Our CX Buzz is on steroids at the moment; normally we have one every two weeks and highlight only 5 pieces in each edition. However, the content coming out is just so good that this month, we have had one for you every week, and this week we share 7 pieces including; Bill McMurray of Qualtrics fame writing for BandT.com; Nikki Gililand for eConsultancy.com on AI and Ben Congleton of Olark writing for Venturebeat.com on Chatbots; A great short video from Cognizant on digital start-ups; Harvard Business Review's excellent 30 Things Customers Really Value by BainInsight's Eric Almquist; Finally, our tweet of the week pick is from @Sam___Hurley. Enjoy!
Customer Experience is the Brand & Why Marketers Must Care About Customer Voice [BandT.com.au]
You won't be surprised that as a leading supplier of Voice of Customer solutions, we are showcasing this piece by Bill McMurray. McMurray says that to develop a strong brand and drive revenue marketers must listen and act on customer feedback to improve customer satisfaction. To achieve this, marketers must develop a closed-loop Voice of Customer (VoC) program. This lets them collect customer feedback, analyse the data in a way that can be understood by executive stakeholders, and then act on the feedback. McMurray, who is managing director, Asia Pacific and Japan, at Qualtrics, goes on to say, "An effective VoC program will drive competitive advantage and can help marketers gain a seat at the executive table." With that stellar advice, check out NICE's VoC solution here.
Nikki Gililand expands on 5 take-aways of their recent research, "Marketing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence." The report predicts the various ways AI will continue to impact consumers giving examples of how Facebook and Amazon are now using this technology. Gililand says, "If you've seen one too many mediocre sci-fi movies, the phrase 'artificial intelligence' might bring to mind images of evil robots and technology taking over the world." But as we know AI is not [just] a Hollywood fantasy, it is now a very practical tool for marketers. This is a great read if you still don't know how AI can help impact your marketing.
Chatbots versus humans: Who builds customer rapport better? [Venturebeat.com]
Ben Congleton writes, "Chatbots are a powerful new channel to increase sales and assist more customers. They are also a minefield of mismatched expectations." Why? Because apparently, "The challenge of providing great customer service within the Chatbot experience isn't entirely technical — it's finding the right mix of technology blended into the customer service organization to help customers where and when they need help," says Congleton. We agree! You should check out our NICE RPA solution to see how you can blend robotic process automation into your existing customer service solution for an enhanced customer experience.
3 Reasons Your Consumers Would Shift To A #Digital StartUp [https://www.youtube.com/user/cognizant/]
This week we are liking this video by Cognizant on 3 reasons why your consumers might want to shift to a digital startup. As the video description states, "Consumer trust has become the new battleground for digital success. To win, organizations need to master the fundamentals of data ethics, manage the "give-to-get" ratio and solve the customer trust equation, our recent research reveals."
The 30 Things Customers Really Value [HBR.org]
Inishts abound in this piece by Eric Almquist on the 30 things customers really value. Using real examples of success and based on the September 2016 HBR article, "The Elements of Value," Almquist and his colleagues discuss the power of the 30 elements in the marketplace and describe how companies can select and integrate innovations into their products to provide value that consumers actually want. He says, "Companies that deliver well on multiple elements of value tend to have stronger customer loyalty and higher revenue growth rates, as Bain & Company's analysis shows [See pyramind chart above]. The research documents 50 companies that deliberately added elements over time to improve their propositions, either to turn around a flagging business or to accelerate growth. The article shows how, in financial services for example, Charles Schwab has outperformed many other investment companies by excelling on four elements of value: variety (a wide range of investment products), providing access (multiple contact and advice channels available around the clock), making money (generates income for customers), and quality (numerous Lipper Fund Awards for investment performance).
What's So Sensational About Your Customer Experience? [Forbes.com]
In this Forbes Thought Leadership piece by Stephen Diorio, he says that businesses that directly engage customers in face-to-face environments – including retailers, travel and hospitality companies, restaurants, and banks – are making significant technology investments in hopes of delivering unique and impactful customer experiences. Recent PwC Digital IQ survey research into the investments of marketing leaders like Disney, Hilton, Starbucks and Marriott show the best customer experience programs focus on six different dimensions – ranging from achievement to personalization to sensation. Individually these are important to customers. In combination, these six dimensions are redefining what customer experience is in the digital age. There are some briefly mentioned case-studies from leading companies to learn from in this good, but short, piece.
This week's Tweet of the Week is brought to you by Sam Hurley @Sam___Hurley on how to intercept, adapt and influence the #CXJourney. We liked the frog :)
We hope you enjoyed this week’s CX Buzz, be sure to respond in the comments or tweet us @NICE_CX or follow us on LinkedIn.