Personalised communications across channels that lead to the seamless delivery of innovative products and services has become the new expectation of tech-savvy customers today.
So said Tami Cannizzaro, IBM executive director for marketing, in an interview with ITWeb, on the sidelines of the IBM Software Day, in Maropeng, yesterday.
"We are now living in the age of the chief executive customer, a time when customers have unlimited access to information and the ability to share it instantly with the world. Technology has greatly increased transparency and has empowered customers to demand more," said Cannizzaro.
"Today's customers can shop around the globe, find out more than ever before about the organisations they're dealing with, and share their views with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of fellow customers. The expectations of consumers, citizens and business customers are soaring. And they can make or break brands overnight," she said.
However, Cannizzaro noted that the question is how can an organisation embrace the full potential of social, mobile and cloud computing, orchestrate its supply chain, as well as drive collaboration and innovation both inside and outside the enterprise?
"How do you personalise your customer's experience across all channels to exceed their expectations and capture their lifelong loyalty?"
She also noted that, although technology being used by the customer is improving rapidly, organisations are failing to catch up. "Customers are becoming more innovative about technology and enterprises should also be innovative."
She, therefore, urged organisations to use technology to not just engage with customers, but to forge personal relationships.
"The best brands, the world over, are using customer experience as a competitive differentiator," said Cannizzaro.
She added that most organisations are responding to these challenges by trying to understand individuals as well as markets.
"They are focusing on relationships, not just transactions. They must understand and deliver value to empowered customers, create lasting relationships with those customers, and measure marketing's contribution to the business in relevant, quantifiable terms."
On delivering value, she added: "That means finding out who these customers are, what they want, and how they would like to interact with the organisation.
"It's not just a question of understanding their immediate needs and preferences. It's also a question of understanding what they value and how they behave."
Nonetheless, she said organisations are overwhelmingly unprepared to take charge of the growing volume, velocity and variety of data.
Share