What are the new challenges in customer relations in the digital age?
As physical shops and sales outlets have been forced to suspend their activities for exceptionally long periods, retailers have naturally turned to digital channels to stay in touch with their customers. It is in this unprecedented context that the digitalisation of customer relations has accelerated.
This multi-faceted phenomenon refers both to the dematerialisation of exchanges and points of contact between a company and its targets, and to the transformation of purchasing paths. At the same time, brands are making increasing use of digital tools to better organise the management and monitoring of their customer relationships, and thus improve their customer service practices with a view to building customer loyalty.
As a customer relations professional, whether in sales, marketing or customer support, are you looking to gain a better understanding of the issues involved in the digital transformation of customer relations and customer journeys, and the benefits you stand to gain?
In this article, co-written with Frédéric Canevet, author of the book Le Growth Hacking, discover the keys to understanding the digital customer journey, and some ideas for implementing it in your organisation!
The challenges of digitalising customer relations
New customer expectations
With the advent of new technologies, buying habits and consumption patterns are changing, as are customers’ expectations of brands.
Increasingly connected and well-equipped, customers expect brands to offer them the same seamless service that they enjoy with their everyday digital habits :
- availability
- instantaneous
- interactivity.
It has become commonplace and even expected to be able to talk to the brand at any time, on any medium, anywhere.
The buying decision process has also been influenced: with easier access to information, digital customerscan find out more, compare offers and study the opinions of other consumers. They become more demanding and more critical before making their choice.
Finally, like the exploding trend on social networks, customers expect to join a community and rally around shared values, supported by the brand.
Towards an omnichannel customer relationship
These new consumer behaviours are having an impact on the customer relationship management practices of brands, which are constantly having to adapt.
Consumers do not hesitate to interact with brands using all the media and channels available to them: email, telephone calls, social networks, chatbots, video, etc.
To satisfy this strong demand for interactivity, a brand must not only increase the number of communication channels to facilitate exchanges, but also allow its customers and prospects to use the channel of their choice and switch from one to another as they wish.
Rather than being multi-channel, customer relations become omni-channel, offering customers the possibility of interacting with the brand throughout their journey, while guaranteeing the same quality of service.
The aim? To deploy strategies to offer a fluid and coherent digital customer experience that maintains continuity and provides personalised support for the customer.
The barriers between the physical and virtual domains are becoming ever thinner, and the customer journey is becoming phygital, with points of contact both online and offline.
Big Data for customer relations 3.0
With a constantly evolving digital ecosystem, the possibilities for businesses are expanding all the time with Big Data: large volumes of data can be collected by cutting-edge technological tools and then exploited as part of the customer relationship.
We’re talking here about customer data from all their behaviour and interactions on digital media and channels:
- websites
- mobile applications
- social networks
- chatbots, etc.
By aggregating and analysing this data, you can identify key trends in your target audience, prospects and customers:
- their profiles
- their engagement with your brand
- their preferences
- consumer habits, etc.
By using this type of data to create a digital customer relations strategy, brands are better able to offer a tailored service , providing users with what they are looking for.
The most advanced technologies even go so far as to anticipate customer needs, so as to better respond to their future requests. This predictive marketing serves to :
- to meet customers’ expectations by doing everything possible to respond to them as soon as they are formulated,
- and to develop products and services that are perfectly suited to their needs, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction.
Finally, by taking an interest in customer feedback, the data collected contributes to a process of continuous improvement. Whether we’re talking about sources of satisfaction or frustrations expressed, every company benefits from relying on reliable, quantified feedback to identify and rectify its shortcomings.
It will then be in a better position to improve its digital marketing strategy and steer it towards a better customer experience, which is also a source of customer loyalty.
Why digitalise customer relations?
It is becoming essential for brands to transform their customer relationship management digitally, in order to offer a high value-added experience and quality customer service.
Digital tools help to create a fluid customer journey that facilitates the act of buying and offers your customers the best possible experience - simple, personalised and positive. This not only improves your sales, but also activates levers to build an effective loyalty strategy.
As well as providing a satisfying shopping experience, digital allows you to nurture the relationship you can develop with your audience before they buy , in order to :
- make yourself known and attract the attention of prospects through inbound marketing,
- make it easier for them to find information
- forge a bond with your target audience,
- interact directly via the channels of their choice, etc.
These are all assets in a highly competitive world where the battle for attention is raging, and where the customer’s entire experience is at stake. customer experience with the brand can be a decisive differentiator from the competition.
Benefits of digitalising customer relations
For the customer
- A multiplicity of communication channels through which they can get in touch with the brand, making them contactable regardless of the medium used,
- effortless access to information at any time, whether it comes from the brand itself (website, social networks, etc.), or from other consumers (opinions, recommendations, etc.) to validate their purchasing decision,
- the fluidity of a coherent and pleasant customer journey , and a high-quality customer experience,
- responsive customer service to answer questions or requests,
- personalised offers to meet their expectations as closely as possible, etc.
For the company
- the automation of low added-value tasks in favour of human processing of more strategic tasks (for example, a chatbot processes simple requests and redirects high added-value requests to advisers),
- Improved customer loyalty thanks to higher quality customer service,
- Improved customer knowledge, thanks to the collection of a variety of data, and in particular the study of customer behaviour, so that we can always offer a better service,
- defining an appropriate marketing strategy, with the possibility of carrying out targeted actions and evaluating their impact,
- developing a positive and attractive brand image ,
- improved sales, thanks to facilitated shopping experiences and the creation of a relationship of trust, customer loyalty and retention prove profitable in the long term.
💡 But then, should “digitalized” rhyme with “dehumanized”? While interactions between brands and customers are becoming digitised and customer journeys automated, this does not rule out human contact. The emotional, empathetic and close dimension created by a brand also involves direct exchanges with those who represent it.
How can we successfully digitalise customer relations?
Get all departments working together
A successful digital transformation of customer relations requires major changes within the organisation. The sales, marketing and customer support teams need to be involved in the project and work hand in hand. This makes it possible to combine the strategic visions of the management teams with data from the field.
Communication about the benefits of digitisation is essential, so as to highlight the opportunities it represents for each of the teams involved, and so as not to be perceived as restrictive.
Define an omnichannel customer journey
Take stock of the current customer journey, define clear objectives for improving each stage, and create an action plan: digitising customer journeys must be carried out in project mode if it is to be a success.
The aim of omnichannel is to offer the same quality customer experience, whatever channel is used, while being able to follow the customer across all channels: Deciphering their behaviour to get to know them better and build loyalty, from pre-sales to after-sales.
Using the right digital tools
To achieve this, it is advisable to implement tools to create a “seamless” digital experience, ensuring continuity of information between the different marketing channels used:
- CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to centralise customer data, so as to gain greater customer knowledge and improve the quality of customer relations,
- a Customer Data Platform, to obtain a complete and in-depth view of a customer’s life cycle and create precise segments for targeted marketing actions,
- a marketing automation solution to implement automated marketing actions and enrich the customer experience,
- self-care tools to keep customers informed, answer simple questions about a product and anticipate their needs: chatbot, newsletter, dynamic FAQ, tutorials and resources on the website, etc.
- opinion management systems to gather customer feedback: satisfaction questionnaires, rating system or NPS score, etc. to improve the purchasing process and eliminate any friction points, etc.
Using indicators to study the customer journey
To improve your customer journey and fine-tune your digital strategy, use performance indicators or marketing KPIs to help you better understand user behaviour, habits and preferences.
Here are some examples of KPIs to evaluate
- time spent on certain key pages of your website,
- click-through or open rates for your email campaigns,
- usage rates for each of your communication channels,
- the number of visits to your dynamic FAQ,
- the most frequent requests, etc.
The tools you choose should include features to facilitate this evaluation and produce reports ready for analysis and action.
Your objective? Thanks to the customer knowledge you acquire, you can organise a personalised and efficient customer service throughout the customer journey, and develop a customer-centric strategy so that the customer remains at the heart of your entire approach.
