Life is a digital experience for most customers. Big as it already is, the importance of customer data continues to grow. We are told that “data is the new oil.” Some of the largest enterprises on Earth are founded on data such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba, Facebook, Netflix, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Oracle. Many of these big tech firms didn’t exist 25 years ago, making their success astonishing.
Smart service providers are already deepening their customer relationships by delivering services built around each person they serve. The key is robust, human-based data insights—that take the form of a deep and holistic understanding of every individual.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a driving force for businesses to innovate and pivot strategies. Telco and other service providers have long been viewed as utility companies by today’s consumers – customers might not necessarily love their service providers, but they do love the things they make possible. At the start of the global quarantine, service providers around the world were under immense pressure to deliver their services effectively to consumers.
By no means all of the regulatory action under GDPR has been accomplished through fines on organizations. It is expected that the EU legal consensus regarding privacy will strongly influence their behavior. Since GDPR’s introduction, most regulators have taken a consultative stance, giving advice and looking for incremental improvements in behavior.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced businesses to innovate and re-strategise
approaches to ensure business continuity and keep them afloat. Whilst industries such as retail and the travel industry are most affected by this pandemic, the Telecoms industry is facing a different type of challenge in this turbulent time.
There aren’t many other industries staring down a future as uncertain as telcos. A stagnant growth and a global downturn on the horizon, Telcos are struggling to keep customers without having to resort to the obvious, giving more data and voice minutes for a cheaper price.
The current situation with millions of people confined to home and eschewing physical meetings has highlighted the way that social media has captured our imagination.
Earlier this month, we invited Forrester Analyst, Brandon Purcell, to share his thoughts on practical AI applications in Customer Experience. The thought-provoking session included an interactive element; with Brandon inviting the audience to debunk certain AI myths.
The battle for an emotional connection is the newest frontier in the battle for customer experience.Humans are emotional decision makers. It is not a great challenge to most people’s intuition to say so. When asked, most would accept that when making purchases, emotion plays a part in forming our beliefs and opinions, alongside rational thought and logic.
Customer expectations are now higher than ever as businesses strive to provide the perfect customer experience with a more personalised approach.
In the Great Competitive Paradox story, we mentioned the concept of the Digital Twin. We described how the FANG companies create a digital profile that represents part of the real customer. They use this profile in order to engage in a more individual way, creating a highly personalised customer experience that in turn leads to a magnetic, sticky attraction to their brand.
Having worked in Marketing for over 25 years, much of it in relationship marketing and loyalty, I am not sure that many days have gone by where the words brand and sticky, or some synonym for sticky haven’t been mentioned in the same sentence, PowerPoint slide or plan on a page.