The majority of the aging population in Japan still prefers using cash for transactions, according to a recent report citing government data. In 2023, cashless transactions in Japan totaled 126.7 trillion yen ($885 billion), accounting for 39.3 percent of all spending in the country, said the Japanese government. The government hopes that number reaches 40 percent by 2025. The Japanese government's initiative to increase cashless transactions is being supported by a Tokyo-based startup called SmartBank, which offers an app and services that make switching to cashless payments easier for people. Shota Horii (CEO of SmartBank), along with his twin brother Yuta Horii (CTO) and Jun Taketani (CXO), founded the company in 2019 after selling their previous company, Fablic, to Rakuten in 2016. While running Fablic, the three discovered that many users were still using cash for everyday financial transactions. The founders launched SmartBank in an effort to address a problem within the consumer finance industry in Japan....
Remember the idea of keeping an empty chair in the corporate boardroom as a reminder that the customer deserves a seat at the table' The concept of 'experience' embraces every touch point that a customer (or an employee) has with a company or brand, from browsing a website and making a purchase to initiating a return or planning a store visit. The chief experience officer (CXO) serves as the voice of the customer, asking, 'From the customer's perspective, does it make their life easier' Does it remove friction' Does it create a delightful experience'' If it doesn't, the experience needs to be redesigned. The CXO gains insight into the customer's lived experience by leading direct and indirect research on different customer segments. They explore questions ranging from 'How is the experience of Generation Z different from that of a millennial customer'' to 'What would make our digital products more accessible to the millions of people who have vision impairments'' The CXO debunks the myths about what the customer wants with data that reveals what the customer really wants....
