Embracing Customer Experience

In their October 4, 2011 white paper, “Why Customer Experience? Why Now?” Kerry Bodine, Moira Dorsey and Allison Stone from Forrester Research Inc. outline why the “Age of the Customer” has arrived:

We’ve entered the age of the customer — an era where a focus on customers matters more than any other strategic imperative. Companies are waking up to the fact that customers’ perceptions have a profound impact on business metrics ranging from brand equity and customer loyalty to increased revenue and cost savings. But while every executive knows that customers matter, most companies simply don’t approach their interactions with customers in a disciplined way. Lip service won’t cut it anymore. For businesses to succeed, they need to get serious about the way they define, implement, and manage the customer experience.

At CRMNow we have these discussions with our prospects weekly. The reason they’re talking with us about this issue, is their lack of ability to mine the prospect and client data they have right now. In addition, new broadcast channels of information are clogging their already over loaded data warehouses. The main culprit is social media, many of our bigger clients have social media policies and social media managers who watch over these various broadcast channels and monitor what’s taking place.

The challenge remains that these channels are in isolation to their current databases which means gaining a single view of the prospect or client is difficult. Social media managers sit in isolation to customer service and in isolation to sales and marketing. While many acknowledge the value of the data gathered, it’s not accessible in a single location which again makes having a single view a real challenge.

Customer Centricity Drives Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Bodine, Dorsey and Stone outline that in the “Age of the Customer“, companies find the following:

• Commoditisation has stripped away existing sources of differentiation.
• Traditional industry boundaries have dissolved.
• Customers have more power than ever.

Today’s prospects can reach back into your supply chain and review pricing, functionality and other components which were once unknown to them. They can easily find your clients, reach out to them and ask questions about your company, your service, your ability to deliver on time and on budget. Generally speaking, they don’t have to look much further than your own website to gather this information.

Reaching your prospects and clients was easier when we had access to traditional channels e.g. seminars, direct mail, TV advertisements, newspapers etc. Today, with the advent of many broadcast technologies,  your prospects and clients are easily distracted from your the message you once had much greater control over.

Your Marketing Manager faces an onslaught of new broadcast technologies with social media, blogs, more advanced websites which are much more than online brochures. In addition prospects have the ability to network and learn about your company long before they contact you.

Engage Can Help Harmonise These Various Channels & Deliver A Competitive Advantage

We use enterprise grade, cloud based CRM applications as the underlying tool to help you manage the various broadcast channels. This means that:

• Social Media
• Video broadcasting, or “vCast” as we call it
• Email Marketing
• Website and
• SMS

…can be integrated within various CRM platforms. This integration reveals a single view, across each of the channels, providing your marketing, sales and customer service teams with the full picture of prospect and client activity.

The “Age Of The Customer” Is Here

CRMNow is not a research house, we leave that work to great companies like Forrester Research and others. We see ourselves as the “mechanics“, we help companies execute their strategy through state of the art technology. In addition we bring a level of expertise and insight from our many great clients and the improved customer experience they’ve been able to achieve.

Let’s Talk Today

If you’d like to understand how Engage can help your business delight your prospects and customers, contact us today at any of our offices or complete our online enquiry form.

 

 

 

Share: