As your organisation embraces Digital Transformation it’s imperative to keep customer experiences and outcomes at the forefront of your digital strategy. Overlooking the impact that investments in digitalisation have on your most important stakeholders can have unintended consequences and cause your company to miss the mark when attempting to create value for customers.

In this article, we will explore the different approaches and technologies companies are using to enable Digital CX Transformation.

Things to consider in your digital CX journey

Maintain Customer Focus

As your organisation evaluates different digital solutions and operating models to drive transformation efforts, it is commonplace to unintentionally ignore how customers are affected by changes in technology and business processes. To avoid this misalignment, be sure to include correlative customer data in your decision making process to keep the customer in the purview of ongoing initiatives.

Ensure that your KPIs are aligned with targeted customer outcomes as you make changes to your technology ecosystem. Using a data driven approach to transformation will provide ongoing feedback and help your organisation correlate financial, customer and process related metrics to create optimal value.

Create Personalised Experiences

Leverage your customer data and the power of AI to create personalised experiences for your customers. A personalised approach to servicing and marketing to your customer base is a proven approach to increase revenue, promote upsells, build brand loyalty, and improve customer satisfaction. Any investment in Digital CX solutions should include the capability to tailor the customer experience based on an intuitive understanding of the individual consumer.

Personalisation includes allowing your customers to interact with your organisation using the device of their choice. Limiting the way you engage with customers can lead to missed sales opportunities and negatively impact revenue streams. Each customer has a preferred method to purchasing products and services which may include mobile, personal computer, voice as well as text/email.

Integrate your Sales Channels

As customers interact with your company, the ability to initiate a transaction using one channel (website) and easily transition to another sales channel (call center) to complete the purchase without having to start over has become an expectation.

Digitising and integrating processes across channels and has been a key enabler for organisations seeking to provide an interconnected and smooth experience for customers. Focusing on the digital customer journey will help your organisation identify opportunities to bridge systems, processes, and teams to deliver the ultimate customer experience.

Remember to keep the customer mindset at the center of your Digital CX Operating Model as you optimise and integrate internal resources to produce the desired customer outcomes. While digitising CX functions you should ensure that you maintain balance with the human aspect of customer interactions to avoid frustration and negative impacts to customer satisfaction.

Promote Internal Collaboration and Alignment

It is important to carefully consider how different groups across your organisation impact the customer experience. A siloed approach to meeting customer needs can created a disconnected and confusing experience for consumers. An overarching and highly prioritised customer strategy must be shared across the entire organisation to ensure buy-in from all internal groups involved in service/product delivery. Communication should be transparent, and objectives should be clearly defined before initiating transformation efforts.

An open and collaborative environment will allow your organisation to effectively manage change, adopt new frameworks, implement new technologies and integrate across functions.

Technologies Driving Digital CX Transformation

Digital Voice of the Customer (VOC)/Survey

VOC/Survey platforms enable companies to check the pulse of customer in qualitative and quantitative manner across different modes of engagement which include CRM, digital sales channels, and social media. These platforms allow companies to collect real-time feedback (CSAT, NPS) from customers and link this data to financials to create actionable insights that help drive decisions around marketing, product selection, and customer service.

Customer Success/Behaviour

These platforms collect customer activity data from websites and creates a holistic view of customer behaviour to mitigate risk of lost sales and identify opportunities for upsells/cross-sells. Customer success platforms collect and analyse customer data to find trends and patterns to maximise the probability of successful customer transactions and renewals.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM solutions help organisations find customers, successfully win sales opportunities, and maintain customer relationships. These platforms allow companies to store customer information, and automate marketing and sales processes related to customer journeys. Many platforms such as Salesforce also include VOC and Customer Success features as a part of an integrated solutions package.

Customer Journey Management and Analytics

These solutions help organisations create, deploy, and manage customer journey maps to enable strategic alignment/planning for CX initiatives. Journey Management platforms integrate with VOC, CRM, and Customer Success platforms to identify opportunities for alignment across business functions and process improvement to promote an enhanced customer experience.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The introduction of AI to CX has given organisations the ability to automate processes, decision making and customer engagement. Machine Learning and predictive analytics are the driving force behind emerging cloud-based CX solutions and allow companies to analyse large quantities of data to produce the “next-best-action” insights.

Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Chatbots have enabled organisations to stay connected to customers 24-7 without expanding their call centers. These solutions allow customers to get answers and customer service quickly instead of being put on hold.

IPA/RPA has allowed organisations to automate repeatable tasks while removing human error. These capabilities include capturing and extracting customer sales data to quickly provide answers while allowing employees to focus on human interactions. More mundane processes such as refunds, warranty, exchanges, payments, and order tracking can be automated through IPA/RPA to improve productivity and the effectiveness of customer services.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is a new technology that has become increasingly popular due to the increased connectivity between devices and the internet. IoT allows businesses to collect massive amounts device of data which can be converted into insights that help drive product/service personalisation and enhanced customer service.

Web/Video Solutions

Video teller machines, virtual open houses, and web conferencing platforms (Zoom, WhatsApp) have allowed business to provide customer service with a human touch without the limitations of physical location. Customers can receive personalised services around the clock while maintaining the safety of the customer and employee. Transactions are increasingly being completed via laptop, smartphone and even smart tv due to advancements in web video technology. Today you can purchase a new home without leaving your current house through FaceTime.

Data and the Digital Customer

With the immense amount of customer data at our fingertips, businesses have a key opportunity to harness technology and data solutions to drive differentiation. Customer needs are multidimensional and being able to identify customers is one of many steps to support their unique expectation. Beyond knowing who your customers, maintaining a connection to them in every channel and touchpoint is foundational. Digitising operations allows enterprises to capture and deliver on the customer interactions that matter. Those pursuing customer transformation will take these customer connections and deliver an experience that considers innovating how to engage with customers, how to serve goods and services, reinvent how to reach customers offline and online.