Do you think that digital renovation is only about efficiency – cutting back on time and resources, getting an edge on the competition or perhaps wooing new customers with more swanky applications? You could not be more off track.
The core essence of digital transformation is reshaping customer experience. And if companies wish to grow and thrive in 2019, they need to understand that managing customer experience has to be on their radar.
It is Everyone’s Job to Know Customer Experience
Can you remember the last time you had a gratifying customer experience? Customer satisfaction is a hard thing to achieve, especially because the domain has become so fragmented in the current landscape. Why? A random combination of digital phone trees, chatbots that are somewhat articulate, unsystematic website FAQs and apps with technical glitches are pushing customers to seek more and better.
By offering a seamless web to mobile customer experience, don’t you want your business to rise to the top?
To be able to do that, every team member in your organization has to be dedicated towards achieving the organizational goals and that includes providing top-notch customer experience. That is the level of intricacy that has to be attained to link your CX with organizational goals.
It is clear that customer experience has gained in significance to such proportions that it cannot be another vertical under ‘marketing’ or ‘sales’ anymore. There is a distinct differentiation is CX today, such that it has to be present in full-scale, in the attitude of every team member, right from the bottom to the C-Suite level.
In 2019, designing a CX driven culture is the only route to success for organizations.
Achieving Digital Customer Experience Transformation
Is it possible to achieve this much sought-after digital customer experience? Of course, it is. All you need to do is to find ways that can streamline the approach to deliver outstanding customer experience. This can be done by leveraging digital technologies and solutions and by paying attention to trends.
Here are the top trends in digital customer experiences in 2019:
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The Excitement Around Artificial Intelligence Continues:
Artificial intelligence was a key emerging trend in 2018. In 2019, the expectation from businesses is adaptability of AI with their existing technologies to make customer experience superior. This can also include a conversion to predictive personalisation powered by artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is predicted to trigger major transformations through a process of fast-tracked digital growth. This can possibly have a substantial effect on jobs since machines are programmed to think in ways that humans cannot.
The technology can be advantageous to businesses and by extension CX, in multiple ways. By automating complex, time consuming processes, it saves businesses both resources and time. By allowing the machine to do the work also minimizes scope of ‘human error’. For example, if you wish to carry out a survey, you can design the form using a customer survey template. The AI powered tool will predict customer preferences by which you can include questions in the survey that are more personalized to their experience. No doubt, this will tremendously boost customer engagement.
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Digital Ethics and Analytics will be on the Frontline
Gartner predicts that data ethics will be big in 2019. With such gigantic quantum of data, requires some form of control. A great deal of attention needs to be placed on analytics and related digital ethics. To simplify the thought, businesses must be responsible towards ensuring that the customer data collected through multiple channels is protected by installing all forms of necessary precautions to prevent data leakage.
Whilst the apprehension for data ethics and privacy is not essentially new, the issue that warrants consideration is focussed on the aspect of ‘abusing trust’. In the pre-GDPR era, collecting personal data from customers without supplying adequate explanations was widely prevalent. The Facebook incident is an instance where there was no transparency in data collection which transformed into a growing concern amongst its customers. The incident is also an example of weak data ethics that can harm your business.
Therefore, 2019 is the year where businesses should focus on digital ethics and compliances especially in areas that deal directly with customer experiences.
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Managing Data will Encounter Obstacles
A fascinating and testing pursuit for organizations in 2019 will be combining ethics with data management. With an increase in data volumes as a result of automation, data itself will become more multifaceted. Therefore, the means to collecting must undergo a makeover too.
For example, if you are using a survey template to capture customer information, the entire process of designing the form, right to the point of sharing it with the consumer can be automated with the help of AI. This is followed by a process of evaluation and assessment of the data.
Having said that, businesses today need to acquire data science skills that can help them address these key questions:
- What is the overall data strategy for the business?
- What methods of data management can be applied?
- Why should businesses employ data and analytics for customer experience initiatives?
To be successful, these core concepts need to be clear from the very onset.
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The Omni-channel Approach is on the Way Out
The omni-channel approach is fast becoming a burden rather than a benefit. Whilst the objective is to simplify customer journey, organizations succeed in achieving the exact opposite effect.
The trend in 2019 is to concentrate on customer journey management instead. Organizations will offer select channels that will assist them in segmenting their customers betters by way of analysing preferences. This is a win-win for customers and organizations alike.
Ensuring a Successful 2019
A rapidly evolving domain, digital CX requires businesses to continue improving processes through implementation of novel customer strategies. The key is to focus on your customers. This will ensure that your 2019 initiatives are indeed successful.
