Hi,

what would be your best practice answer to the following question:

"A large electricity provider just appointed a new VP of customer service. You have a meeting with him in two weeks. He probably wants to increase customer service and reduce costs. What would be the things that you prepare and pitch to him at the meeting?"

I just had this question in a last round partner interview for a consultancy with a technology focus and feel like I completely failed it. The partner encouraged me to solve it on a whiteboard and I drew out a matrix of customer service and cost as well as several of the major technologies I suspected to have an effect on this in the electricity industry (IoT, Chatbots, Process automation, service load forecasting using AI). Then went on to explain the matrix intersections and how the I thought the technologies could be used to improve customer satisfaction and cost. The reaction of the partner however was really "indifferent". She just looked at me when I was finished talking without indicating whether the answer was good or bad. After a while she asked some questions like "What are the VPs goals" and "What about the customer perspective", in response to which I could not really contribute any additional meaninful information. After that she said we will go to another case and estimate the number of service reps of this company. The "indifference" continued from then on in the rest of the interview.

I am quite rattled and unsure whether this cost me my interview and if my answer caused the partner to mentally reject me and therefore turn off for the rest of the interview.

I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this.