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CRM, CX, UX Opinion South Africa

Digital transformation driven by customer experience

According to Forrester, perceived value is equal to experience over expectation. Customers have higher, and higher expectations of customer experience and social media channels like Facebook and twitter are fundamental to this shift.

Customers demand that the way in which they engage with brands is on their terms, working seamlessly across multiple devices and platforms.

In this digital era, customer loyalty is no longer a given.

The better the customer experience, the greater the loyalty, the better the growth opportunity for businesses. If you don’t have the ability to build more personalised experiences and adapt to meet customer needs, then your company will lose market share.

Mobile is more critical today than it has ever been, because it is where your customers are and where you can be in their pockets. This is the context within which they operate on a day-to-day basis. Most consumers and end-users are accessing the web, company services and social media platforms via a mobile device. And it trumps desktop by 70%.

If you want to engage your customers, mobility must be number one for customer experience management.

Pixabay
Pixabay

Social media has changed the way that consumers or customers interact with business service. They want to interact with something that is instant. Something that follows similar patterns to social media channels. That is easy to use. That is gamified, in a sense. That offers incentive, is compelling and rewarding to engage with.

There is the expectation of the immediacy that is created by social media, that customers expect as part of a good customer experience.

We live in an era of instant gratification and this is translated into the customer experience. Customers may feel that they do not want to deal with a company that takes too long to engage with them, respond to a query or send a quote for products or services.

Customers are looking for convenience. “The company/business/service provider that makes it quicker, easier and more convenient for me, is the one I will do business with.”

It is no longer just about price - some customers are willing to pay a little extra for added convenience, immediacy of responses to queries and requests. Other important criteria for customers and consumers is ease of use and level of engagement with the business.

Customer acquisition is becoming about the speed with which the customer is exposed to the value of the business.

There is a lot of talk about digital transformation and the digital customer experience. Without digital operational improvement, there is no effective customer engagement.

You essentially need the operational excellence in your business to underpin customer service and facilitate an omni-channel digital experience

You need operational excellence to ensure a strong customer experience.

Digital operational excellence is the ability to use emerging technologies to change operational aspects of a business that don´t touch the customer, to create business agility in service of the customer. The ability to be agile and evolve quickly so that you can service the customer, at an operational level.

We believe that a strong customer experience can only be the result of an omni-channel approach. Understanding that there are alternatives, and opting not to be limited by traditional approaches means it is possible to reach omni-channel very quickly.

And because you have the channels that your customers are engaging on, you have the ability to analyse the way in which they engage and track this experience. The result, is an ability to draw insight into consumer behaviour and develop and offer point-in-time products or services, that not only increase your share of wallet in the customer, but offer them convenience in context at a moment in time.

The data available, and the analytics offered enables businesses to unlock opportunities based on growing needs and requirements. Leveraging data and developing products and solutions that better service customer needs, adds value on top of the initial service or solution.

When you understand your customer better, your business is better able to deliver convenience.

About Craig Terblanche

Craig Terblanche is the regional director at OutSystems South Africa
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