Tag: CX

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Data Is the differentiator for Customer Experience

Customer data, while frequently abundant, is not always reliable. in their Winter 2016 Compendium on Customer Experience: Creating Value through transforming customer journeys. McKinsey & Co. point out that a staggering 25 percent of customers will defect after just one bad experience. Bad experiences can be fomented by bad data, bad products, and bad interactions. But the one thing that costs the least to remediate, is often the data.

Just 20% of organizations publish data provenance and data lineage. Most don’t say they have no plans to start, that’s according to a 2020 O’Reilly survey. Without an understanding of where data comes from, what hope is there of improving its quality?

Annual data decay rates, may be as high as 30% across companies’ customer data each year, a figure that escalates to 70% for B2B companies. This decline in data integrity intensifies over time, posing a critical challenge for businesses aiming to provide exceptional customer experiences.

In this data turmoil, the significance of Customer Master Data Management (CMDM) systems cannot be overstated. These systems act as custodians of customer data, ensuring its accuracy, completeness, and currency. Within this realm, customer consent, self-service consumer data verification, and curation play pivotal roles. CMDM systems empower businesses to navigate the intricate landscape of customer data, addressing issues like missing or incomplete data, duplicates, inaccuracies, and expired data.

At the core of this challenge lies the concept of data quality, a term with profound implications for businesses. Data quality is not just a technical concern; it is the foundation upon which successful customer experiences are built. Dependable data forms the basis for businesses to segment and target customers for marketing, a strategy employed by two-thirds of companies. The importance of data quality initiatives can be distilled into three key pillars: data quality, data governance, and leadership support. Companies with higher data quality invariably exhibit traits such as leadership awareness of data issues, a robust governance structure, and data management being the responsibility of a cross-functional team.

Business challenges extend beyond data quality encompassing broader categories like engagement, policy and compliance, efficiency and cost, insight, revenue and growth, and managing remote employees. Addressing these challenges necessitates innovative solutions, many of which are rooted in self-service technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics.

AI, a transformative force in the digital realm, relies inherently on data.

Without reliable data, AI initiatives are rendered ineffective. However, addressing data quality issues is just the tip of the iceberg. Companies must respond to multifaceted challenges with an array of solutions, including interactive voice response systems, intelligent virtual agents, cloud-based contact centers, and advanced analytics.

Real-time guidance, a coveted capability in contemporary customer service, is made possible through the synergy of analytics and AI. However, the effectiveness of real-time guidance hinges on context, derived from linguistic triggers, acoustic cues, and application-specific triggers. Understanding and harnessing this context empowers businesses to provide personalized, timely, and relevant guidance to customers, elevating their experiences significantly.

In the pursuit of enhancing customer experiences, businesses must adopt a holistic approach. Beyond the realm of technology, strategies that prioritize customer engagement are indispensable. One such strategy is the concept of secret shopping or “mystery” shopping, where company leaders immerse themselves in the customer service process, identifying inefficiencies and refining procedures.

Secret or mystery shopping is a market research technique used by companies to evaluate and measure the quality of their products or services from the perspective of a typical customer. The process involves hiring individuals, known as mystery shoppers, to act as regular customers and assess various aspects of the business, such as customer service, product quality, cleanliness, and adherence to company policies. Consider how secret or mystery shopping typically works.

Selection of Mystery Shoppers: Companies have their pool of mystery shoppers or hire third-party agencies to recruit individuals for the task. Mystery shoppers are selected based on certain demographics and characteristics to ensure they represent the target customer base.

Assignment of Tasks: Mystery shoppers are given specific tasks or scenarios to follow during their visit or interaction with the business. These tasks could include purchasing, asking specific questions, or evaluating the overall customer experience.

Anonymity: The key element of mystery shopping is that the shoppers remain anonymous. Employees of the business being evaluated should not be aware that they are being assessed. This anonymity allows for a more authentic evaluation of the customer experience.

Evaluation and Reporting: Mystery shoppers provide detailed feedback on their experiences after completing the assigned tasks. This feedback may include observations about the cleanliness of the premises, the friendliness and efficiency of staff, the quality of products or services, and adherence to company policies. The evaluation criteria depend on the specific goals and objectives set by the hiring company.

Analysis and Improvement: The collected data is then analyzed by the hiring company to identify areas of strength and weaknesses. This information helps businesses understand the customer perspective and make improvements to enhance the overall customer experience.

Secret or mystery shopping is a valuable tool for businesses to gain insights into their operations, identify areas for improvement, and ensure that employees are delivering the desired level of service.

The concept can be used in various industries, including retail, hospitality, healthcare, and more. Additionally, the feedback from mystery shoppers can contribute to employee training and development programs to enhance customer satisfaction.

Businesses can also enhance customer experience by celebrating and commiserating with customers, following up diligently, championing their employees, fostering meaningful connections, and recognizing their customers as the heroes of their success stories.

Data remains an integral component of these customer experience enhancement strategies. Technology acts as an enabler, automating data processes that traditionally impede frontline employees.

Automated verification of customer contact information, and finding accurate accounts and contacts for marketing and sales initiatives—these are just a few examples where technology-driven data solutions streamline operations, ensuring that employees can focus on what truly matters: delivering outstanding customer experiences.

As businesses navigate the complexities of customer data management, embracing a robust CMDM system is paramount. When evaluating or operationalizing a CMDM system, businesses should consider the following actions:

Assess Your Current Data Quality: Conduct a comprehensive analysis of your existing customer data to identify inaccuracies, duplicates, and incomplete information. This assessment forms the foundation of your data quality improvement efforts.

Define Data Governance Policies: Establish clear governance policies that outline data ownership, access controls, and data stewardship responsibilities. A well-defined governance framework ensures accountability and consistency in data management practices.

Implement Consent Management: Prioritize customer consent management within your CMDM system. Ensure that you have mechanisms in place to capture, store, and update customer consent accurately. Compliance with data privacy regulations is non-negotiable.

Enable Self-Service Data Verification and Curation: Empower customers to verify and update their own data through user-friendly interfaces. Self-service options not only enhance data accuracy but also contribute to a positive customer experience.

Focus on Data Quality Metrics: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) related to data quality, such as accuracy rates, completeness levels, and duplicate identification rates. Regularly monitor these metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your CMDM system.

Leverage Advanced Analytics and AI: Explore advanced analytics and AI-driven tools within your CMDM system. These technologies can automate data profiling, standardization, and enrichment processes, significantly improving the efficiency of your data management efforts.

Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration: Encourage collaboration between IT, marketing, sales, and customer support teams. Cross-functional collaboration ensures that data management efforts align with business objectives and customer experience goals.

Invest in Continuous Training: Provide ongoing training to employees involved in data management activities. Keeping staff updated with the latest industry trends and best practices is essential for maintaining high data quality standards.

Regularly Update Customer Preferences and Tastes: Customer preferences and tastes are dynamic. Implement mechanisms to capture and update this information regularly. Personalized experiences are contingent on an accurate understanding of customer preferences.

Promote a Culture of Data Quality: Instill a culture within your organization where every employee recognizes the value of data quality. Promote awareness campaigns, training sessions, and recognition programs to reinforce the importance of accurate customer data.

An era of exceptional customer experiences is intrinsically linked to the quality of customer data. Businesses that invest in robust CMDM systems, coupled with advanced analytics and AI-driven solutions, gain a competitive edge by delivering personalized, timely, and meaningful interactions.

By taking proactive measures to enhance data quality, establish robust governance frameworks, and leverage cutting-edge technologies, businesses can not only mitigate data challenges but also transform these challenges into opportunities for superior customer engagement and long-term loyalty. Embrace the power of reliable customer data, and in doing so, elevate your customer experiences to unparalleled heights.

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Customer Data and the Customer Experience

close up of coffee cup

If you sell products or services and you have repeat visits or buy actions from customers, is it clear why they’re coming back for more?

The answer you might present could range from, reliability, to consistency, to price, convenience, or a host of other possibilities. But have you considered that the reason you’re having repeat encounters with a customer, may be tied to loyalty and the customer experience that reinforces that loyalty?

Of course one of the challenges is that I am assuming you actually know if you are enjoying repeat purchases from the same customer.

If you don’t have a loyalty card scheme or some way of identifying the customer every time they shop with you, then it is hard to discern who those loyal customers are. Upon closer examination, the question that has to be asked, is why exactly is it, that you don’t have a customer database of known-to-you customers?

Your answer here may be somewhat straightforward, perhaps you don’t have enough customers or sales or service events to justify maintaining a database of known customers, or perhaps you have concerns about having to maintain or protect potentially regulatory compliance-bound data. The real answer may in fact lie somewhere in between.

One of the observations that we have, when looking at sellers and service providers, is that actually there is very little that is actually holding you back from maintaining some sort of repository of customer information that can service you and your customers better.

If customer experience is where you might settle your thinking as to why you have repeat customers, have you considered how you might deconstruct that ‘experience’ to make it something that every customer might want and pursue?

In my local coffee shop, the customer experience that I particularly relish is the knowledge that whenever I show up there, which is almost every day, I will be greeted with a warm friendly smile and a welcome message. The baristas know me, they actually even know a little about me. Those with a good memory remember my order from the last time I was there, often earlier that day or the previous day. They’ll suggest my order to me and ultimately that reduces friction in them taking my order. They remember my name, they write it on the paper cup and I always get the same brew experience.

In a nutshell, it is a personalized experience. Now imagine if I could have the same experience at every merchant or service provider.

The great news is that you potentially could. Imagine if you will, a situation where you could store details of many attributes of your customer or simply an ID and a beverage preference. You could then give that customer a barcode, a QR code, or whatever and that could be the key to you knowing at the scan of a code, what they like.

Indeed you could even use that as part of your Point of Sale system to work out the Customer Lifetime Value of that individual and have that identifier push messages to the cash register operator to track loyalty points or even cross-promote other products that customers might find interesting.

Take that a step further, and get consent to gather more than just a beverage preference, like an email address or phone number and you’re in a stronger position to send promotional material to those same customers based on their beverage preference and of course an opt-in

At Pretectum we believe that every business can leverage some degree of customer master data management (CMDM) to improve the customer experience (CX). You can start simple or you can do something more elaborate. The choice ultimately is yours. Without a doubt, whatever separates your business from its competitors, needs to be more predictable, and something you can influence and we believe this is best done with data.

Contact us to find out more.

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When a customer has a moment of truth

bullfighters in a bullring

There are make-or-break events that litter the narrative of our lives, events that we might call ‘moments of truth’.

These are situations where people’s actions, intellect and capability are put to the test, where key decisions or actions change the course of the future. Some of them involve split-second decision-making, and others are deliberated before a final decision is made.

For marketers and associates in customer-facing situations, that ‘moment of truth‘ has a similar meaning, the occasion where customer interaction is so impactful that it alters the customer’s disposition and perception of the brand.

This alteration can forever change the relationship between the brand and the customer, for better or worse.

Focusing on the ‘moments of truth‘ ultimately means spending time and effort on the most valuable aspects of the customer journey and focusing on the moments that truly matter.

The term ‘moment of truth’ is a translation of the Spanish el momento de la verdad, which signifies the time in a bullfight in which the matador is about to ceremoniously kill the bull.

It is a bit gruesome but it was first described in English by Ernest Hemingway in his story Death in the Afternoon, published in 1932, and subsequently was transferred to other critical outcomes. The term was first coined for use in marketing by AG Lafley, former Chairman, President and CEO of Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 2005 when he claimed there were two moments of truth. A third was later added later by Pete Blackshaw – another P&G alumnus.

  • The first moment of truth is when a customer first encounters a product or service. This is when marketers, brand promoters and representatives have the opportunity to convince the customer to buy their goods instead of another’s.
  • The second moment of truth comes after the purchase and hinges on the discovery of full alignment or misalignment of the product or service in relation to their expectations or problem to solve.
  • The third moment of truth is the tipping point of advocacy where the customer actually becomes a net promoter.

McKinsey & Co considers the moment of truth in customer service as any time when a person invests a “high amount of emotional energy” in a particular outcome in relation to brand interaction. It follows then, that when emotions are running high, so are the stakes for a given brand. Genuine emotional connections are critical in the journey and these can result in a sink or swim outcome.

Fostering loyalty

As many as a third of customers will abandon a loved brand after just one bad customer experience. Almost three-quarters of consumers will ghost a brand after three or fewer negative customer service experiences per a Coveo survey cited by retail dive. A more recent TCN’s “Consumer Insights about Customer Service” survey claims 66% of Americans are likely to abandon a brand after a poor customer service experience

Banking industry research shows similar consumer behaviour with 15% of customers who had negative experiences during a moment of truth switching banks soon after. 20% more stopped using specific products and almost a quarter began buying services from another provider, even if they stayed with their current one. Almost three-quarters actively changed their relationship with their bank in a negative way.

Of course, as expected, ‘positive’ moments of truth have the opposite effect.

As few as 13% are inert after a great moment of truth experience, so from this we can infer that moments of truth inspire customers to take action – the kind of action they take depends on the quality of the encounter or interaction.

Not every interaction with a customer is going to result in an emotional outcome, reporting lost bank cards, querying suspicious transactions or asking about other inquiring about other banking products or services are quite normal. They tend to be high touch and involve a lot of emotional investment from the customer. The way they feel treated and the final outcome of the interaction leaves them with a positive, negative or neutral disposition.

On the flip side, the purchase of a bagel or a cup of coffee might not be that big of a deal for some, though it may be a ritual for a coffee shop customer. Buying flowers or a bouquet for delivery could go either way depending on the nature of the event and the quality of the outcome. You have to assess the likelihood of high emotional investment and determine whether it is likely to be there and behave and act accordingly.

Ultimately, most customers simply want proactive communication appropriate to their relationship with the brand, a sense of caring, and responsiveness amongst frontline staff with a knowledge of their history.

Empowering employees to be flexible in their engagement is best achieved by providing data that provides the associate with customer insights on the fly.

In the end, people want friendly, empathetic and personalised service. Pretectum believes that one of the easiest ways to enable your teams for positive moments of truth is by providing them with access to as many insights and data points about the customer as possible. This can be via direct access to the Customer Master Data Management systems (CMDM) or it can be achieved through the use of API integration with the Pretectum CMDM SaaS platform from your service, sales and support applications.

Contact us today to learn more.