Forrester Research refers to the present time as the "age of the customer." Today’s customers are highly demanding and possess the tools and ability to switch companies and brands at a moments notice. They reward companies that are aware of their context, location, history, and intent and engage them effortlessly across a variety of devices. On the other hand, the customer is unforgiving by abandoning companies and brands for reasons ranging from poor experience, to unintuitive interfaces, to slow performing apps—even boredom can drive increasingly impatient customers away. Acquiring the lifetime customer is a challenge, but not an impossibility.
Lifelong customer relationships don’t just happen. They are grown. Companies that succeed in developing lifelong customers build systems to input data, develop insights and act on the insights. Customers experience these as continuous value exchanges throughout their journey with a company. The input to insight to action cycles are necessary to companies to offer customers effortless, context-aware interactions. Companies may also embrace a shift in power with customers and use these cycles to support co-creation, a faster time-to-market for products and services that are effectively “pre-validated” by customers.
The Customer Journey
At Summa, we think that companies have an opportunity to engage their customers as they embark on journeys that have no defined beginning or end, but move through attract, sell and service experiences - needing companies to support changing decisions. The input to insight to action cycle serves to constantly monitor customers toward anticipating their sometimes changing needs. Satisfied needs are the source of loyalty that can accrue like compounded interest over a lifetime.
Would this view of your customers, which could be consumers, businesses, suppliers, distributors, partners and employment candidates help you engage them better?
Unfortunately, this level of customer engagement requires companies to contend with a new kind of complexity for which there are no pre-existing solutions and there is no definition of done. Not only is technology changing at an increased frequency, but so is the competition. And the competition is not limited to direct competitors. It also includes every other brand for which the customer can be engaged. All companies are competing for the customer’s share of time. To further complicate matters, today’s customers are constantly moving between physical and digital channels. To engage customers, companies must get good at predicting where they will be and meeting them there with the action that they need at that given point in time. Companies can no longer rely on their ability to react to retain customers as the engagement changes with every interaction.
Amidst all of these complexities, the one saving grace for companies is mobile technology.
A customer with a cloud-connected app on a mobile device is now nearly constantly available and increasingly comfortable with sharing personal information. Not only can customers demand information and services from companies anyplace or anytime, but companies can use awareness of their availability and knowledge of their context to better engage. The context includes an understanding of who the customer is, where are they, what are they doing, what they like, what device are they using, what language they speak, etc.
Mobile is the channel for capturing and delivering the context of the individual customer allowing companies the opportunity to provide a hyper-personalized engagement. Anticipating the customer’s intent will not only save them precious time, but also increase their loyalty. The customer has the expectation that every experience through a mobile device will match or exceed their expectations. Mobile solutions help redefine the ways to delight customers by making engagement effortless and simple.
Whether you are beginning 2015 with a newly funded customer engagement project or you have an already established solution, the list below can provide you with “must have” features for any B2Me mobile solution to improve engagement and customer retention throughout the customer journey.
Attract
Companies can use data captured through their mobile solution to help anticipate the customer’s next move. Additionally, social network sharing can allow existing customers to attract new customers from their social circles.- Allow the customer to set their own engagement experience through opt-in communication channels (SMS, Email, Push Notification).
- Use the customer’s context to identify targeted messages and special offers.
- All customer interactions should be tracked and incentivized with loyalty programs to earn rewards.
- Provide an easy way for customers to share products and experiences on social networks.
Sell
The ability to utilize the native features of a mobile device like geolocation, camera, and near field communication can provide a personalized experience that saves customers precious time.- Integrate with device location services to locate products, service centers, or retail stores.
- Filter and prioritize relevant products based on the customer’s context.
- Utilize the mobile camera to scan QR or Bar codes on products to provide immediate rich content (in-depth descriptions, images, video).
- Streamline checkout and payment process (NFC mobile payments).
- Offer a personalized and tailored experience based on buyer preferences and history.
Service
Companies with the IT infrastructure capable of exposing a transparent view of customer’s interactions and transactions will gain trust.- Deliver just-in-time assistance at the right place and time.
- Enable customers to access to their full purchase history and product information.
- Anticipate issues and provide a comprehensive knowledge-base for resolving common problems which includes FAQs, images and videos.
- Establish and support customer communities to promote discussions and collaboration amongst customers.
Mobile is empowering the customer and changing customer engagement. It provides an incredible opportunity for companies to understand the present state of the customer and create a personalized experience throughout the Attract, Sell, and Service customer journey. By engaging customers on their terms, companies can improve loyalty and customer retention.
Summa and Customer Engagement
In recent years, Summa has helped many companies build mobile solutions to delight customers at all points in the customer engagement journey.A global paint manufacturer came to Summa with a technology problem. They wanted to modernize an existing paint visualization application. We challenged the company to define the problem differently and to provide a more engaging experience to the customer. The result was a solution that attracted new customers by providing a continuous exchange of value between the company and the customer. It helped retain and extend the reach of customers by allowing them to save and share paint color projects, and collaborate with friends and family over social networks. The solution drove brand loyalty by providing an experience that no competitors could offer.
In addition, Summa collaborated with a regional furniture retailer who was challenged by inefficient paper processes and lower than desired service ratings through their delivery channel. Summa delivered a native mobile application integrating directly with the company’s Salesforce.com Organization. This application eliminated the slow paper processes, allowing drivers to keep to their daily schedules. It allowed for collaboration between the customer operations team and in-route drivers to react quickly to customer service calls. The customer experience was improved by allowing the drivers to capture any damaged items and immediately order replacements; all within the presence of the customer. This service experience is significant as it reduced service calls following deployment of the app.
Contact us or go to our Customer Engagement Page for more information on our customer engagement experiences, or to arrange a meeting with our solution architects, designers, engineers and projects managers about your customer engagement initiatives.
