Focus on customer experience, not sales
Focusing on the customer experience rather than fretting solely about sales shouldn’t be a novel idea, but more often than not, the numbers take precedence over how we reach them – customer experience continues to be seen as a cost of doing business in Asia, CMO Council concludes after surveying 287 senior marketing executives in the latest study done in collaboration with SAP Hybris, on customer experience.
While much is being said, not much is being done. In a recent survey commissioned by SAP to understand about consumers’ digital experience, it was reported that two-thirds of Asia Pacific and Japan consumers today are not delighted with the digital experience provided by brands in the region.
With the digital transformation of businesses, more than 50 per cent of organisations are predicted to redirect their investments to customer experience innovations by 2018. How will these innovations influence our lives? And can the future of customer experience satisfy the demands of both businesses and consumers? These were key topics of discussion during the 4th annual Customer Experience Management (CEM) Asia Summit held over 5th – 8th September 2016 at Marina Bay Sands.
Data is constantly being harnessed and analysed by companies in order to evolve and develop their strategies to maintain and foster stronger customer relationships. But what comes first — the data or the loyalty? Another question then is how will data be translated into making customer experiences more personalised and seamless? It is also absolutely essential that organisations harness the abundant data available to understand their customers. To get a complete picture of each customer, brands must bring their business processes and customer information (including data from external sources) together on one core platform. The full picture and the ability to act on it in real-time are paramount to understanding the customer and taking the experience to the next level.
Creating algorithms that try and predict customer behavior using only historical data isn’t enough today. In order to demonstrate that you know your customers, you have to be able to understand their present intent i.e. what is happening and required now, in real-time.This is contextual customer experience.
In addition, the pervasiveness of e-commerce has already changed what customers expect from the brick-and-mortar retail shopping experience.Trying to match the convenience, selection and clean navigation of an e-commerce site in a physical location is a tall order.The more important question is: how do we make better use of all the physical retail space that used to be the core of consumer action? The answer may just be to stop selling, and start showing.
The Smart Wine Shelf exhibited at CEM Asia Summit for example, how physical and digital can come together and create new ways of connecting with customers. With an Application Programming Interface that captures real-time interaction to reflect product details specific for your profile. Customers only need to answer a few simple questions that will allow the system to offer what is relevant to you directly, acting like a personal concierge who instantly recognises you no matter which outlet you shop at.
But even with the right products in mind, we do not always end up getting what we want when we see it. Say you saw that perfect pair of earphones on TV but you are currently in the middle of your favorite program – what do you do? To allocate time to search up on it before it slips our mind could also mean missing out on the current plot, and everyone knows the frustration of that dilemma.
Beyond offering individualised recommendations (that is one step further than personalisation), another focus is a holistic uninterrupted service delivery – a seamless transition that complements our day-to-day activities.
Companies today are aware of the rapidly increasing volume of interactions with customers across a growing range of channels, from email and the web to chat and social media. The challenge to engage with them and build long-term, profitable relationships is then to be able to respond quickly and consistently to customers, on their channel of choice. This lends support to a survey finding where 79 per cent of marketers agree that confirm that the single view is pivotal to improving commercial performance.
Retailers were previously suffering from the inability to connect with customers through a common touch point but consumers can now buy what they see and like on TV immediately through Stream technology.The consumer is king, and today, the king demands a 1-click planet.
Beyond amalgamating online channels, the goal is to deliver a frictionless experience as they transit between offline and online. By unifying the customer views to create a single point of control for organisations, brands are now able to building a consistent brand experience across channels and devices; create customer satisfaction optimization and sales will naturally follow.
Johann Wrede, Global Vice President Audience, Brand and Content Marketing of SAP Hybris, who spoke at the CEM Asia Summit, rightly pointed out that a unique customer experience is so much more than just a personalised salutation in an e-mail. It is the integration of what the customer has done, what he is doing now, and what he may do – all these information individualised in real-time and with contextualised experiences at each touchpoint.
Nothing is beyond imagination when you take a step back and rethink customer experience from the lenses of the one whom it is intended for: the customers.
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