September | 2019
Digital transformation is a priority for a growing number of organizations across the board. Integrated Customer Experience (CX) as one of the levers of digital transformation is a fusion of multi channels, such as retail outlets, customer service desk,
self-service kiosks, online chat, chatbots, personalized physical robots or virtual assistants, and the list on modes of customer engagement seems infinite.
When it comes to CX transformation, there can be no single lever that can address thorough customer engagement across age groups, and before using specific transformation levers, mapping the customer journey thus becomes of paramount importance.
CX transformation - The most sought after area?
Integrated CX is of paramount importance today as studies reveal that as many as 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for a great CX. A study by Temkin Group believes that a moderate improvement in CX would impact revenues of a typical $1 billion company an average of $775 million over three years, i.e. a ~78% impact and loyal customers are seven times as likely to test an offering, five times as likely to repurchase and four times as likely to refer . If we look at the CXO suite today, 44% of CMOs said that CX transformation is the most important program they are looking to for driving innovation
and differentiation.
Across industries, organizations are leveraging CX transformation initiatives to stay ahead in the game:
Opportunities lost due to inefficient CX management
Cost to serve customers using self-serve to digital care can be 1/100th of what organizations typically would incur using just a single channel of a technical support, and can be reduced to 1/20th using just an email response, indicating that use of a single channel or a one size fits all approach is not sustainable (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Importance of engaging via cross-functional mediums
How do we transform CX by integrating digital care & automation?
“It all starts with the end in mind”, needless to say that mapping the customer journey across various touch points online and offline should be the point of initiation, followed by catering to customers via an understanding of their needs, wants and desires across consumer age groups. In fact CX transformation can be based on four pillars that can either operate in a linear or a nonlinear manner. One such idea path could start with simplification and standardization of the processes in place, followed by automation, topped up by the usage of data driven analytics for business insights and rounding them with transformation levers for the end customer.
Customers across the globe are not similar, they tend to build their own narratives and demography, education, physical and nature plays a large role in defining the tastes of customers.
Look at the American market (Figure 2), where most focus is on proactive care and least on assisted care, which is in sharp contrast to the Japanese market, because this market has a significant proportion of elder generation that is highly sophisticated and educated and compare this with an Indian market, which is still maturing in terms of education and self-sustenance. The differences in these markets become clearer when one single organization operating in all these three markets find different mechanisms to deliver on CX and a single channel approach doesn’t fit all.
E.g. U.S. customers are more comfortable with self-service options right from IVR to chatbot to mobile apps when compared to the voice calls for support. Indian customers, however, are still heavily reliant on the voice mode of customer service and companies have had to introduce deterrents like charged service voice calls to maintain a balance between costs and CX.
Figure 2: Means of engagement for US consumers
Figure 3: Change in mediums of engagement across geos
Figure 4: Viewpoint on levers to engage for high CX
Leveraging omni-channel for success
Omni-channel is multichannel done right and the differentiator is to be able to connect the dots. Businesses are adding new customer touch points, such as chat, chatbots, SMS, social, mobile etc. where they operate in silos and fail to provide a uniform view of the customer. Done right, Omni-channel customer service mandates right context to drive the right result and this can include:
A multitude of channels leads to colossal data generation, and while there’s no “One Size fits all” approach, the trick lies in making sure that the most important and used channels of support are integrated mapping the customer journeys across age groups.
Accelerators to drive integrated CX
Levers (beyond customized contact points) for CX transformation from “Hi-touch” to
“Low-touch” to “Zero-touch” include:
A multitude of transformation levers, such as mobility, NextGen CX frameworks, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Beacon technology, Augmented Reality (AR) and Chatbots are today being deployed in parallel to deliver a seamless CX, and a positive or negative Word of Mouth (WoM) on CX can make or break businesses and their brands. Integrated CX transformation can hence pave the way to greater customer loyalty, retention and mindshare and is thus amongst the foremost elements for businesses to consider today in their digital transformation journey.
References
1http://1https://www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-experience-management/
2https://www.genesys.com/blog/post/10-customer-experience-statistics-to-help-you-plan-2019
3https://www.airship.com/blog/customer-experience-bottom-line-stats/
Sanyog Chaudhry
Digital Operations & Platforms, Enterprise Operations Transformation, Wipro
Sanyog is a seasoned digital and transformation experience leader with 12 years of rich exposure and is responsible for creating operational transformation solutions for CXO level clients across multiple industries. Sanyog leads consulting assignments for scoping & delivery of transformational programs along with engaging with the sales & consulting teams on the transformation offerings suite.
Digital Operations & Platforms, Enterprise Operations Transformation, Wipro
Mehul is a seasoned digital and automation thought leader with 12 years of rich exposure dealing with CXO level clients across business domains such as digital transformation, automation, customer experience enhancement, business strategy, B2B/B2C consulting, marketing, and & sales enablement operations across industry verticals such as Retail, CPG, Manufacturing, Hi-Tech & Telecom
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