Customer Experience

By David Howell - September 1st, 2015

In this extract from our most recent whitepaper, learn the three keys to winning over customers with personalized, social service

Improving your corporation’s customer service response over multiple channels is vital in an environment where brand loyalty is more difficult to maintain than ever. Personalization has been a key driver for corporations that have already developed granular customer profiles.

To deliver the integrated, personalized, and contextualized support that today’s consumers demand from the brands they covet means breaking down the data silos that have dominated corporations for decades. Brands need to facilitate an open exchange of data led by an engaged C-Suite. Only then will businesses not only be able to understand their customers, but also support them within any kind of interaction.

Connect support over social

No discussion of customer service is complete without looking closely at social media, which has had a transformative impact on how corporations deliver service – especially customer interactions. In their 2015 State of Social Business report, Altimeter concluded:

“Where are strategists focused externally and why? Almost three-quarters of respondents indicated that deepening relationships via on-going dialog and engagement is a top priority – by far the most universal of all objectives. ’Scaling social business’ is no longer a top priority of strategists—instead, more than half of the social strategists surveyed have the deep integration of social as a top priority. Additionally, 82% of businesses report they are either fully integrated, in the process of, or planning the integration of social with digital in 2015. But only 36% believe they have in place a multi-year digital strategy that includes social initiatives. Breaking down social silos remains a top priority for many.”

Building brand loyalty through relevance

Understanding your corporation’s customers and delivering timely targeted and, to a degree, personalized experiences should be a core goal for your business. IBM with the CMO Council in their latest brand interaction report said: “Marketers have bid farewell to the mountain of excessive content being created for content’s sake and are instead developing purpose-built experiences based on the specific needs and interests of the customers they seek to engage, from purchase through loyalty.”

The report continued: “By gaining deeper insights into customer behaviors and intentions, marketers are becoming more adept at using every channel of interaction and every customer touchpoint to deliver more relevant and meaningful messaging, as well as more personalized, timely and valued offers and information. The payoff has been significantly better response rates, increased transactional volumes, higher consumer recall, and stronger customer affinity and advocacy.”

In addition Armando Azarloza, President at Axis Agency told Forbes: “Moment marketing does little to develop a brand or give consumers permission to interact with them. Brands must have purpose by producing goods and service that improve the lives of consumers and enhance quality of life. With today’s savvy consumer, it’s imperative that brands focus on how to better interact with them, how to build stronger relationships, and how to ensure that those relationships generate trust and meaningful engagement over time.”

Win over choosier consumers

Marketers today are faced with consumers that are more discerning with their personal data, for whom brand loyalty isn’t as strong as it once was, yet still requires a high level of personalized and contextualized support over multiple channels. This means a new approach to customer service and customer experience. It is vital to have:

• The right infrastructure to support these new relationships
• A continued 360-degree view of your customers
• Evolve a one-to-one relationship to bolster brand loyalty

Laston Charriez, Senior Vice President of Marketing in North America for Western Union uses the term ‘scalable intimacy.’ “Consumers are more empowered, and the purchase funnel has changed significantly from [marketers] pushing and waiting for [customers] to watch our commercials on TV or see an ad in print,” Charriez said.

“Today, the experience must be more interactive. We market in the United States, but our customer may be sending money to Pakistan. During Eid, a celebration during Ramadan, I can deliver targeted, personalized campaigns that are just for Pakistani customers in the United States sending money to their friends and family during Eid. I can be strategically focused and have intensely personal dialogue, but that can be done at scale.”

Customer journeys today can be complex, a challenge for corporations looking to connect with their consumers through customer service experiences that reinforce their brand choices. Consumer trust is difficult to maintain, yet is a vital ingredient for the long-term success of your corporation. 

To read the full report, head here: http://www.incite-group.com/whitepapers