As digital transformation fuels improvements in areas like customer communications and personalized recommendations, customers are growing accustomed to better encounters with brands. From quick deliveries to sites that predict what they will want in the future, customers find companies anticipating their needs. The focus on experiences as a competitive differentiator is helping fuel a new enterprise customer experience technology market.
This new market focuses on digital development and will support a cloud contact center that can meet critical needs:
- The ability to pull data from customer interactions as well as third-party sources to analyze and predict future events and equip employees to meet customer requests in real time
- Foster personalization and convenience through omnichannel customer communications
- Use clear context to respond to customers with the right messaging
Businesses looking to capitalize on an increasingly digitally-equipped customer experience need to be able to embrace a proactive approach that is based on integrated, real-time data. This requires technology that can sense customer needs and respond accordingly, as well as personalize every engagement with the customer. This also requires a coordinated strategy that organizes employees around customer experiences, supported by emerging technology like intelligent networks and a focus on immersive engagement.
The results of a survey from Omdia demonstrate the change that has occurred, prompting businesses to prioritize enterprise customer experience technology. Before the pandemic, the 6,000 respondents to the annual Enterprise Insights survey indicated that the transformation of the customer experience was the last priority. The latest edition of the survey showed that 76% of enterprises have identified it as their top priority for digital transformation. In addition, 73% of respondents said that having the right technology platforms is important to their strategies over the next 18 months.
While the emerging market is still taking shape, expect that the cloud contact center will play an important role in how the changing technology supports the enterprise customer experience. Traditional contact center as a service (CCaaS) providers are beginning to launch new engagement platforms that are more proactive in providing the most timely offers and communications.
The focus on enterprise customer experience technology will likely include platforms designed to handle customer data, buyer’s journey analytics, mapping, and visualization and marketing tools designed to optimize campaigns. The market will also see more integration between workplace collaboration tools and cloud contact center solutions.
While there is no single provider offering a complete solution centering solely on enterprise customer experience technology, the increased interest and demand will likely see new options emerging. Even as the technology is being developed, the success of this model relies heavily on an organization-wide commitment to data, the customer, and the relationship between the two. Employees must be empowered to easily access customer data and personalize the experience through the contact center.
Prioritizing the adoption of enterprise customer experience technology as it becomes available may be a reliable strategy for gaining a competitive edge. For more information, contact us at Cloud Source.