Today, enterprises are struggling to keep up with the ways
consumers are accessing their products, through physical and digital channels. CXM
(Customer Experience Management) often remains siloed within the organization, in
marketing and customer service. It tends to remain reactive — dealing with
problems presented to them instead of identifying progressive strategies that create
a positive experience. So, according to
Jayakrishnan
Sasidharan, vice president & Global Head, Business Collaboration,
Content and Customer Experience, for Wipro Business Applications Services, enterprises
must prepare for the next generation of CXM, which integrates consumers,
retailers and suppliers
By 2018, the next generation CXM will be proactive and
engage the entire organization. It will strive to understand what customers are
thinking and provide a consistent brand experience in all available channels. According to Sasidharan, CXM in the future is about
“channel independence.” Customers will use the channel of their choice to
interact with the brand.
CXM adoption has been siloed, on a single channel focusing
on product-based interactions and with customers. Recently, it has evolved to
incorporate multiple channels and mature from being transactional to being
interactive. But, many organizations have not transformed their customer
experience.
“The next generation CXM will put customers first to drive customer
satisfaction. It will engage them proactively before the product is purchased,
and long afterward, to understand what they are thinking and create
market-relevant products,” he said.
In fact, Sasidharan sees four trends that global enterprises
are grappling with and how digital advances will affect the next generation of
CXM including:
Engaging the customer
proactively. Enterprises want to move closer to the customer with
interactions that occur before the product is consumed. Future CXM will make that
engagement event-driven and pull from every aspect of the organization.
Context-aware
customer interactions with geo-location intelligence built into devices. Instead
of an enterprise partnering with a specific app or adopting a specific
solution, future CXM solutions could call for a sustained interaction with
context-aware solutions within every interaction.
Immersive
interactions. Users gain control
over how content is delivered, whether through touch, gesture, 3D visualization,
voice-enabled biometric, or something not yet invented. In the next five years,
he expects immersive interactions to be incorporated in home entertainment
devices, in-vehicle devices, and increasingly smart mobile devices.
The multi-channel of
the future. Even as new channels have emerged or replaced traditional
points of sale, customer interactions remain siloed. By 2018, multi-channel for
enterprises will transition to an omni-channel experience, meaning customers
can browse through product information on any medium while conversing with friends
on social media.
By the next five years, Sasidharan envisions a repeatable
CXM maturity model that implies that an enterprise has synchronized CXM and IT
strategies with an integrated roadmap — supported by an integrated training and
communication plan. The key to reaching this repeatable stage is to pursue a CXM
strategy across the enterprise, not one for every channel. So, enterprises must
create original products and services; ensure integration across all
stakeholders; change business models beyond silo solutions to enhance customer
experience; and invest in digital technologies that integrate digital
marketing, operations and digital commerce.
These days, companies are recognizing that digitally savvy
customers can become influencers in their own social media circles. An
integrated CXM strategy will give enterprises the ability to create a
repeatable customer experience that can be adapted to future digital
evolutions.
