DSG: The integrated customer experience
Today, a customer’s feedback is so much more impactful on a brand than it was even 10 years ago, with the advent of the internet and, in particular, social media. It’s for this reason that customer experience – or CX as it is affectionately becoming known – should be a foundation pillar of any business, as customer-centric businesses that can evolve, despite a continually changing customer interaction environment, will achieve long-term success.
Customer experience #Truth
Today, a customer’s feedback is so much more impactful on a brand than it was even 10 years ago, with the advent of the internet and, in particular, social media. It’s for this reason that customer experience – or CX as it is affectionately becoming known – should be a foundation pillar of any business, as customer-centric businesses that can evolve, despite a continually changing customer interaction environment, will achieve long-term success.
Impressionable CX seeks to replicate the circumstances that the customer would encounter “in the flesh” and, “in the real world”. Here, the customer journey is carried by both the tangible experiences as well as the intangible or emotional influence that the “real life” customer experience elicits. This objective is pursued throughout each phase of the customer lifecycle – from pre-purchase, through purchase, post-purchase and beyond – as each phase in the CX lifecycle produces moments of truth that reflect the customers experience of the brand, its products and services, with “truths” being experienced, shared and exchanged both digitally and in the real world.
Added to this, the digital revolution has provided a sounding board that projects Voice of the Customer (VoC) feedback. While solicited VoC feedback is gathered and can be composed in a somewhat controlled approach, unsolicited (and sometimes more credible) customer engagement can uncover uncomfortable truths that a brand might not be ready to administer or accept.
In fact, regardless if a brand is prepared to on-board VoC feedback or not, conversations are happening, across a multitude of touchpoints that highlight both negative and positive customer experience. What makes this “truth” pertinent is the representativeness of what these conversations are referencing; which is almost always, the customer’s experience. Additionally, conversations both good and bad, that describe a customer’s experience with a brand, create the foundation on which long-term customer relationships are built. Where the more attention that is paid to the customer, their experience and what they have to say on their preferred mediums to connect, will refine and shape CX strategies towards a more customer–centric approach.
Two-way dialog between the customer and a brand is also vital to achieve this approach, as it offers both parties the opportunity to leverage off the feedback loop and generate a reciprocated customer-centric relationship. Particularly if we consider that brands today have no choice but to accept that customers are fearless in feedback, leveraging public channels and sometimes in the most unforgiving ways, for instance, where a customer has experienced a product or service failure. On the other hand, however, a digitally empowered customer can also be very forthcoming when sharing positive customer experiences.
Motivated by altruism, the digital nation yearns to engage, connect and affiliate with brands that reflect their values while solving their angst. The closer a brand comes to understanding how to achieve customer objectives without alienating them throughout each phase in the CX lifecycle, the greater degree of advocacy and influence the customer base will apply on further reaching a brand’s target.
Key take aways from the presentation:
- The integrated customer experience = conversation, consistency and a single customer view
- Challenges facing businesses in utilising the full potential of technology/ digitisation in order to increase customer loyalty/ retain customers
- How technology can help businesses to anticipate their customer expectations
- How on-demand CX solutions can be used to customise an integrated customer-centric business strategy – and how this can benefit the business
- The importance of mobile in an integrated, customer-centric strategy for the businesses
Speaker: Yaron Assabi
Yaron Assabi is an entrepreneur with a passion for ICT, having been a consultant in the ICT industry for the past 20 years in the US, UK and South Africa.
Yaron is the founder of what is known today as the Digital Solutions Group (DSG), which started in 1998 as Digital Mall (Pty) Ltd trading as Digitalmall.com. Over the past near two decades years DSG has launched new niche services and group companies based on their success which now makes up the Digital Solutions Group (www.dsg.co.za). Today, DSG’s key focuses are on relationship marketing solutions using multi-channel commerce.
Yaron specialises in strategy and implementation of relationship marketing solutions and customer-based initiatives using the internet as a formidable enabling platform. Additionally, as Internet connectivity in Africa is fuelled by mobile data services and is the driver for convergence in communications, which is a blurred space, Yaron has extensive experience in the mobile data services and solutions market.
Yaron also serves as the ICT strategist for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and formulated strategy for the 46664 global reach programme.
About DSG
Digital Solutions Group (DSG) prides itself on being a leading innovator in the ICT and communications industry. DSG is focused on providing solutions to drive online and offline business, streamlining all customer communication and staff access points – aiming to bring a consistent customer experience across all channels through the use of multi-channel technology solutions.
