How to improve customer experience in the digital age

In today’s business climate, companies need to ensure an excellent customer experience across all their channels to remain competitive, but how is this possible in a digital-first world?

[source: The Telegraph] Increasingly, customers engage with brands across a number of channels while competition from all quarters – including new “digital disruptors”– means their loyalty can no longer be guaranteed.

So how can companies ensure “customer-centricity” across disparate parts of their organization as they digitally transform? And how can the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) be used not only to collect customer data without breaching the EU General Data Protection Regulation, but to better understand customers’ needs and deliver an integrated end-to-end experience? These were just some of the topics discussed at a recent breakfast roundtable, sponsored by enterprise software company SAP and hosted by The Telegraph.

According to Maria Morais, SAP’s global industry principal, about 70pc of the company’s clients are currently on the second wave of digital transformation – a process involving digitization of all parts of their organization. She said: “Many of our clients are trying to apply the voice of the customer across various business models, including direct to consumer, wholesale and manufacturing.”

Undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges during this phase is for companies to maintain their focus on customers’ needs. “What we find is that as companies move to this second wave, they lose sense of the customer – the reason they started to digitize in the first place,” she said.

Another problem is how to bring disparate sets of digital data together. Matthew Rowlette, area director, sales and marketing for boutique hotel company Dorchester Collection, said: “Customers are using various social media platforms to get in touch. We need to consolidate these silos of customer information into one place.”

SAP is currently developing a number of front-office services for the third wave, and has recently announced the acquisition of Qualtrix International, which provides experience management tools to help businesses gather customer feedback and optimize their products.

For Ndidi Okezie, digital and customer voice strategy at publisher Pearson, understanding customer intent is key. “As an individual I’m far more likely to share my data if it solves a particular problem I have. Companies need to communicate that ‘value exchange’ in an authentic way.”

Understanding customers’ needs and developing a trusted relationship with them has never been so important in business. Only by using the latest digital technology to deliver an integrated end-to-end experience can this be achieved.

Data-driven marketing

Customer data has to be turned into insights and actions to provide a source of competitive advantage. That was the key finding of a recent customer data imperative report produced by Econsultancy in partnership with SAP customer experience. A survey of 500 client-side marketers and digital professionals, it found 89% rate a data-driven and transparent marketing process as “critical” or “important”. But only 44% describe their organization’s capabilities in this area as optimized. Roland van Breukelen, marketing director, UK and Ireland, SAP customer experience, said: “Many businesses have invested in social media, mobile apps and Websites, without thinking about how they can be connected, to gather information on customers that can be converted into actions.”