Creating Experiences That Drive Customer Loyalty

If organisations are to differentiate themselves in today’s digitally driven environment, they must understand how to enable a better customer experience. This requires businesses to analyse the customer and employee experience in its entirety and rethink how the company can leverage its technology capabilities, data analysis techniques, and process frameworks to holistically engage with the customer. 

Whether it is empowering customers with self-service options or access to human agents who have sight of their unique needs, it is all about creating a total experience to increase loyalty and reduce churn. And while the end goal of having a single view of the customer is nothing new, it is only recently where the technology has matured to the extent where this has now become possible to implement. 

The past two years have shown the importance of making connections and providing a seamless link between the customer, the employee, and the experience platform powering their interactions. A modern organisation must therefore break away from its traditional siloed approach to dealing with customers and adopt an integrated way of harnessing data for the personalised experiences that consumers demand.  

Embracing AI 

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automation are key enablers of this. But they should not be seen as replacing valuable resources. Rather, these technologies can better enable customer service agents to focus on delivering more strategic value. 

For example, take the work Avaya has done with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) of Uganda. By introducing an AI-powered customer assistant that manages easily-answered queries like statement requests, registration, and FAQs, customer service personnel can focus on delivering human intervention at the higher-end of the value chain.  

Creating a total experience 

But more than buying the technology, companies must scrutinise their existing processes to create a total customer experience. For this to work, engagement must be effortless. People do not want to struggle with technology or trying to get hold of someone who can assist them. The entire process must be natural, intuitive, fast, easy, and proactive. 

Furthermore, the entire customer journey must be personalised. This means it is targeted and customised for the individual user. Whether it be a chat bot, a human agent, or both, the customer must get the sense that their data is integrated across the value chain and that they do not have to repeat the same request. 

As part of this, the engagement process must be intelligent. This requires it to be well informed and relevant, based on the context of everything that surrounds it. Consistency is important in this regard. It must be the same across any touchpoint. 

A unique world 

Organisations can ill afford to treat customers (and employees) as if they want the same thing. A total experiential approach necessitates a shift from satisfaction to intimacy. This requires delivering products and services that reflect a tailored way of delivering exactly what customers want using their preferred platforms. 

To survive and thrive in the future, businesses must embrace thinking about experiences more than simply delivering something that is satisfying. It comes down to delivering a total experience at the precise moment it is required based on a specific context and understanding of the desires of that individual. 

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