Benchmarking Efficiency in Global Supply Chains!

Success is often viewed as a final goal, like reaching the top of a mountain or achieving a dream. However, it is much more meaningful to understand that success is also about the journey taken to get there. Every step along the way, every challenge faced, and every person influenced contributes to what success truly means.

In this light, Hiba El-Mohbi, as the Executive Director of Customer Experience at Starlinks, exemplifies how a rich career journey represents perseverance, adaptability, and a global perspective. Her professional trajectory illustrates the essence of success, showcasing how challenges and experiences shape her innovative approach to customer experience management.

Born in Lebanon, Hiba’s early years were shaped by her multicultural upbringing in Denmark and her education across the UK and France. This diverse foundation instilled in her a unique ability to navigate challenges with grace and a global mindset.

Hiba’s professional story began humbly at the age of 13, delivering newspapers, her first taste of hard work and responsibility. From there, her career grew into an inspiring journey through logistics and supply chain management. Starting with DHL in Denmark and the UK, she honed her skills and developed a deep understanding of the industry. Her passion and expertise led her to roles at Kellogg’s, where she further sharpened her focus on strategic operations and customer-centric solutions.

Today, at Starlinks, Hiba is redefining customer experience by creating seamless, innovative solutions that drive both satisfaction and loyalty. Her leadership is rooted in a belief that every challenge presents an opportunity to grow and innovate, making her a true trailblazer in the field.

Let us learn more about her journey:

Starlinks: Revolutionizing Logistics in the Middle East

Starlinks was established with a vision to transform the logistics landscape in the Middle East. Founded in Saudi Arabia, it aims to be more than just a logistics provider; it represents a technological revolution in the industry. Hiba, an early member of the team, describes her journey as exhilarating, having witnessed the company’s growth from its inception.

Starlinks operates through five innovative divisions: B2B Supply Chain, eCommerce, Starlinks Solutions (a design-to-operate consultancy), Freight Solutions, and Starlinks Global. The company emphasizes building partnerships based on trust and innovation, utilizing advanced technologies like Generative AI and business intelligence. This approach allows Starlinks to offer comprehensive end-to-end supply chain solutions.

Data-Driven Strategic Approach

Hiba emphasizes a data-centric approach to gathering and analyzing customer insights at Starlinks. Utilizing advanced business intelligence and data science, the company captures customer behaviors and performance trends.

Regular engagement through weekly reviews and annual strategic workshops ensures that their solutions adapt in real time. Market research further anchors their strategy, allowing them to remain agile amidst geopolitical and market fluctuations.

She believes that listening to customers is essential for success, but acting on those insights is what truly drives results. By transforming data into actionable intelligence, Starlinks ensures its strategies evolve in response to emerging markets, technological advancements, and global challenges.

Transforming Challenges into Opportunities

Hiba believes in viewing obstacles as opportunities for improvement rather than challenges. This positive mindset is pivotal in her role at Starlinks, where she employs a strategy built on three key pillars: data-driven insights, transparent communication, and proactive planning. When faced with customer experience issues, she focuses on leveraging data to understand customer behaviors and preferences.

Regular touchpoints, such as weekly reviews and strategic workshops, foster open dialogue with clients, allowing Starlinks to adapt solutions in real-time. By addressing concerns promptly and effectively, she strengthens customer relationships, transforming potential setbacks into chances to demonstrate reliability and build trust. She emphasizes that a continuous improvement mindset is essential for success in the logistics industry.

Key Metrics for Customer Experience Success

For Hiba, metrics boil down to one truth: The customer’s perception is our reality. For Starlink, CSAT scores and retention rates are not just numbers; they’re indicators of trust.

Weekly operational performance dashboards, SLA performance, and ‘what-if’ scenario analyses keep her on her toes. If her customers stay, grow, and thrive with her, she knows she is winning.

Aligning Customer Experience with Business Objectives

Hiba emphasizes that at Starlinks, customer experience is integral to their business objectives. She believes that if a company is questioning the importance of prioritizing customers, it has already lost its competitive edge. Drawing from her extensive experience, she critiques businesses that focus on predetermined products and prioritize clients based solely on revenue.

Instead, she advocates for a relationship-driven approach that involves understanding customer needs, offering flexible solutions, and maintaining open communication. By ensuring customer satisfaction, she makes sure Starlinks aligns with its objectives with client happiness, demonstrating that every customer regardless of size or complexity receives dedicated care and attention.

Collaborative Success

Hiba highlights that customer excellence at Starlinks is a collective effort, emphasizing the importance of cross-functional collaboration. The company’s end-to-end model ensures alignment among various departments, including freight, warehousing, and delivery.

Recently, when a client required rapid scalability, she coordinated efforts among finance, technology, and operations teams to create a seamless solution. This collaboration not only reduced complexity and costs but also minimized downtime.

She believes that teamwork is fundamental to their operations and is ingrained in the company culture. By fostering a collaborative environment, she effectively addresses customer needs and enhances overall service delivery.

Staying Ahead in Customer Experience

Hiba recognizes that the logistics landscape is constantly evolving, necessitating ongoing learning to remain relevant. At Starlinks, she leads market research initiatives and participates in global supply chain panels to stay informed about industry trends. She also closely monitors how government initiatives impact logistics, ensuring the company adapts accordingly.

Currently, she and her team are exploring Generative AI to develop predictive and hyper-personalized customer experiences. By integrating these insights into its strategy, she ensures that Starlinks not only meets but anticipates customer needs, positioning the company as a leader in delivering exceptional service in a dynamic environment.

Turning Dissatisfaction into Loyalty

Hiba believes that a brand is defined by its response to customer feedback. When faced with a dissatisfied customer, Starlinks avoids making excuses and instead embraces transparency, presenting data-backed root cause analyses along with actionable solutions.

By involving the customer in the resolution process and maintaining proactive communication, Starlinks not only retains trust but often transforms the customer into a loyal advocate. She emphasizes that this approach reflects the company’s philosophy of fostering trust, which she considers invaluable. Each interaction is seen as an opportunity to strengthen relationships, demonstrating that exceptional customer experience can turn challenges into lasting loyalty.

Enhancing Customer Journeys

Hiba emphasizes the importance of empathy in optimizing customer journeys at Starlinks. By putting themselves in the customer’s shoes, she and her team identify pain points and areas for improvement. They conduct real-time engagement workshops and quarterly strategy recalibrations to map each step of the customer experience.

Utilizing advanced business intelligence tools, they create dynamic models that inform their execution, ensuring they fulfill their promises. She notes that many leaders, including herself, have firsthand experience on the customer side, allowing them to understand expectations better. This comprehensive approach ensures that every touchpoint is seamless and enhances overall customer satisfaction.

Identifying and Addressing Customer Pain Points

Hiba views pain points as opportunities for growth. The company employs proactive Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys and thorough operational reviews to identify gaps before they escalate into issues. By fostering collaboration and agility, she ensures a swift response to any concerns.

She believes that every challenge presents a chance to rebuild trust, innovate, and strengthen relationships with customers. Maintaining a finger on the pulse of customer feedback allows the team to stay ahead of potential problems.

Balancing Customer Experience with Business Constraints

Hiba believes that building a strategy focused on delivering value minimizes business constraints. With a retention rate exceeding 95%, Starlinks prioritizes long-term relationships over short-term gains.

By encouraging innovation rather than compromise, she effectively aligns customer experience goals with business objectives, ensuring that they consistently deliver exceptional service while navigating any limitations.

Incorporating Customer Feedback for Continuous Improvement

Hiba views customer feedback as a vital compass for Starlinks. The company conducts quarterly Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys and weekly reviews and utilizes live dashboards to proactively identify areas for improvement. This commitment to continuous improvement is embedded in her and the company’s culture, ensuring they evolve to meet changing customer needs without waiting for year-end evaluations.