According to Dimension Data's 2017 global Customer Experience Benchmarking report, around 83% of companies compete exclusively through customer experience. It's no surprise when you consider the fact that positive customer journeys increase revenue by around 15%, and boost customer satisfaction by 20%.
Unfortunately, though companies understand just how important customer experience (CX) is, they fail to understand one of the most important drivers of successful strategies for CX: organisational alignment. Over the years, more people have begun to focus on things like "multi-channel", or "omni-channel" solutions to offer more contextualised and consistent experiences to their customers, but it's important to remember that experience isn't limited to just the contact centre.
Customer Experience Involves the Whole Brand Journey
Customer experience isn't necessarily about the contact centre - instead, it's about seamlessly making sure you have the right tools to support your customers through every aspect of their interaction with your brand - regardless of how those interactions happen. That means supporting the complete organisation in offering a service experience that never ends.
Unfortunately, companies might not be prepared for the future of customer experience as it stands today. Around 52% of all companies don't share customer intelligence beyond the contact centre. Unfortunately, a contact-centre focused solution might not cut it anymore. As the world of business continues to grow and evolve, it's easy to see how a CX strategy could miss the mark if it's limited entirely to the contact centre. After all, imagine how much stronger your company could be if it's not just limited to the contact centre, but the full enterprise-wide journey, from HR, to marketing, and billing!
For example, imagine a hospital that can instantly route an outpatient through to a nurse who cared for him last week - despite the fact that she's currently on the road to her next appointment. Or, conversely, imagine a bank service that can route a customer automatically towards an expert for money management after they've read through the last five questions he asked on live-chat about account spending. Today, it's about figuring out what your customer wants, and giving them a consistent experience, on any platform.