With deeper penetration of gadgets and devices in everyday life, customers are interacting with businesses via multiple channels. One can start searching for a flight or a hotel on the travel company’s website and may later switch to the company app. After booking the flight on the app, the customer might expect his flight details to show up on his calendar and may expect flight-related updates on another social media app. The customer wants a unified experience no matter which channel he/she is using to engage with the travel company.
As you can see from the above example, offering a seamless connected experience is not a choice for businesses anymore. It is critical to succeeding in today’s competitive world. If you are not offering connected experiences, you are sending your customer to the competitor.
According to a survey conducted by Salesforce, 85% of the consumers expect a seamless cohesive experience across departments.
A business can create an incredible product or offer an outstanding service, but if your customers aren’t getting what they want from your business—if they’re not feeling understood or respected—then all of that hard work goes out the window.
So how do companies make sure that doesn’t happen? By closing the gaps in shared information. By building connected experiences to offer consistency at all touch points.
What is a Connected Customer Experience
In this data-driven digital age, customers have different ways of engaging with a business. Creating a connected customer experience means providing a seamless experience across various devices and touchpoints — from websites to chatbots.
This means going beyond just creating a great app or even a great website. It means all your customer touchpoints like the app, website, customer service team, chatbot, etc. must be connected and talking to each other. They all should have access to the same data in real-time.
The best-connected experience takes into account how humans think and behave so they can be designed in ways that are useful, intuitive, and easy to use.
Barriers to Connected Experiences
#1 Use of Legacy Systems
The use of legacy systems for business processes and storing data makes it difficult for companies to share information as they operate in silos. Businesses spend time and resources trying to maintain these outdated systems.
A study shows that 91% of companies lose millions of dollars when an application goes offline for an hour
#2 Inefficient Work Processes
Inefficient work processes make it difficult for businesses to adapt to ever-changing customer needs. Businesses must change their work processes to increase speed, efficiency, and customer engagement.
#3 Internal Data Silos
Data Silos refer to multiple disconnected data sources that can’t share data with other systems. Companies are at risk of using inaccurate data and analysis as they are unable to connect and gather data from their internal systems. This causes the company to have an incomplete view of customers’ data. Also, silos make it difficult for a company to communicate and collaborate as a team to create consistent experiences.
Enablers for Connected Experiences
To create connected experiences, businesses need a connected, data-driven view of their customers across marketing, sales, commerce, and service. Here are some drivers to create connected customer experiences.
#1 Data Integration
Data integration is the most important enabler for building connected experiences. Isolated data residing in different systems must be integrated and organized so various systems and touchpoints have access to the same data. The API-based approach is the key to bringing data from disparate sources together. The next step would be to design scalable, reusable integrations.
Another benefit of API-based integrations is the ability to use the existing integrations to create new connected experiences. For example, a new app can be built using the same API that was built for a web portal. Businesses spend time and resources trying to maintain these outdated systems.
#2 Innovative Thinking
Customers are demanding more than just a functional product or service. They want to feel like they’re part of the experience. They want to be able to interact with your brand in ways that really connect them to your business.
To meet this challenge, companies need innovative ways to engage with their customers. One example of out-of-the-box thinking is to gamify pre and post-purchase experiences. You can make the boring process of earning loyalty points by referring your products to friends and family interesting by turning it into a game with levels and rewards.
#3 Omnichannel Services
Customers expect to be able to continue their experience from one channel to another. Omnichannel customer experience helps customers get the most out of their interactions with your business.
For instance, whether they’re shopping on your website, speaking with an agent over the phone, or interacting with a chatbot on your mobile app. It is important that the business is able to identify that customer across all channels seamlessly. Your business should provide excellent service no matter where they are or how they prefer to connect with you.
#4 Real-Time Data Analytics
As the world moves towards a connected society, companies need to unify the enormous amount of data they are gathering and use real-time data analytics to make intelligent data-based decisions.
For instance, a business can use data analysis to identify customers likely to buy an item from their stores or website based on their previous purchase history, location, and other factors and send them relevant offers and product updates.
Why Choose Incepta to create Connected Experiences?
INTEGRATION SOLUTIONS: Our integration experts can design solutions to combine new and legacy systems to coexist. The company builds integration solutions that remove data silos and empower access to the right information at the right time.
EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE: Our developers and architects draw from their combined knowledge of best practices to create and improve business processes and data flows. Our team is committed to delivering innovative solutions that are efficient, and scalable.
UNIQUE METHODOLOGY: We offer an end-to-end approach that is applied across the customer journey from acquisition through retention so that every interaction between you and your customers has the maximum impact on their relationship with your brand.
Suggested read =>> How Salesforce Customer 360 powered by MuleSoft can help you create Connected Customer Experiences
Speak with our technical adviser about connected experiences you would like to create. Connect with our digital transformation team by emailing hello@inceptasolutions.com or calling +1 877 797 0406 to get started with creating a connected customer experience!
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