Brands and retailers need to reevaluate how they think about customer data
In a survey conducted by SuperOffice, it was found that 45.9% of business professionals are prioritizing customer service over products (20.5%) and price (33.6%).
There has been a customer revolution of late, brand loyalty is now not limited to just products or price; they are willing to invest more in a purchase if the customer service is above average.
It goes without saying, that customers want straightforward answers to their queries and that they appreciate brands that personalize the interaction experience from the start with offers that communicate clear expectations on what the customer can expect in return. Businesses that fail to customize the message and fail to personalize the offer in the presence (or absence ) of customer data are likely to leave customers disinterested or frustrated. Neither of these outcomes is desirable and puts retention and repeat purchases at risk.
Statistically speaking, brands that offer omnichannel experiences retain 89% of their customers compared to 33% of those that don’t. The reason this is an important “stat” to pay attention to, is that the old paradigm of perhaps exclusively engaging in business via brick-and-mortar stores often now sees those same customers expecting a digital experience too. Leveraging digital channels means that they can interact regularly with brands in a way that they couldn’t before. These could be by way of email, website chatbots, mobile apps, customer service chat sessions, Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, telegram, and a host of other platforms and interaction methods.
If you believe that data can fuel your digital transformation journey then you will also recognise that it offers the potential for more interaction and communciation consistency. By leveraging centrally stored well-managed detailed customer information, all manner of services and support can be made use of in the honing of the customer message to provide a personalized and distinctive customer experience.
Curbside Pickup as a data point
A curbside pickup service is one where retailers allow customers to place an order online for them to then self or courier pick up at a local store. In some respects this is an evolution of drive-through with the principle difference being that curbside pickup can simply be an extension to normal pick and pack but without the ship part.
When the order is ready, the customer is notified, either by email, SMS or mobile app message and the consumer walks or drives to the store and in a designated area collects their order. In some instances they may nominate a courier or home delivery service provider to make the collection for them. Either way, the seller is not responsible for collection/delivery beyond making the consignment available for pickup.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw demand for curbside pickup increase by 85%. Customers would often make this choice because they want to be safe and prefer the click-and-collect method instead of physically visiting the store.
For businesses that already supported a click-and-collect (C&C) operation, the pressure was more on whether infrastructure could cope with the increase in orders. For those who had never offered C&C the pressure was to implement the data capture mechanism for not just the customer details but also their payment processing, preferences, contact information and a eCommerce or webshop element. The stores would also need to be geared up to do more order-based picking where previously the main focus would have been on shelf packing and checkout.
Connecting the web front with back end systems may sound like a straightforward IT integration but often that would not be true where the logistics execution or point of sale systems operate in complete isolation from eCommerce and webshop systems. From the Pretectum perspective, this is where Customer Master Data Management can operate as a central hub for the many functional spokes that represent different aspects of business operations.
Data is a key to aligning the customer experience
98% of Fortune 500 companies leverage data to enhance the customer experience. Businesses need to have a defined data strategy that helps them scale to an ever-evolving environment.
Business decisions and marketing initiatives are ideally driven from data insights and those are best established when they come from analyzing the various aspects of your customer’s data.
Your customer data management system can serve as your single source of truth and can neutralize the concept of data silos. Silos of customer data can be very common in businesses that have implemented systems and approaches to dealing with customers in an isolated and tactical way.
Every department that is potentially customer-facing, including sales, marketing, finance, service, and support, requires specific kinds of information to undertake their role. This information when stored separately can become fragmented, inconsistent, and incomplete. thereby making it difficult for other departments to access and draw conclusions that may be tied to the data held cross-operationally.
Data silos might seem harmless and fit for purpose through the narrow lens of a particular department or function but even within a narrow frame of focus, that data will develop inconsistencies over time. With so many business area-specific data silos popping up, it will be difficult for business leaders to draw appropriate conclusions and in turn provide customers with an optimised experience.
Breaking the silos is crucial for businesses. The route to this elimination of the silos is to provide data centralization and save time (and resources) that is spent on dealing with trying to create an optimized picture of the customer and the customer circumstances
Customer Master Data Management offers the potential for the controlled flow of batched and real-time customer data through all appropriate business channels with a consistent and unified aspect.
Almost all C suite execs believe that customer data is critical for their businesses to get ahead of competitors.
