Is Your Brand Ready to Meet Growing Consumer Expectations?
It's time to go back to basics. Don't forget the fundamental importance of a consistent and delightful customer experience to your business.
There’s been a great discussion about the latest technological innovations to take on the world of digital marketing. Yet in spite of all these technologies, customers continue to face inconsistent or unsatisfactory experiences. Corporations are still struggling to manage their data correctly, to provide consistent experiences across channels, and deliver the interactions customers expect.
When this is put to business leaders, they note failures in communication, silo-ed thinking and the disappointing results of digital transformations as some of the main causes of their inability to deliver a consistent and positive customer experience. Therefore, rather than focusing on what’s new and trending, it’s advisable to take the time to polish what businesses already have in order to deliver better outcomes through digital transformation. This in return helps to provide improved, seamless customer experiences so that brands can build trust and win every time.
Improving data management
Research has shown that only 34.8 percent of businesses have fully mapped the customer journey within the last year, which is down from 54 percent last year. Indeed, one of the challenges still facing businesses undergoing digital transformation is how to manage increasing quantities of data, how to effectively extract that data, and how to derive relevant insights from it once collected. This will be particularly relevant in 2018 with the arrival of new GDPR rules, which will have large reaching impacts on how businesses can handle personal data for commercial purposes. Captured properly, data helps businesses to understand their customers, setting them on the right track to deliver personalised services. Businesses need to leverage this to stay competitive, whilst also ensuring compliance with new regulations.
Omnichannel customer experiences
Implementing marketing strategy remains a challenge for businesses in a world where consumers are anticipating seamless omnichannel customer experiences. Organisations must break down silos and have the ability to reach customers through a centralisedteam. This will require a holistic approach to managing customer experience, which includes connecting the dots between digital marketing platforms, marketing automation, analytics, bridging the gap between marketing and technology. Businesses need a channel-less marketing approach which places the consumer and their seamless brand interactions at its core and allows consumers’ data to travel with them.
Transformations start at the human level
Organisations still need to work on redefining the balance of technology and human involvement in customer experience. Many have placed too much emphasis on digital technologies, resulting in the development of ‘human-less’ customer services, which can produce negative customer interactions. Before dealing with the technological element of digital transformations, the human level of this process needs to be carefully managed. Reduce complexity for your team, and provide them with ownership over new technologies. When digital transformations shape the communications of your entire business, they are more likely to succeed.
Therefore, forget ‘out with the old, in with the new’: a seamless and positive customer experience is always valuable. Brands should focus on improving what they already have, finding a balance and working through challenges such as managing data effectively, breaking down silos, building a customer-centric team, connecting the dots, and empowering teams with ownership of new technology initiatives.
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