I hear time and time again from fellow consumers after an experience with an organization’s digital presence say “I expected it to do this” or “It didn’t work like I thought.” Unfortunately, these experiences still occur in many of our daily interactions with perceivably leading organizations. These negative experiences put a great risk on the customer relationship with a company, sometimes even destroying the relationship. I’m sure you can name a recent occurrence where you had a poor customer experience through a technology. Perhaps with a mobile application, a point-of-sale purchase, or even using a web experience that gave you a negative reaction towards that organization and possibly even made you say “I’ll never do business here again”.
The truth of the matter is, these are all correctable issues or even avoided in the first place; often even very easily. Technology advances and techniques are changing at a pace that some organizations are not prepared to embrace. Today’s consumer expects a certain amount of data and information available to them: quickly, correctly, and concisely. Imagine using a bank that does not offer online capabilities to monitor your accounts or transfer your money. Imagine an organization, who you considered industry-leading, that has little to no mobile presence. These are all still the reality of today’s market as organizations continue to struggle with data consistency or quality issues coupled with aging and legacy infrastructures.
We see two challenges that, when managed, can create the foundation to exceed your customer’s expectations:
Data
Data is perhaps your organization’s biggest asset. However, exposing certain customer information is often a great challenge for a number of reasons including data quality, application integrations, or even scaling issues. Some potential challengers (and even leaders) in the market are still unable to expose and put information and customer data back into the consumer’s hands. Some organizations that are struggling with what seems like the basics, are completely overwhelmed when evaluating strategies like Master Data Management, Digital Marketing, or Big Data/Analytics platforms.
It is critical to regain control of your data strategy and get in front of your customers as an industry leader. Small efforts and a strong plan can help your organization to start leveraging the information you have already to make smarter decisions when marketing or appealing to your customers.
Digital Experience
Understanding how a customer wants to engage with your organization is possibly one of the most challenging and nebulous endeavors an organization can set out to do. With a strong data and digital experience strategy, the picture of where the smartest investments are for your organization becomes much clearer. Evaluating your competitive landscape and setting a target beyond your competition is where organizations often start. However, executing that plan is often where organizations struggle and often waste time and resources churning on technical debt or what is sometimes perceived as indecisive business customers.
We have the tools and processes to embrace business change and all but eliminate unintentional technical debt. Define a roadmap and evaluate your Digital Experience gaps. Are you missing on opportunities to capture customer business through antiquated online experiences? Or, are you missing mobile or other experiences all together? Underneath the covers of your technology organization you can begin to understand the areas where modern design and technology architecture set you up for success and allow your organization to quickly pivot within the marketplace.
Leading organizations that thrive and foster customer relationships are those that are able to meet and exceed customer expectations when it comes to their digital experience by leveraging key data. The roots of this experience go much deeper than some organizations may think. Do you have the keys to unlocking your customer’s expectations?
