We have all accepted that the relationship between consumers and brands is a complex one, having evolved considerably in the past few decades. With the advancements in technology, shifts in consumer behaviour, and changes in business strategies, this dynamic is constantly reshaping and adapting itself to the current times.
We are further witnessing marketers take lessons from the past eras of customer experience, rework their communication strategies and march towards a loyalty-driven economy as the natural next step in the progression of customer experience, while embracing a tight handshake with digital in this journey.
Stephane Sanchez, Customer Experience & Channel Performance Leader for Asia Pacific, Global CX Advisory Lead at Ipsos, believes that a lot has changed post-COVID and that the overall behaviour of customers is impacted. “A lot of us have been pushed to interact with brands through digital channels, which was not the primary channel of engagement for many of them. However, the role of an actual physical store has not disappeared. So, a consumer’s early part of the journey may include doing the research online. However, he would still want to probably have that interaction with the product or the services via an actual human being,” he explains.
Expounding through the example of the automotive sector in India, Balaji Pandiaraj, Executive Director, Country Service Line Leader, Customer Experience at Ipsos India, points out that most of the automotive majors never relied on the concept of digital as a primary means to interact, but COVID rang in the change, “What you see is a hybrid set, where you see people really going inside the experiential stores for the ‘experience’. While they may not necessarily buy, it's more to understand the product. They eventually end up buying either through online or offline means. This experience is completely different from how they previously walked into a showroom.”
One thing is certain: to deliver a positive experience, you have to know your customers better than ever before. Salesforce's State of the Connected Customer report attests that 80 per cent of customers feel that the experience a company provides is just as important as its products and services.
Humans, Technology & Data: The Ultimate Union
One of the biggest changes to the customer experience in the past 10 years that we'll continue to see moving forward is a blend of both human engagement and technology, especially with artificial intelligence (AI), that stands at the forefront of everything that brands do today.
For Sanchez, AI can help optimise and make some of the internal processes more efficient, therefore allowing employees to focus on what matters most for customers and deliver better experiences.
While he agrees that AI is being leveraged to proffer better, faster and more accurate experiences, there still remains a need to rely on human interactions. “You want someone who can understand your concerns. An employee or human being, in general, is still going to be at the heart of everything and not the opposite,” he stresses.
With technology, data has also taken centre stage, paving the way for empathy-driven communication. Gen AI, especially, is helping simplify and make this data easily available and understandable to consumers, making the entire experience very human-centric.
As brands sit on large amounts of data, they are utilising the power of predictive analytics to anticipate consumer needs and tailor their experiences. “The recommendations and the experiences being delivered are crucial because, as consumers, we want to be recognised as unique individuals,” expresses Sanchez.
“Predictive analytics is definitely something that most companies are trying to work on to tackle the issue of being very personalised in the way they interact with you as an individual,” he adds.
When asked about a brand that has aced the excellent customer experience strategy game, Pandiaraj picks Amazon for being able to capture its core KPIs and its consumer-centric approach. Sanchez, on the other hand, chooses Singapore Airlines for its consistent brand promise, extending a fulfilling experience to each interaction across all its channels.
