Customer experience management agencies focus on delivering personalised and unique experiences to gain consumer loyalty across multiple platforms, and for Arshad Rahman, CEO of Merkle Indonesia, this goal of building trust and providing unique experiences applies towards how he leads his team as well.
When it comes to leadership, Arshad values transparency and open communication regardless of levels or ranks, championing psychological safety by showing appreciation for feedback and ensuring diverse opinions to be said and heard, regardless of how good or bad it may be perceived and who it’s from.
“I’m never under the illusion that my perspective is the only or right perspective, so it is crucial I cover as many angles as possible by hearing the perspective of others before coming to a conclusion. Therefore, my ultimate leadership philosophy could be a combination of situational and participative leadership,” said Arshad.
Motivation through workplace initiatives
To get these principles through, Arshad shared several unique initiatives that are practised by Merkle Indonesia to build a high level of trust to achieve a high-performing workplace with depth amongst its team members.
Firstly, Arshad mentioned that there is a focus on communication, with monthly huddles and weekly sharings put in place in order to share performance updates and non-financial updates with transparency, celebrate the work done and put new learnings and feedback forward, nominate and celebrate individuals who went above and beyond to deliver a particular project or initiative, and have an open and transparent Q&A between employees and leaders.
Additionally, Arshad stated that Merkle Indonesia employs an initiative called the ‘Champions’ program, which helps employees build leadership skills by allowing them to take the lead in welcoming new partnerships or platforms that Merkle is exploring as a business.
“The program has also led to other social and recreational activities, with new clubs and gatherings were built and led by individuals, such as a badminton club, a pool/billiard group, a walking group and cycling group weekly, alongside other communities, with the objective of allowing people to get to know each other more and build better relationships to make collaboration smoother,” Arshad added.
Navigating complexities in CX
Talking about the challenges faced in customer experience management, Arshad said, “Delivering differentiated customer experiences involves a series of complex transformations across multiple touchpoints which is challenging in itself. While we stand firm on bringing the larger narrative of customer experience management to brands, we need to be mindful of the readiness and therefore one of our strategies to help clients through these types of large scale transformations is by taking a micro-level approach – we partner with clients across different departments/divisions and embark on various pockets of digital and data transformation initiatives, while still keeping the larger vision in mind.”
With that said, Merkle Indonesia always aims to mirror the client’s needs and focus on the services that are more urgent and important for them. This approach leads to clients being more open and willing to embark on these types of projects as they involve lower risk, lower cost, yet high impact and accountability.
Arshad expressed that breaking down these transformations into modules enabled them to deliver success a lot quicker and make the process more nimble and agile to changes, allowing them to pivot along with client’s needs.
Growing openly as a team
Since Merkle Indonesia’s inception in August 2021, the business has grown exponentially and maintained a strong retention of clients. The team has also doubled in size, with Merkle Indonesia also diversifying its service offerings from a focus solely on analytics tech platforms to now encompassing comprehensive data solutions and CRM services to the Indonesian market.
Talking about the leadership efforts that made this growth possible, Arshad shared, “Fostering a culture of trust through transparency, integrity and consistency – builds a team that collaborates openly and brings their best and real selves to work. Even when we fail, we fail together, we learn, and support each other to rise up again. Trust and transparency build credibility, encourage open communication, enable autonomy and empowerment, facilitate adaptability, and ultimately bring performance and success.”
