability to lead staff, build great businesses and put customers at the heart of decision-making. Prior to PEXA, Glenn held the role of Secretary Customer Service, NSW Department of Customer Service, and CEO of Service NSW.

Buying and selling property is one of the biggest life events that many Australians go through, and is an experience that has largely been paper based and fragmented, and a very mixed customer experience. There’s a lot of parties involved, and in the last ten years PEXA has digitised that exchange process - from settlement, transferring of property and transfer of funds. It’s a world first, and since the COVID-19 crisis the number of settlements through the PEXA platform in South Australia has increased from approximately 21% to 83%.

During Glenn's time at Service NSW the organisation underwent a huge transformational change, with the focus being to put the customer at the centre. Prior to the transformation it was very manual, fractured, with a variety of shop fronts and contact numbers. We wouldn’t have what we know as Service NSW today if leaders didn’t put customer at the heart and ask ‘How do I make it a good customer experience?'

Having strong leaders, who are passionate about creating great customer experiences, and can demonstrate and role model those values, is great for your employees, stakeholders, and customers. It brings the organisation to life.

“Make it happen, make it count, and innovate for good.” - Glenn King

Having customer at the heart doesn’t always mean you say yes, however, it’s about getting a good outcome, and a good experience no matter what the circumstances are.

“If you have the customer at the heart, it doesn’t mean you always say yes to your customers, it's about getting them a good outcome." - Glenn King

During this COVID-19 crisis where we’ve all had to operate differently and respond proactively with remote working and social distancing. Programs and technology like Teams and Zoom have suddenly become a huge part of the way organisations now operate, and people are liking this new way of working as it fits with their lifestyles.

“We’ve realised we can work differently… and our people are coming up with the ideas to continually improve how we operate, and we’re going to be testing different things and these new ways of working - this is an opportunity to strengthen our culture.” - Glenn King

"It’s interesting - people aren't rushing to go back to the way things were.” - Ken Raley

For enterprises who haven’t digitised sincerely, it’s very easy to say let’s just digitise this, but that’s not going to get a good outcome. You have the customer as part of that design process and that requires a lot of testing, and experimentation, and feedback from customers on what needs to be improved as part of your process.

"You don’t want to just digitalise a poor product or process - that’s not a good outcome.” - Glenn King

One of the things Glenn has learnt over the years is to always test with an experimentation mentality and to test early in the design process, because even if you fail you’re going to learn something that’s going to make it better. It’s also important to see the real experience for yourself. At Service NSW, Glenn would be on the floor and on the phones to experience the service first hand.

“I’d embed myself in, and I’m passionate about doing that. I’m always thinking about the customer experience.” - Glenn King

Watch the replay below.

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