Customer experience is the next competitive battleground. Read on to find out how you can conquer it
As enterprises strive to transform digitally, one of their key goals would be to fruitfully engage customers and provide them an unparalleled experience that would make them want to come back and shop with you.
In the digital domain, this translates into a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences, actionable analytical insights and an ability to personalize offerings in real time. All these become extremely critical as surveys indicate that almost 80 per cent of the companies around the world are at some stage of completing their digital transformation journeys and by 2020, globally 84 per cent of companies would have embraced digital technologies in some form. Various studies indicate that at least 50 percent of the enterprises recognize customer experience as a major objective of their digital transformation initiatives. In the digital domain most of the steps you take to enhance user experience are technology driven and you will be experimenting with new technologies and approaches more than ever. Here are a few things you need to get right in order to achieve superlative customer delight.
Ensuring data quality
This is of utmost importance. Unless you have quality data no amount of technologies will help you. A typical example of how bad data quality is affecting digital transformation are some of the Indian banks which do not record and update customer responses to their product and services. This results in spam and customer frustration. Create systems and processes that accurately filter data from time to time.
Get granular customer insights
Understand your customer well. As a business today you have access to vast amounts of data and most of it lies in the digital domain. The sheer volume of data available can be intimidating and confuse you. But it is possible for you to organize these, make sense of of them and identify your potential customers and get insights into their preferences and personalize offers. But also be aware of the kind of data you are capturing. Most customers dealing with you online today are already aware of the kind of personal data they are sharing with you. You need to assure them that their data is safe in your hands.
Personalize content to each user
One of the biggest advantage of digital technology is that you get to personalize content and offerings to each user in real time. Some of the online retailers have already shown the way in this regard. If you go to any of the leading online retail site, they are analyzing a customer’s browsing record and search preferences in real time and making offers specifically tailored to each user on the go. This is bound to add significantly to user experience.
Automate applications
Various studies indicate that most users who transact online prefer automated applications that help them find what they are looking for and transact faster. Today, technologies like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence allow you to deploy intelligent and self-learning bots that can capture, store and remember customer needs while also finding answers to their specific needs. Automation should be a very important part of your digital transformation initiative.
Align internal infrastructure with your digital strategy
If you are a traditional enterprise seeking digital transformation, you will need to carefully evaluate how much of your internal infrastructure and processes that go with it support a highly customer focussed digital strategy. Remember that the digital domain is a totally different animal driven by disruption and innovation. Very often traditional wisdom and legacy processes might not work here. Ensure that you recast your internal processes and infrastructure to align with your digital play.
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