William Hill’s Cem Miralay on personalisation and putting the customer first

As William Hill’s chief customer officer (CCO), Cem Miralay undoubtedly has an important role to play in the turnaround of William Hill’s Online business.

The former Betsson product chief was initially appointed to the newly-created role of ‘director of change’ in May 2016, before taking up a new position as the operator’s CCO just four months later.

In his new role, Miralay is ultimately responsible for everything that’s delivered to the customer, from marketing to technology to product.

EGR Intel caught up with Miralay to find out more about his role and how he intends to put the customer at the heart of all product and UX development.

EGR Intel: Can you explain in a bit more detail what the role of a chief customer officer entails?

Cem Miralay (CM): The chief customer officer role has now become quite prevalent, especially in digital industries. The objectives of it have been to bring together the ownership of the end-to-end customer experience so that you create a more agile way of delivering effortless and aligned experiences to customers. I think from that perspective the role absolutely makes sense because it removes barriers – regardless of the organisation that you’re in – and ultimately creates a single point of ownership.

EGR Intel: And how is this reflected in the work you are doing at William Hill?

CM: In the case of William Hill, my ownership extends from operational, to software development, to marketing. I have a philosophy that if you do the right thing for the customer, then that is ultimately going to drive efficiency and effectiveness within your operation. So I always look at it from the customer’s angle and have found that approach works really well. That’s not only good from a revenue perspective but it’s also good for the customer, because they know what they’re doing and they can make a choice whether they want to participate in something or not.

Cem Miralay, chief customer officer, William Hil

EGR Intel: Does this also include the retail side of the business from your perspective?

CM: Yes it does, but in the immediate instance my focus has been on mobile and on online overall. However, we are now becoming more focused on the omni-channel experience with retail.

EGR Intel: Is it a coincidence that Krisfof Fahy was appointed to the same role at Ladbrokes at a similar time?

CM: This has come from outside the industry and is now evolving within. The other components of my responsibilities are marketing – including above-the-line advertising, brand and digital marketing – and customer service. Reporting into me I have the directors of brand, creative, digital marketing, customer service and UX.

EGR Intel: How happy are you with the product and UX improvements made since you joined Hills?

CM: We are very happy. What you have seen is the wholesale change of the app, which I think has been exceptionally well done, but now we are doing something called growth hacking day in and day out. This is really bout focusing on every single interaction the customer has with our app and trying to optimise their experience with those interactions. That is exactly where we are trying to take the experience when you come into a William Hill world, whether online or in retail. We are trying to tie all of those little parts of the journey so you have an experience as effortless as possible. As far as I’m concerned, that effort will never finish.

EGR Intel: How are you looking at things with regards to personalisation?

CM: Our strategy, which is becoming more and more part of the day-to-day conversation at William Hill, is how we deliver the best, most relevant and personalised experience to our customers. The enabler of this in a lot of cases is software. If you look at our software stack overall, that is made up of a bunch of third-party providers and in-house built software that pulls together to be able to deliver these services. I don’t think any operator will be able to get to a point where they would have all their technology delivered through in-house built software.

I don’t know about other companies, but in our case personalisation is not just a word; we are actively building personalisation into our technology roadmaps. You will see more and more of that, not only in terms of how customers use our products but also how we engage through campaigns.

William Hill is now the official sponsor of ITV’s racing coverage

EGR Intel: What does the William Hill brand mean and how are you trying to position it?

CM: I have been in business for a while now and one thing I don’t like doing is selling snake oil. So ultimately I look at the brand from the strength of its offering. If I look at sportsbook, for example, we offer every market that you would want to bet on and it is incredibly competitive, both in terms of its breadth and our competitiveness for pricing. That is a fundamental that is really important.

On the gaming side, which we are not yet as well-known for, when I first came William Hill and looked at its portfolio I found out it has a phenomenal portfolio that truly gives the customers the choice of whatever they want to play. When you start from there, you realise you have a brand legacy that is rightly trusted and is effective in what it offers. Bring all that together and you create a brand presence that is a leader in this market.

EGR Intel: How happy have you been with your ITV sponsorship so far?

CM: The numbers, particularly on ITV1, have been fantastic and the ITV4 numbers are also very healthy. The ITV7 competition is also something we are going to build over the season and will be a great acquisition tool going forward. Overall, I see this as a strategic partnership that is going to make William Hill synonymous with horseracing again.

EGR Intel: What is the next step in your strategy?

CM: This is an exciting time to be at William Hill. I‘m still relatively new having been at the company less than a year but I look at this phenomenal brand and it is incredibly strong and respected. The company is very successful and there is a huge opportunity for us to make it even more successful than it is today. It is a great place to be and great to be part of a journey of taking this amazing brand to a new position of leadership.