Table of contents

• Investing in Customer Experience

  Investing in Customer Experience

  “Customer experience (CX)” has become a catchall for many technologies, solutions, and concepts. In the scramble to jump on the CX bandwagon, many businesses have lost sight of the ultimate reasons to invest in it: to achieve sustainable growth, create customer loyalty, and increase profits.

  How to Connect Experiences for Empowered Customers

  Des Cahill, Head CX Evangelist at Oracle, discusses barriers and shortcuts to achieving success in customer experience transformation with Mark Fidelman, CEO of Fanatics Media.

  It’s time to clear up a few of the myths around investments in CX to better understand how to prioritize, streamline, and triage new technologies and methodologies in the market.

• Understanding Big Data

  Understanding Big Data

  Investments in Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) will deliver better experiences.

  73% of organizations have already invested, or plan to invest, in big data.

  ¹ Big Data: 20 Mind-Boggling Facts Everyone Must Read

  True

  You may be surprised to learn that this is actually a myth–Investments alone are not enough. Although companies are making big investments in Big Data and IoT, most aren’t equipped to take effective action on the data, leaving them insight-rich and action-poor. Without a doubt, accurate and contextual data is needed, but if the data is saying, “you need more data,” there’s a problem.

  Keep reading to learn more

  False

  Correct, this is a myth. Although companies are making big investments in Big Data and IoT, most aren’t equipped to take effective action on the data, leaving them insight-rich and action-poor. Without a doubt, accurate and contextual data is needed, but if the data is saying, “you need more data,” there’s a problem.

  Keep reading to learn more

  Investments in Big Data often leave businesses insight-rich and action-poor. Highlight Share Ask anyone who has done, or is in the process of doing, Master Data Management (MDM) around customer data. It’s no easy task! It can be a lengthy, ongoing, and costly process of connecting, consolidating, deduping, reconciling, and analyzing a continuous stream of data which new systems are creating. Fixing the data can be daunting, and a lot can happen while the project is underway.

  

  Then throw in IoT. Although this innovation is on a sci-fi level of coolness, it comes at a cost. Connecting devices back to the “mothership” allows users to capture rich and unique data feeds about the customer and their use of products or services in real-time. However, these exciting “shiny-object” efforts around IoT can rapidly rally a crowd and shift critically needed talent away from their more mundane, but essential, tasks. Or worse, Although it creates smarter customer experiences, don’t let IoT consume the lion’s share of operational budgets required to scale your business. Highlight Share

• Using Automated Digital Channels

  Using Automated Digital Channels

  Investments in automated or digital channels, like chatbots, will reduce the cost of service.

  51% of customers believe a business needs to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

  ² 3 stats that show chatbots are here to stay

  True

  It’s true that digital engagements can be 5x-20x cheaper than analog, but it’s actually a myth that investing in them more will reduce the overall cost of customer service. Something fantastic happens when businesses make it easy and effortless for customers to engage with them using digital: customers engage more. This creates a need for your business to invest more in valuable omnichannel experiences.

  Keep reading to learn more

  False

  Correct, this is a myth. Although digital engagements can be 5x-20x cheaper than analog, it’s a myth that investing in them more will reduce the overall cost of customer service. Something fantastic happens when businesses make it easy and effortless for customers to engage with them using digital: customers engage more. This creates a need for your business to invest more in valuable omnichannel experiences.

  Keep reading to learn more

  Given more choices, customers will choose their own unique combination of channel. A customer in need of service today can start on your website’s self-service pages, click into a chat session, lead into a phone call, or even an in-store visit. It’s up to the customer to choose their point of interaction, and it’s up to the business to ensure the CX strategy is set up to do so.

  

  Investments in automated service channels, like chatbots, shouldn’t completely replace analog. Highlight Share In fact, businesses that keep investing in analog alongside digital service find that by funneling simple inquiries through resources like online automation, knowledge-driven service, and chatbots, their call center teams become much more effective in servicing the most loyal customers while freeing agents to have personalized conversations that are more likely to convert into sales.

  Choose your channel

  Are you using “cross-channel,” “multi-channel,” and
  “omni-channel” to describe the same thing?

  Learn the difference

  

• Measuring CX with NPS

  Measuring CX with NPS

  Investments in CX are best measured using Net Promoter Score (NPS).

  42% of customers will stop shopping with a brand after only 2 bad experiences.

  ³ How to keep your customers happy

  True

  While NPS does provide a sense of how likely your customers are to stay loyal and recommend your brand, it’s a myth that NPS alone gives a full view into customer satisfaction. Typically, NPS is measured once, maybe twice, in a customer’s lifecycle and rarely measured on every channel of interaction–that’s a BIG issue.

  Keep reading to learn more

  False

  Correct, this is a myth. NPS alone is not enough to gauge total customer satisfaction. While NPS does provide a sense of how likely your customers are to stay loyal and recommend your brand, it’s typically only measured once, maybe twice, in a customer’s lifecycle. And, it’s rarely measured on every channel of interaction–that’s a BIG issue.

  Keep reading to learn more

  As a consumer, if you have one good experience with marketing or shopping or even service, it’s not a true reflection of your likelihood to recommend the company to your friends and family unless there was a consistent experience and the business has measured every interaction across all channels.

  The best indicator of an advocate or detractor during the CX journey is the point at which the emotional value of the customers’ expectation materialized. Did the company deliver on their promise? “Moments of truth” can happen throughout the entire customer journey, creating your brand advocates and detractors. Highlight Share

  A combination of metrics along with acquisition costs and operational expenses that equal profit margins (SG&A) will be representative of real data around CX success. NPS has the power to deliver on its promise, but only if it truly represents the experience and isn’t simply another checkbox, meaningless metric.