Sure, saving money and continuous improvement is important, but the real point of transformation is being able to exploit new opportunities. The universal principle (which businesses in Australia are very slow to uptake compared the US and the UK and NZ in the health industry) is simple – build everything round the customer and strive to improve constantly. Our customers are the key to driving growth in an organisation.
Many organisations are struggling to understand how Digital Strategy and Customer Experience (CX) work together. Our digital teams are cognisant of the challenges and the opportunities that are available if organisations can start viewing the customer as the leading strategic initiative.
One of the key challenges of organisations is the traditional discussions at management meetings – reporting by silos, with different priorities and conflicting KPIs. Instead we challenge management and boards to start considering the customer journey to identify key moments of truth and pain points to identify touch-points, process issues and digital issues across the journey. Using this process will reduce the waste of internal resources as silos fight for project money. It will put the focus of the whole business on the key activities which will drive the delivery of a superior customer experience – resulting in loyalty. One of the biggest challenges is to start cross collaborating and start breaking the silos down and start to view the customer journey. Look at the transactions – identifying moments of truth and the pain points and ask how each department works in delivering a superior customer experience.
Digital Priorities
Talking to the digital collaborators of 6peas, we found the following were key themes across Australian (and worldwide) digital teams across industry sectors such as Professional Services, Utilities, Telcos, Retail, E-Commerce, Banking and Finance.
The customer experience is critical.
Digital need to work with marketing and other organisation departments to find a way to communicate the organisational mission and get organisational support for activities.
Reduce organisational silos to gain an a view from the customer – customer journey maps.
There is a need to develop relationships with 3rd party providers in terms of security and privacy for customers.
The value of the customer needs to be calculated and shared across silos.
Service providers need to revitalise their business models to work with organisations to deliver value to their customer base.
Personalisation is becoming a reality with the power of analytics and omnichannel.
Despite these customer driven priorities, our Digital teams agree that achieving these goals are not without their challenges.
Digital Challenges Delivering CX
Biggest challenges for those using analytics and improving the digital experience for customers.
Having the right tools for, and to balance, personalisation.
Bringing business models back to the customer.
Gaining C-suite support to drive transformation within companies.
Learning how we can best exploit Artificial Intelligence.
Properly implementing and enabling omni-channel customer engagement.
Security and guarding against data breaches.
Innovating through machine learning and analytics.
Using APIs (applications) to enable the customer journey
Utilising data – identify how to mine and turn data into information that will add value to the customer experience..
Key CX Insight 360
If the organisation is aligned to one key strategy – the customer, our organisational silos and digital teams will be able to optimise resources to deliver continuous improvement. Digital, IT and marketing should be driving a single view of the customer to reduce conflicting priorities, to start gaining some great experiences for customers and start delivering on growth KPIs. Start working together.
6peas is a marketing and engagement consultancy specialising in customer strategy. We partner with organisations to identify their next big growth strategy – their customers. 6peas works with organisations to create “sharable experiences” with customers, employees and partners to deliver a superior customer service and outperform competitors. 6peas works with c-suite, middle management and boards to design a customer centric framework around 6 key pillars – leadership, customer, brand, employees, culture, and governance.
Carolyn Grant is the founder and managing director of 6peas marketing and engagement. With a passion for delighting customers and business improvement, Carolyn has found the way to facilitate change with Australian businesses. Carolyn has a broad range of industry experience in Health, Retail, E-commerce, Utilities, Banking and Finance, Professional Services and Education and Training.