How do you set your business up for consistent, continuous growth?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the million dollar question that businesses face every day. To answer it, we believe that there are three recurring trends that are shaping the future of business:<\/p>\n
These three trends \u2013 ongoing digital transformation, rising consumer expectations, and the blurring of responsibilities between teams \u2013 all reveal one huge, undeniable truth: customer experience is now a top-line concern for all companies. That is, in order to stay competitive, businesses need to put customers first by creating engaging, personalized customer experiences.<\/p>\n
But this is where many companies are struggling. Customer experience \u2013 and by extension, customer engagement<\/a>, which is the combined cumulative effect of the customer experiences you offer at every touchpoint \u2013 can be tricky to get right at scale, especially when you\u2019re trying to provide a cohesive experience across multiple teams and channels. But in order to stay successful in this new landscape, businesses need to run with customer engagement in mind.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n Digital transformation was already an unavoidable trend \u2013 but the pandemic has made it truly business critical.<\/p>\n While customers were already starting to show a clear preference for digital channels such as messaging<\/a>, COVID-19 amplified this pressure to connect with customers online<\/a> or risk not connecting with them at all. Subsequently, McKinsey & Company found that the COVID-19 crisis had accelerated the digitization of customer interactions by several years<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTechnology capabilities were one of the key factors of business success during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This trend shows no signs of slowing down. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC)<\/a>, 65% of global GDP will be digitalized<\/a> by 2022, and investment in digital transformation (DX) continues to grow. They predict that by 2023, 75% of organizations will have comprehensive DX implementation roadmaps, compared to only 27% in 2020.<\/p>\n As a result, digital technologies are being seen as the critical differentiators they are. According to that same report by McKinsey & Company, executive mindsets on technology\u2019s strategic importance have changed radically during the crisis. Gone are the days of pinching pennies in an attempt to cut costs; instead, the true ROI of technology is front of mind for many executives, with more than half reporting that they\u2019re investing more in technology to make it a competitive advantage or refocusing the entire business around digital technologies. Respondents also noted that technology capabilities were one of the key factors of business success during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cFor any business\u2019s digital transformation to be effective, it needs to stay laser focused on the needs of its customers and leverage these new capabilities to create relevant customer engagement\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But as with all technology, the right tools are only half the battle: you also need to ensure you\u2019re using them in service of the right goals. As Deloitte notes<\/a>, for any business\u2019s digital transformation to be effective, it needs to stay laser focused on the needs of its customers and leverage these new capabilities to create relevant customer engagement.<\/p>\n \u201cWith digital becoming an integral part of the new normal, those brands that can elevate the human experience will be able to make a lasting emotional connection with their customers, which then becomes transformational.\u201d How can you ensure you\u2019re meeting the need for digital transformation and providing engaging customer experiences at scale \u2013 without wasting time and money on endless tools? Invest in creating an integrated tech stack<\/a> that allows you to seamlessly engage your customers at every stage of their digital journey.<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t just allow you to reach customers at the most opportune moments and via their preferred medium. By using one platform for all of your customer communication needs, you can also develop a deeper and more cohesive understanding of your customers, leading to game-changing insights as well as more customer-centric \u2013 and time-saving \u2013 workflows behind the scenes. (More on that later.)<\/p>\n And to ensure you\u2019re being as efficient as possible, look for a customer communications platform<\/a> that seamlessly integrates with the other key tools in your tech stack, so you can maximize your efficiency.<\/p>\n Ahead of the trend: Vend<\/strong><\/p>\n When Vend saw their conversation volume increase by 24% at the beginning of the pandemic, they decided to turn off their phone and email support and move entirely to chat. By making chat their primary support channel, they\u2019ve been able to increase agent productivity and engagement, resolve 1 in 5 inbound conversations automatically, and maintain a customer satisfaction score of 90%.<\/p>\n Read more \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This one is a tough pill to swallow for businesses who have only focused on product-driven growth: a great product is no longer enough. After all, as Intercom\u2019s co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor says, almost any product or service can be replicated by a competitor<\/a>. So how do you stand out? With a plethora of comparable options in the market, customers will take their business to the company that provides the best experience<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201c90% of Americans say that customer service is important to their choice of \u2013 and ongoing loyalty to \u2013 a brand\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Customer experience is becoming a critical differentiator for consumers, and it\u2019s having a direct effect on businesses\u2019 bottom lines. According to research by Microsoft<\/a>, 90% of Americans say that customer service is important to their choice of \u2013 and ongoing loyalty to \u2013 a brand. And if their service expectations aren\u2019t met? Over half of customers (58%) would happily sever the relationship. On the other hand, Salesforce notes<\/a>, 78% of consumers will forgive a company for making a mistake after receiving excellent service.<\/p>\n But although customers expect to receive excellent service from companies, the gap between their expectations and reality is stark. Last year, we found that<\/a> while 73% of support leaders say that customer expectations are increasing, only 42% believe that they\u2019re meeting those expectations. This year, the gulf has widened<\/a>, with only 34% of support leaders confident that they can meet increased expectations.<\/p>\n \u201cCustomer experience and great service isn\u2019t just the responsibility of your support team \u2013 every customer-facing team, and every automated and proactive touchpoint, has a role to play\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What constitutes an exceptional experience? For starters, it\u2019s important to note that customer experience and great service isn\u2019t just the responsibility of your support team \u2013 every customer-facing team, and every automated and proactive touchpoint, has a role to play. Regardless, every experience should be personalized and personal, as well as<\/a> fast, convenient, knowledgeable, and friendly. No pressure.<\/p>\n This is where your artfully curated and seamless tech stack comes in. With a clever customer communications platform fuelling your customer experiences across multiple touchpoints and customer journeys, you can stay personal at scale, without sacrificing on speed or burning out your teams.<\/p>\n The great thing about personalized engagement is that it doesn’t always need to involve a person. Customers don\u2019t mind whether their great experience comes from a human or a bot, so long as it\u2019s a great experience. Ultimately, it depends on their needs: do they want fast, easy answers, or do they have more complex queries that need a human touch?<\/p>\n By using humans and automation together, you can offer up personalized engagement at scale, providing efficient, effective answers without overstretching your customer-facing teams. With custom bots and automation taking care of the simple stuff, like resolving queries or qualifying leads, you can free up your teams\u2019 time to focus on the areas where they can have the most impact, like helping VIP customers with complex issues or getting major logos over the line.<\/p>\n Ahead of the trend: Frame.io<\/strong> Read more \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n From both the customer and business perspective, the lines between sales, marketing, product, and support are blurring. So it\u2019s no surprise that 76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments<\/a> when they communicate with a company.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this is another example of customer expectations going unmet. Instead of a cohesive experience, 54% of customers say they generally feel like they\u2019re communicating with separate departments. Even worse: 65% reported often having to repeat or re-explain information to different representatives, creating a huge time sink for customers (not to mention a terrible customer experience).<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s no longer good enough to say \u2018Sorry, that\u2019s a marketing\/sales\/product issue\u2019 \u2013 now, it\u2019s simply a customer issue\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In a more dynamic and collaborative world, businesses are looking for a cohesive and integrated way for teams to work together in order to build relationships with customers and retain them long term. It\u2019s no longer good enough to say \u201cSorry, that\u2019s a marketing\/sales\/product issue\u201d \u2013 now, it\u2019s simply a customer issue.<\/p>\n But in order to put this customer-centric approach into practice, teams need to be able to collaborate effortlessly behind the scenes to create this seamless customer experience. And if you want to empower your teams to collaborate effortlessly behind the scenes, you need to be thinking about employee experience right alongside customer experience.<\/p>\n \u201cHappy, empowered employees are the key to happy, empowered customers\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is what Gartner calls \u201ctotal experience\u201d (TX)<\/a>, a business strategy that combines multiple experience disciplines \u2013 like customer experience, employee experience, and user experience \u2013 with the aim of driving greater satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy across all. It recognizes that these things are all interlinked: an unhappy employee won\u2019t be able to provide a positive experience to customers when they\u2019re not having a positive experience themselves. Instead, we must recognize that happy, empowered employees are the key to happy, empowered customers.<\/p>\n Gartner predicts that by 2026, 60% of large enterprises will use total experience<\/a> to transform their business models to achieve world-class customer and employee advocacy levels.<\/p>\n The right tools can be a major factor in improving both employee and customer experiences. As an employee, there\u2019s nothing more frustrating than being at the mercy of a clunky, slow, unreliable tool to do your job \u2013 except maybe being at the mercy of several disconnected, non-integrated clunk, slow, unreliable tools that you need to switch between several times a day.<\/p>\n \u201cBy using one platform for all of your customer communication needs across sales, support, marketing, and product, you can create better employee and customer experiences\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As part of your digital transformation, you should be looking to slim down your tech stack and focus on multipurpose tools that play nicely with the other essential apps in your arsenal. Your chosen tools should also make life easier, simpler, more efficient, and more productive for your employees.<\/p>\n For example, by using one platform for all of your customer communication needs across sales, support, marketing, and product, you can create better employee and customer experiences. With one centralized communications platform that gives every team a holistic view of the customer\u2019s history to date, you can provide teams with the visibility and context they need to communicate more productively with customers at every stage of their journey.<\/p>\n In turn, this allows them to collaborate more effectively across the whole business. Instead of wasting time trying to chase down siloed information or re-route queries, every team member can get deeper insights, allowing them to work faster and build stronger relationships.<\/p>\n The result? More empowered employees, who are given the resources they need to engage customers with personalized communications and experiences at exactly the right time, leading to more satisfied customers.<\/p>\n Ahead of the trend: Atlassian<\/strong> Read more \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Creating better, more personalized customer experiences through digital transformation and greater cross-functional collaboration doesn\u2019t just mean happier customers. All of these positive experiences throughout the customer journey ladder up to create better relationships \u2013 which in turn drives incredible business results, like reduced churn, increased expansion, and improved retention.<\/p>\n More than simply one-time connections, these experiences become opportunities, allowing for an ongoing dialogue throughout the customer lifecycle that benefits both you and your customers. They\u2019re digitally driven, using in-context, timely, and data-rich communications, but remain fundamentally human and personalized.<\/p>\n This long-term shift in how you think about your customers is key to your next wave of growth. That\u2019s why industry-leading companies<\/a> rely on Intercom, the Engagement OS. It\u2019s the customer communications platform built for the speed and scale of internet business, that enables engagement throughout the journey \u2013 from acquiring to onboarding, activating, support, and beyond. So every customer gets what they need, and your business makes the most of every opportunity.<\/p>\n Ready for your next wave of growth? See how Intercom can help.<\/p>\n1. Rapid digital transformation is changing how businesses and consumers interact for good<\/h2>\n
\n\u2013 Embracing digital: from survival to thriving in the post-COVID-19 world<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nMake the trend work for you: Curate the right tech stack to engage your customers at scale<\/h3>\n
2. Consumer expectations for exceptional, engaging experiences are rising<\/h2>\n
Make the trend work for you: Use automation to provide personalized engagement every step of the way<\/h3>\n
\nHow does cloud-based video collaboration platform Frame.io provide personalized support to two million customers? By cleverly using automation to empower their customers and free up their team\u2019s time, Frame.io has seen an 87.5% reduction in first response time while maintaining an impressive 96% CSAT score across thousands of monthly conversations.<\/p>\n3. Every team needs to become more customer-centric \u2013 because customer engagement is everyone\u2019s job<\/h2>\n
Make the trend work for you: Keep your teams connected to drive better employee (and customer) experiences<\/h3>\n
\nSoftware giant Atlassian has over 7,000 employees, all working hard to deliver the best possible experiences for more than 200,000 customers. With Intercom supporting their customer communication needs, the Atlassian team has experienced improved collaboration and communication, empowering them to drive growth across all areas of the business.<\/p>\nBetter customer experiences lead to better customer engagement<\/h2>\n