Staying ahead of your competition is one of the major challenges facing many CX professionals. To achieve this, the focus is often on the new, the innovative and the exciting.
You can see why this is the case; with technology advancing at a rate of knots, there is more potential than ever before to introduce a fresh, different approach to customer experience. Plus, as customers become more tech savvy and adoption rates increase, it’s fundamentally changing the way customers behave.
While it is very exciting and there is incredible potential with technology, there is there is one common mistake that is made time and time again in this space.
Whether you’re a seasoned technology pro or brand new to the latest creations, the danger is focusing on the technology and not on the customer.
The potential of tech is more exciting than ever before
Internet of Things (IoT), Quantified Self, 3D Printing, Nano technology, the list of disruptive technologies continues to grow. From a CX perspective, this technology is changing how we all behave like never before. It means, as customers, we expect more. We want brands to be omnipresent. We want brands to be omnichannel.
With technology we can actually give our customers a more personalised experience – tailored to their needs and their preferences. It’s what our customers want. For example, 41% of people want to be identified by their mobile phone when they enter a space so that they can be sent offers or deals.
Technology can connect us (and our data) like never before
Using the data we have on our customers, bringing it together in one central location and then using it to create distinct experiences means we can connect with customers and engage them in more ways than ever before.
Partially this is about bringing together different data sources across the organisation, connecting them together through APIs. It’s also about breaking down silos, so you have a single, complete view of the customer from within the organisation.
If we can do this in real-time, then we can start to serve our customers in the way that they want information.
The danger point: forgetting customer experience
In the rush and the pressure to be innovative and embrace new technology, it’s easy to forget what the customer wants and needs. The danger is we end up serving the needs of the technology or exploring new product innovations, without connecting this back to what customers actually want and need. For example, focusing on data collection and/or data cleaning, without thinking about how this process can help the customers.
Explore tech and be innovative. But, remember where the customer fits into it all. Don’t get so obsessed with the technology that you forget about the person. Regardless of the approach you take, the customer service still has to be right.
It’s all about attention – how do we get attention. We need to personalise engagements, be omnichannel and omnipresent.
But keep it simple, keep it easy and keep it relevant for customers.
If you're looking for more tips to help you build a great customer experience, look no further than our speaker presentations from CX Day 2015:
