At a time where organisations are becoming increasingly integrated with technology, a superior customer experience is needed more than ever to outperform competition. Gartner explains Customer Experience Management (CEM) as “the practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions to meet or exceed customer expectations and, thus, increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.”
A report by Frost & Sullivan found that 89 percent customers switch their loyalty due to poor customer experience. Moreover, 86 percent of them are willing to spend more with a customer centric company with superior customer experience. Customer Experience Management has become a major growth driver for businesses to keep pace with customer preferences and beat competition. However, in order to do so, they also need to heavily invest in technology that will enable them to keep up with expectations.
A shift in customer expectations
With the rise of the digital era, we have noticed a shift in customers’ expectations and behaviours towards their brands and service providers. Feeling more empowered, customers are now at the “driver’s seat” and will decide whether a brand will succeed or not, by switching for a competitor if they are not happy with the service provided by their current brand. This applies to every sector, even the telecommunication industry.
Like electricity and water, consumers expect their landline broadband and mobile connection to be ‘always on’. Consumers want their products and services to perform consistency at an impeccable level, whether that’s fast broadband or clean and uninterrupted calls. This involves a fully automated and extensive knowledge management to provide a root cause analysis and 360 service visibility resulting in a strong customer experience.
What can CEM do for you?
To be able to provide an effective customer experience that is not only extensive, but memorable, communication service providers (CSPs) must place the customer at the forefront and provide not only the best quality of network, but also a personalised, 24/7 customer service. CSPs must be in constant interaction with their customers, from the inquiry stage right through to the after service period.
Automating processes and including AI-powered chatbots in the customer service process as well as a powerful automated data analytics system is a good way to start. Virtual assistants fulfil a customer’s demand of getting instant service support from a business from anywhere, at any time and from any platform. Analysing a customer’s data, service providers can respond more accurately to their customers’ problems; as the data will enable them to know all the previous interactions they had with this customer, as well as their previous issues, needs and usage.
According to Statista, 84 percent of enterprises believe investing in AI will lead to greater competitive advantages and 59 percent believe customers will start asking for AI-driven offerings. However, acquiring these technologies involves costs that not all businesses have on hand and many organisations are still hesitant to take the plunge as they think such investment takes away valuable resources from what they believe is the ‘real task.’
CEM makes a real difference to your business
Organisations must remember that customers have more presence, power and choice than ever before. If businesses don’t provide a personal, relevant, timely and insightful message, customers will alienate them immediately.
Customers expect to be treated as humans and not numbers, and who’s the best person to know what the customer wants than the customers themselves? Therefore, organisations need to offer a strategy in which consumers feel valued, listened and helped 24/7, during the entire customer journey.
A wide range of businesses, from start-ups to global organisations, started creating cloud-based ecosystems in 2015 to gain speed, scalability, real-time collaboration, and deliver better customer experiences. Automated intelligent technologies such as AI and machine learning are enabling businesses to deliver more relevant, personalised customer experiences through responsive technologies, like chatbots.
The business world is looking towards an eco-system that is automated. Organisations must provide a CEM that follows the digital trend of automation, in which responses are in real time and effective. This will enable organisations to provide a positive experience to the customer, which will act as a reinforcement for their image, resulting in a domino effect of success.
