Deploy best-fit technologies to create and manage a better Customer Experience
The last few years have been characterized by a drastic change in business environments a phenomenon which is no different for customers and marketplaces. From supply chain challenges to shifts in customer attitudes and behaviours, businesses and organizations have struggled to keep pace with customers’ constantly changing needs and expectations. The customer is now empowered and has a stronger tug on the rope thus requiring businesses to run along with them and to anticipate what will make them stay on the journey and become advocates ultimately.
“The customer is always right” is a motto or slogan that exhorts frontline staff to give a high priority to customer satisfaction. What is now a major trigger in this quest is the emergence of technology solutions to enhance the capabilities of the average business in driving efficiency at touchpoints and also within the business to ensure that the customer enjoys unique services based on intuitive responses to their needs and expectations. There is a clip online that is a treat for a loyal customer whose son was celebrating his birthday. The airline staff make a formation as the plane is ascending and the captain pages the passenger to look down.
An exaggerated version of a customer treatment, but it tells the story and makes one realize the effect of special treatment on the customer emotionally. This was achieved from knowing that the said customer was a loyal patron such that his 15-year-old son is receiving a birthday treat from the airline just as his father enjoyed some 15 years ago when the birth of his son was announced during take-off. Disruptions caused by new technologies have required all types of organizations to engage their target customers in new ways. From online shopping to leveraging self-service, digital has become ingrained in the customer experience (CX).
It is worthy of note however that the most compelling digital experiences start with a vivid understanding of the customer. Who they are, what they want, what job they have to do, and even how they feel about themselves. This is known as the customer persona, it best describes who has an interest in your offering and the level of accuracy of that information informs your responses to them. A good technology strategy enhances customer understanding. In the latest Gartner Spend survey, marketing leaders cited customer understanding and customer experience management as a top capability gap.
Having the right fit technology enhances the capability of brands to meet customer expectations by optimizing their customer journeys. However, these efforts only produce the desired effect if they get customers to click and convert. Here are a few benefits from using technology to enhance Customer Experience. First, assess your current situation in terms of your assets and capabilities. Second, develop an effective data collection and technology mix to help you understand your customers. Third, deploy the technologies by incorporating CX insights into business decisions. Fourth, manage cross-channel initiatives. Fifth, address data-related obstacles.
Assessing current situation
According to Brian Atkiss, director of advanced analytics of Anexinet, a technology management firm, prior to deploying technology to help resource your CX or any other corporate strategy, you must first assess your current technology assets and capabilities. He says further “Evaluate the ability to collect, analyze, optimize and act on customer data across all touchpoints and channels and to deliver personalized experiences in real-time,” it is imperative that we define the key business drivers, target users and use cases and define the right-fit technology to provide enhanced digital experiences.
A company needs to identify technology and cultural barriers to adding technology resources. There is no one-size-fits-all with technology solutions. The way forward is to evaluate digital transformation priorities and their impact on operations and infrastructure. In my personal experience years ago, when automating our business processes, we had to assess the needs and prioritize the implementation by deploying the critical business needs. We set out to implement the financial module and then followed through with other business processes. Not only was it cost-effective but it also provided a useful learning curve.
Furthermore, it is imperative that you look beyond the lens of individual CX operations and focus on integrated solutions. Note that you are digitizing the whole customer journey. This requires that you connect the dots across the entire business spectrum seamlessly. According to experts, CX technology investments must be anchored on a closed-loop cycle encompassing the following; understanding customers and their experiences, analyzing data collected from the experiences, acting on the insights, and continually managing CX efforts across the brand. It is a continuous improvement process in which we must strive to avoid the cart-before-horse syndrome.
Develop customer understanding
Years ago, my boss lent me a book on office politics, and boy was it insightful! One lesson shared in the book I remember vividly was about how to get along with the boss. It said, “If you know your boss, 50 percent of your work is done”. By employing the right technologies to implement surveys, interaction analysis, social listening, and text or sentiment analysis tools, you are empowered to access qualitative and quantitative data on customers and their experiences. It is all about developing capabilities to combine data from these tools to link customer perceptions captured in surveys to their behaviours when engaging with various brand touchpoints.
This way, you are better able to monitor customer journeys and evaluate CX feedback collected over time. Your goal is to make the customer feel valued by anticipating what their preferences are. In today’s digital-first world, sophisticated customers expect to find solutions to their issues online. Failing that, they either reach out to you directly or simply move on. Regardless of the outcome, this could lead to costly and inefficient processes. By deploying fit-for-purpose customer portals, you have the opportunity to not only meet your customers’ needs but also optimize your existing resources.
Note that your goal is to ensure that in designing your journey map your focus is more on the outside-in view than your inside-out view. In other words, don’t be fixated on the sophistication of the technology alone, remember doing so will lead you towards “navel-gazing”. When you have customer understanding you are better able to engage them at their preferred touchpoints. For example, tourists visiting Ghana from Western countries visit approximately 38 different websites before booking a trip. Using effective digital tools enhances this process. To wit, if you know your customer, 50 percent of your customer experience goals will be duly achieved.
Incorporate CX insights into business decisions
Customer experience (CX) insights allow you to look closer at your sales conversions, in order to improve your customer experience, foster customer loyalty, and drive growth in your business. When you have deeper insights into what your customers and prospects want and expect from you, your ability to deliver out-of-world experiences is greatly enhanced. You have a more accurate view of how your audiences interact with your business and how those interactions impact their customer journey. Customer experience insights are those findings that are gained from an analysis of customer feedback and customer interactions with your business.
Customer experience insights can help companies reach more customers, create awareness about their brands, increase customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, generate more revenue. Here are a few of the ways you can use customer experience insights to optimize business performance. First, Product enhancements; in today’s highly competitive market the challenge for every business is how to address customers’ changing needs and expectations. Second, customer insights enhance your capabilities to identify and respond to these trends. Third, increase customer satisfaction; get to know where your customers shop and what they buy.
These valuable discoveries will help you tailor your offerings to match their needs and preferences more accurately. Fourth, new market outreach; by turning customers into loyal evangelists for your business they will promote your business for you, and you will be able to attract more new customers. Customer experience insights also show you which customers are more likely to buy your products, meaning that you will be able to implement effective marketing strategies to target the right audience and, in effect, increase your conversion rates. Your business decisions are greatly enhanced with effective CX insights and capabilities.
Manage cross-channel initiatives
Technology serves your needs better when they are aligned (in congruence) with your business goals. To effectively manage your customer experience, you need capabilities to coordinate activities to holistically understand and react to customer perceptions shaped by the sum of their interactions with a brand. Your ability to synchronize, listen, interpret, act, and monitor activities across all practices and channels affecting experiences is critical for CX’s success. Today’s technologies offer cross-team platform capabilities very effectively.
They range from journey analytics to business intelligence tools customer feedback management tools, and engagement platforms such as customer data or real-time decision platforms. According to experts, carefully linking CX outcomes with the right set of technologies enables a test-and-learn culture that can substantially improve CX and increase customer lifetime value. The fact is these days customers are smart. They have a plethora of information at their fingertips. This gives them immense control with more choices than ever and they desire genuine and lasting connections.
A lot of companies struggle with attracting customers that stick around which makes it hard to sustain revenue growth. A small hiccup like a new website visitor unexpectedly landing on a 404 page. Or, offering a “free” resource, but then requiring a valid email address for access. These lead to friction that is a potential turn-off for customers. A lack of internal processes with a lack of consistency from one project to the next is very frustrating. When the average customer encounters a situation of poor handoffs between teams where for example sales told the customer X but the CX team told them Y, this leads to friction and turn-offs.
Address data-related challenges
Leadership is quick to recognize what they need to change on the customer service front, but often struggle to implement measures to do so. According to 54% of respondents in a recent survey, day-to-day work takes precedence over widespread improvements to the customer service function. Significant customer service challenges include talent shortfalls, inefficient or outdated technology, and inefficient or disconnected workflows. Today’s technologies can help gather, aggregate, analyze, compare, and present customer data in comprehensive and current profiles.
The reality though as frequently emphasized is that the value exchange involving customer service very much depends on not just technology but people, therefore the focus must be more on retaining customers, improving brand reputation, and getting more business outcomes out of each interaction with a customer. A unanimous view is that improved retention and loyalty are some of the top three outcomes organizations are looking to get from improving their customer experience. According to a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Pulse Survey, elevating the value of Customer Service through a Data-Driven Approach is key.
Data-driven technology and increased automation can help effectively address the key challenges of insufficient time, resources, and staffing. Companies can help ensure their customer journey interactions drive customer loyalty and retention, increase customer satisfaction, and even help improve the company’s bottom line. According to Shep Hyken a CX consultant, “Nothing has changed in customer experience.
I have a question, problem, or complaint, and in the end, I want to be happy and want my question answered,” “What happens in the middle is what’s changing. We can play around with what happens in the middle to make sure it becomes a better experience.”
In our world today technology is a major catalyst in managing customer relationships. There is no shortage of tools that can be employed to enhance our capabilities in this regard. What is of extreme importance is that these technologies on their own do not deliver total value for us. We must ensure that we have a good understanding of our own business requirements in terms of our needs and how we align all the processes with business goals and vision.
| The Writer is Head of Training Development & ResearchService Excellence Foundation, and Management Consultant (Change and Customer Experience). He can be reached on 059 175 7205,
kojo.manuel2016@gmail.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/km-13b85717/ |