Digital Transformation and the customer experience

By Laura Downing, Sr. Director – Digital Strategy and Transformation, Teleperformance

What is ‘customer experience’ (CX)?

Unlike customer service, customer experience doesn’t focus on one particular touchpoint. It moves beyond just one transaction from start to finish and instead is the overall perception consumers develop after an encounter — of any kind — with the brand.

Every time a customer interacts with a brand- (throughout the customer journey), they are formulating ideas and perceptions of the brand. These touchpoints are critical in making a lasting impression on your consumer.

Customer experience includes all interactions with customers across every touchpoint. Sales experience can be  of great significance; however, a damaged delivered product could wipe out the good will, as the customer has to call the 800 number only for them to be transferred multiple times before their issue is resolved. Now, that’s bad CX.

Digital CX treats the customer as a single person from one interaction to the next. It connects systems, data, and teams to create a seamless customer experience across every touchpoint. It eliminates silos between business units to lessen friction, enhance customer engagement, and strengthen brand loyalty.

Digital transformation is deploying new technologies and leveraging data in all-new ways to improve your customers’ experience.

In order to implement Digital CX, think like a human

To provide CX that builds brand-loyal consumers, design thinking takes an empathetic, humanistic approach.

• It considers how consumers feel as they interact with your brand.
• Takes note of the ways to improve their encounters.
• Implements tools to make each experience effortless.
• Listens to them when you get feedback from traditional customer service transactions.
• Encourages omnichannel presence based on the preference of your customers to communicate, such as voice, chat, email, or text.
• Ensures you’re prepared to communicate; you’re setting a connected foundation that teaches your customers you’re always available for them.

Customer experience is an essential factor in business that plays a critical role in digital transformation. Innovation and improvement in customer experience are vital elements that pave the way for any business’s essential growth and success.

Imagine a scenario where a problem was solved without having to call in, or for more complex problems, the agent is able to anticipate our needs and resolve them quickly.

Digital Transformation can have AI embed data insights throughout the customer journey to produce the relevant insights. And for an added layer of personalization, AI and sentiment analytics can serve as a “digital agent-assist”: When powered by human-centered design, AI can provide agents with relevant information as they serve customers to help them make the right decisions and solve issues for clients.

According to Mckinsey, by undergoing digital transformation in customer experience, B2B companies have experienced revenue growth of 10 to 15% and cost reduction of 10 to 20%.

To accomplish this, a company needs a holistic approach to the customer experience optimization. To offer excellent customer service, accountability is not limited to customer support or any one department.  The entire company needs to work together to ensure that a great digital customer experience is offered to the digital consumer.

Creating a high-tech, high touch approach can allow a company to leverage technology without losing the key elements of a human-centric approach.

There are a few key elements a company needs to do to accomplish this:

• Understand the experience: Identify each touchpoint along the customer journey.
• Make sure they’re connected: The touchpoints should create a consistent customer experience.
• Lead with a human-centered design: Consider the entire service involvement, including the customer, talent, and third-party service providers.

Ultimately, AI tools are available to help leaders create an end-to-end customer experience that blends AI and human service—to better serve customers and the bottom line.

Digital Transformation is an ongoing journey. By supplementing high-touch programs with automation, businesses can align and attain customer satisfaction by focusing on relationships of value.

Customer Experience needs a good underlying foundation:

In order to have a positive customer experience, processes need to be in place to ensure a seamless, frictionless experience. Organizations that provide the most value to customers are successful because they have a customer-first approach.

Take an honest look at the existing processes to determine whether they are operating efficiently and serving the goal of providing value to your customers. Spend time with key stakeholders to gather data and feedback. Map out the processes for specific areas responsible for issues. Then, look at ways to improve processes by leveraging technology solutions like automation. 

With a good team, a company can improve the business processes to achieve all the things typically associated with Process Excellence—reducing operational risk, lowering costs, and increasing efficiencies.

Customer experience is a competitive advantage. Only by committing to digital CX transformation can companies expect to have an advantage over other players.