Tag Archives: customer loyalty

Taming the multichannel customer service monster

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Today’s consumer is a much more expectant, much more demanding beast than in times gone by – and the reason for this is technology. The consumerization of IT and mobility have combined to give people a level of control and power over their activities that they’ve never previously been able to enjoy. And one of the by-products of this has been an increased expectancy of customer service quality.

The modern customer – and indeed the modern company – today has more ways of communicating available to them than ever. We have the traditional telephone network for voice calls, but we also have SMS messages and multiple online tools such as email, web forms, chat, instant messengers and social media applications. A common consumer perception is that voice never really gets you very far – and be honest, nobody in the world actually enjoys sitting on hold listening to irritating music and product pitches – so companies have had to start thinking differently.

This means utilizing all those other communications tools in an effective way – and it is a tricky balancing act to get right. Apps are increasingly becoming the way that end-users interact and so they expect their customer service to come their way on their terms. The challenge of delivering a multi-channel customer experience, a genuinely fully-integrated, seamless customer service, is a big one.

the journey’s destination – the fully integrated, seamless customer service

So with customers expecting and demanding better service and more personal attention, why, in this multi-channel environment, isn’t it being delivered?  The opportunity to provide a genuine cross-channel customer experience is there, and it has never been more important to retain good customers and attract new ones through a strong brand and reputation for high quality service.

In a highly competitive world, organizations are focused on product innovation, why are they not taking the next step to think to roll out an integrated customer service suite at the same time?

The figures are pretty convincing in favor of offering an enhanced customer service experience. 86% of consumers say they are prepared to pay more for a better customer experience, while just 1% says companies consistently meet their expectations. Poor customer experience is the biggest cause of customer churn, with 89% of people admitting that they are happy to switch to a competitor due to poor customer experience.

This is the mobile age and companies are faced with a generation of end-users who have no real concept of things like fixed-line phones and sitting on hold waiting for the next available agent. They want their interaction in real time, the same way they have it with friends, family and peers online. When 50% of smartphone users say they would prefer to use a mobile customer service application to try and resolve a customer service problem before picking up the phone and calling the contact center, you know that there is both an issue and an opportunity here.

the way ahead – the Cloud and analytics

40% of organizations have stated that ‘complexity’ is the biggest challenge to their deploying enhanced, multichannel customer service offerings – it used to be ‘organizational structure’ – but cloud computing is helping to make a seamless contact center and customer service operation a more achievable reality. Business intelligence and analytics tools allow organizations to both track and monitor customer datato improve their experience, while the Cloud also enables social media engagement in real time like never before.

The cloud makes it easier than ever to bring the right customer service people together with the right customers, on the customer’s terms. The ability to include customer service processes and systems within the cloud enables more tools – organizations can communicate via Twitter, Facebook and other social apps – but it must be integrated, or risk giving the customer further frustration.

The future of customer service is undoubtedly in the cloud, and intelligent analytics will enable organizations to keep their offering fresh and their customers content. These analytics are particularly useful for government bodies and companies in the financial, health and insurance industries, all of which are subject to regulatory changes and challenges.

70% of businesses plan to include social media as part of their customer service offering by mid-2014, while 55% of customers expect customer service via social media. Customers who engage and interact with companies via social media spend 20 to 40% more with those companies than other customers. The proof points are becoming undeniable, the need for a joined-up customer service provision across multiple platforms and channels indisputable, and it is the cloud which will deliver this.

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Technology predictions for 2014 & beyond

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predicting technology futures – what’s in store for 2014?

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2013 has seen a number of technologies enjoy varying levels of success and growth, with mobile devices, cloud computing and enterprise app stores all continuing to gain momentum. As I have written about throughout the year on this blog, these technologies have all had that disruptive business model impact which makes them popular and shakes up the existing landscape.

As we approach the end of 2013, I see no reason to expect 2014’s emerging technologies and trends to be any different. So what do we have to look forward to?

wearable technology and absolute mobility

Mobile everywhere and mobile for everything. 2014 will be the year that mobile is ubiquitous, smarter, faster and our reliance on mobile connectivity becomes absolute.

2013 saw the emergence of bring your own device (BYOD) as a mainstream concept, with end-users pretty much eschewing the notion of work/life balance and taking their smartphones and tablets into the workplace as a matter of course and taking their work on the move with them, presenting companies with new security challenges. But the trend will continue and 2014 will see users expecting to be online in more places than ever, at high speeds and with more robust security levels.

This increased mobility will continue to be driven forward by the latest advances in mobile devices, with wearable technology to the fore. The announcement that Burberry’s chief executive has just jumped ship to join Apple is a good indicator of how technology and fashion will merge over the coming year.Google glass, smartwatches and other wearable devices will all connect to the internet and each other through the Cloud like never before. And speaking of the connected planet. . .

the Internet of things goes mainstream

The internet is dead, long live the internet of things. There are now more networked devices and machines on the planet than there are people and 2014 will see still more devices, appliances and vehicles come online and begin communicating with each other.

The internet as we know it has already changed the world and many aspects of our daily lives. It has benefited businesses, individuals and nations, often helping to transform the way governments deliver education, health and social services and making information more democratically available. The internet of everything addresses the next generation of networked devices, with machine-to-machine (M2M) communications powering new ways of doing everything. Right now our phones and tablets are our most common networked devices, but the internet of things will see the networking of cars, homes, appliances, televisions, meters, indeed most electrical and electronic appliances and devices. There is even a company in the Netherlands that has helped a farmer to connect his cows.

Forecasts vary, but recent research projects that by 2020 there will be 75 billion ‘things’ connected to the internet and communicating with one another. 2014 will be the year that everything being networked goes mainstream.

hybrid cloud and XaaS model

2014 will see IT architectures continue to evolve and bring greater flexibility to companies and end-users. In previous blogs I have written about the future impact of cloud computing on various IT disciplines, notably procurement, storage and business continuity and even the role of the traditional CIO.

The cloud will continue to transform throughout the coming year, and the direction it will take will be that of hybrid cloud. Companies with private cloud architectures in place should be ready to embrace personal cloud and make the shift to the hybrid model. The hybrid approach gives organizations greater operational flexibility and optimized costs without compromising security. Network performance is improved too.

The ‘as a service’ (XaaS) model will continue to grow in popularity as well, as organizations adopt its agility and flexibility benefits while also recognizing that the OPEX model carries major advantages over the traditional CAPEX, investment-up-front approach.

software-defined architecture

Software-defined architecture will also come to the fore in 2014 – a practice whereby the software or the application defines the purpose of the device itself. This can be a storage device or a server, or a personal device such as the music boxes or wristband and apps that tracks how you sleep, move and eat—then helps you use that information to feel your best. The function defines the form.

The software-defined approach can help revolutionize the way we program, use and interact with devices because it makes them completely customizable. Devices of any kind will become defined by their apps, making them directly programmable, more agile, centrally managed and configurable and giving us greater control.

share, share and share again

End-users are now, thanks to the rise and rise of social media, so used to sharing that it is second nature. There are now 1.15 billion active Facebook users and over 288 million active Twitter users, all sharing thoughts, information, news, opinions and more, all the time. There have been more than 16 billion photos shared on Instagram. And this is just the beginning.

3-D printing is one area where the sharing of ideas and designs is going to take off in a big way in 2014 and beyond. Sales of 3-D printers are forecast to grow by 75 per cent in 2014, as the technology takes hold in the mainstream. 3-D printing could have a massive impact on many industries, not least the manufacturing sector. It represents a new way of sharing, with companies no longer needing to produce things the same way. For example one company or individual can come up with a design or bright idea one day and that design can be shared and copied tomorrow. Manufacturing, product development, design and prototypes – all of these disciplines could be hugely affected. This does of course present a challenge similar to that faced by the music and movie industries; when you have moved from the physical world to the virtual, and people are so used to sharing, how do you protect intellectual property? Innovative smart machines may be the solution to that. But that’s for another blog post.

Happy 2014.

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The disruptive impact of cloud computing

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There’s no doubt that cloud computing has had a huge impact on the way that many Australasian companies do business. In my experience we see a range of customers approaching cloud computing in a range of ways – with many of them taking different approaches to how they begin to cross the chasm.

We encounter companies which are prepared to be early adopters, the ones who want to embrace the benefits of new technologies quickly. On the other hand there are also companies that wait to see what happens before making the leap, who want a technology to go mainstream first before they take the plunge.

It seems to me that visionaries are coming in 3 flavors.

  1. First are companies who are using cloud as a way of managing costs, for IT augmentation and for boosting their IT strategy.
  2. Second is the IT innovation crowd
  3. And third are the IT disruption types.

I’ll elaborate on these types below.

Using cloud to augment IT

The first bracket of companies is taking the lead, the customers who are using cloud as IT augmentation.

Recent research showed that Australia is the second most cloud-ready nation in the world, after Japan. Australasia is quite a mature IT market, with experienced users and companies who accept outsourcing as a common practice. It’s also a service-driven economy, meaning that barriers to entry are low.

So we’re seeing IT managers using cloud to give more flexibility and agility for them and their customers.

Using cloud for innovation

The next layer of companies are the innovators, those who use the cloud to create new business models and move to market faster than through traditional methods.

In Australasia there have been some interesting examples of companies going down this route. One bank group rolled out an app for cloud-based banking that has increased customer loyalty and made it more attractive to people. CommBank has also introduced an inventive mobile money solution, named Kaching. This means that if a group of friends go out for dinner together then one person can pay by credit card and all the other guests can use the app to reimburse that friend.

Cloud computing and social thinking are driving these innovations. Another app which I’ve used myself is a supermarket one, which lets you scan the barcode of a product and find out the health qualities of that product. The app then makes recommendations for more healthy alternatives. This app is developed by Bupa, and it is interesting to see them taking this approach. It’s obviously in their interests to have more healthy customers, since as a health insurance company, this means a win win for the members and the business.

Cloud as a disruptor

The third layer of cloud usage in Australasia which is having a huge effect on the overall landscape is the disruptors. These are the startups and entrepreneurs who are transforming and disrupting whole industries. Their operations combine cloud, mobility, social and big data analytics to pretty devastating effect.

One obvious example is Apple, which has transformed the music industry with its cloud-based iTunes. In a similar way, Amazon has totally changed the book publishing and distribution industry – causing bricks-and-mortar rival Borders to cease trading in the Australian market completely.

This disruption to conventional ways of doing things can be seen everywhere. Amazon now sells more ebooks than traditional print books. Google has entered the automobile industry, with some places even changing legislation to allow auto-piloted cars.

impact of cloud computing: conclusion

There’s a lot of industry transformation taking place and IT is at the root of it. I think that we will see more of this, with established commercial giants continuing to be impacted.

IBM’s recent A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future report predicts that by 2020, 18 traditional industries will have been wiped out. These industries centre around tradition (non-digital) publishing and broadcasting, including book & magazine publishings as well as music publishing.

As a consequence, associated distribution and supply channels would be impacted. Other industries that would face challenges include traditional non-digital TV & radio broadcasting as digital forms of broadcasting overtake those media.

Of the three types of uses/approaches for cloud computing technology, which are your business using?

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