Future-proofing 
your business 

Customer experience (CX) is becoming the core of many businesses’ strategy. In an overcrowded, omni-channel marketplace, businesses which deliver a seamless customer experience - constantly feeding customers with what they want when they want it - can be a powerful differentiator.

Technology has become businesses’ best weapon to reach customers in real-time and drive engagement. Specifically, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been proven to make people shop more (49%), spend more (34%) and spread the word more (38%).

By 2020, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human.ⁱ

Germaine Ng Ferguson, AVP, Smart Targeting & Strategic Partnerships, Enterprise Business Group, StarHub, and Christopher Yeo, CEO, Sentient, shared their strategies on adopting digital technology at the NTUC U Future Leaders Exchange (UFLX) forum held on 12^th July 2018.

Read on to learn the key insights from Germaine and Christopher’s sharing and find out why data analytics and AI are the game changers in CX.

Data Collection

Best-in-class businesses recognise the value of customer data in enhancing the overall customer experience. With the right information, it is easy to identify consumer preferences, forecast demands and analyse behaviours and patterns to create opportunities for a better CX.

Companies that make extensive use of customer analytics are more likely to report outperforming their competitors on key performance metrics, whether profit, sales, sales growth, or return on investment.ⁱⁱ

To create a customer-centric business model, businesses need to collect the useful data to prevent data overload. Having digital solutions in place along the entire customer journey is necessary to extract these quality information.

Insight Generation

Gathering the information is only the first step. The data remains dead until they are being translated into useful insights.
Leveraging your customer analytics to provide an extraordinary CX requires a step further. AI is a useful tool to create a smart, efficient and informed experience throughout the customer journey. The result is a re-imagined CX that is highly personalised and integrated.

AI opens the door to transform businesses into “personas” who remember, understand and respond to customers’ demands quickly and accurately. The ability to deliver a targeted and consistent CX builds brand loyalty and stickiness. Imagine a salesperson who has serviced a regular customer for years. She’d know her style, budget, purchase behaviour and be able to tailor her product recommendations and service level based on the customers’ track record. Now, all that is automated.

Implementation

Despite digital technologies giving rise to the “empowered” shopper, businesses can choose to shape the customer journey rather than blindly follow. By managing and measuring the various touchpoints along the journey, you can restore the balance of power and dictate the next steps for your customers.

Here are some ways these data and insights can be applied to create a differentiated customer journey:

Proactive personalisation

Customise the customer experience with information collected based on past interactions and purchase behaviours to guide and ease the buying process. For example, remembering a customer’s usual order and prompting a repurchase.

Contextual interaction

Based on data of where the customer is in the consumption journey, push out relevant interactions to move them towards the next step. For example, design a prompt that reminds your consumers of their items in the e-shopping cart when they are about to navigate out of the site.

Journey innovation

Using existing data on customer preferences, you can predict the adjacent products/services they may want and extend your offerings to cater to the need. The best companies design consumer journeys that are extremely seamless that customers are so tightly engaged that they do not drop out to look for alternative options. For example, an airline app can extend their functions to integrate a taxi booking service where travellers can book their cabs when they land at the airport.

With some creativity and investment, emerging technology can be used to your advantage to drive real business growth.

About U Future Leaders Exchange (UFLX)

U Future Leaders Exchange (UFLX) is designed for time-strapped working people to enjoy unlimited access to bite-sized workshops, learning journeys and networking events, which they can pick and choose according to their career and development needs and preferences. The programme partners with leading training providers, industry leaders/practitioners and world-class multi-national companies to provide working individuals with insights to tackle complex changes within the workplace as well as guidance on charting one’s career.

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i https://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/summits/docs/na/customer-360/C360_2011_brochure_FINAL.pdf
ii https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/why-customer-analytics-matter