Johannesburg, 11 Mar 2015
The unhappy customer - to most companies, this is the worst possible business outcome. How about the indifferent customer? If the customer is king, then surely logic should follow that the customer's experience, and by association, feelings towards your business, should be of the utmost importance to customer-centric organisations.
South Africa's business leaders have begun to realise the exponential costs of losing a customer, and the costs associated with trying to get that customer back. Intelligent Business Operations (IBO) is Software AG's global answer to real-time visibility of business systems, through integrating various streaming big data sources and streaming analytics processes. The company's IBO platform, which includes its highly acclaimed Customer Experience Management (CEM) solution, has quickly sparked somewhat of a revolution in thinking, and is seeing many organisations grappling to keep up with digital-first competitors, as well as responding to the growing mobile access of their customer bases.
Riaaz Jeena, Sales Director for Software AG South Africa, says CEM is one of the fastest growing platforms in modern business, and through the use of streaming analytics, the company has built a superior CEM solution that is quickly gaining popularity among local businesses. "Where the concept of CEM did not even exist in the public space just 10 years ago, today Gartner predicts that by 2017, up to half of the globe's customer-focused product investments will be allocated to this area," he says.
"Companies can no longer afford to underestimate the crucial importance of customer satisfaction -customers are the most important assets to any organisation. They are the backbone and revenue stream on which businesses depend." With this in mind, Jeena explains that the core benefits of effective CEM to business include increasing sales and profitability, retaining customers, strengthening brand preference through differentiated experiences, boosted customer loyalty and cost saving through improving efficiencies.
Jeena goes on to explain that part of the recent uptake of interest in CEM among South African businesses has been driven by increased customer connectivity. "According to recent reports released by International World Statistics, there are a total of 167 million Internet users in Africa, and the rate of new adopters is seven times the global average," he states. "Because of this fact, customer experiences are becoming increasingly complex, containing multiple potential touch points. As such, integrating CEM technology across data sources has become crucial for businesses."
Jeena says while many service providers of CEM make impressive claims on paper, proof of concepts are rarely given, and very few are able to guarantee return on investment. "CEM systems should also be practical, implemented quickly without disrupting current operations, and real business results should be seen within the first eight months to a year."
Industries which are able to benefit exponentially from effective CEM solutions include financial services and insurance, media and entertainment, consumer goods and retail, manufacturing, energy and utilities and healthcare, among many others. "Adopting and implementing effective business intelligence or analytics and CEM solutions has become a core differentiator for just about every customer-centric business, regardless of their market or offering," concludes Jeena.
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