Digital technology has quickly become part of our everyday lives, driven by technologies that are increasingly innovative and which are having a profound effect on our expectations and behaviour. And it is hyper-connected consumers more than businesses which are setting the pace thanks to the web and social networks. The multiplication of communication tools has altered the notion of customer relations which have become increasingly digitised. This realisation is pushing businesses into including and managing these points of contact with the aim of offering a high-quality, instantaneous and seamless customer experience. As the challenges are several, businesses are deploying appropriate digital strategies to create a customer journey which aims to offer an unmatched level of satisfaction in order to multiply sales and ensure customer loyalty. Discover the challenges and opportunities of digitisation of the customer relationship.
What is digitisation of the customer relationship?
The digital revolution has led to the creation of a range of tools to stay connected while on the move (smartphones, tablets, etc.), but also a multiplication of communication channels (social networks, emails, etc.). The consumer is continually informed and their level of expectation is increased, as they become used to viewing and sharing opinions as well as obtaining information in record time. Digitising the customer relationship means that a consumer has several contact points available to reach a business, thereby creating new consumption habits, expectations and demands driven by the pervasiveness of digital tools.
Currently, businesses must take into account the challenges of digitisation of the customer relationship, with the aim of providing a high-quality service throughout the customer journey. This new situation requires structural reorganisation which encourages cooperation between all services to offer an optimal digital customer experience.
The influence of digital technology in the customer relationship
Although digital technology has changed consumer behaviour, it has also brought about new ways of working and businesses' approach to the customer relationship. Today, the customer relationship includes all the interactions that a prospect/customer has with a brand, before, during and after the sale. Businesses therefore concentrate their strategy on the customer, whose experience has a central place among their concerns. The customer-actor can benefit from in-depth knowledge of a business thanks to the opinions of other web users, while having the power to influence with their own opinions and in multiple channels.
It is therefore paramount to offer a sufficient level of service to ensure satisfaction at each stage of the sales pathway. Businesses can now stay in contact permanently with their customers thanks to the range of contact points available (mobile, email, phone, internet, social media); the challenge is therefore to forge a close relationship that promotes their image and their development. A positive customer relationship which endeavours above all to be personal requires businesses to collect customer data in order to offer a bespoke service which satisfies these customers and ensures their loyalty. Because what the customer wants is a human relationship which makes them feel unique.
What are the benefits of digitising the customer relationship?
The evolution in the habits and expectations of consumers has changed their relationships with businesses which have no other choice but to adapt to this new situation in order to stand out from rivals and stay competitive. The purchasing journey has been radically changed by the ability for the consumer to form an opinion well before their first interaction with a sales assistant in a physical outlet, thanks to the range of available channels to read reviews and compare products and services. More well informed, they are becoming more demanding and volatile: the consumer's attention is becoming increasing difficult to capture and maintain.
Digitisation provides concrete responses to consumers' needs who expect a close relationship and real interactivity with a brand to satisfy them. Offering a satisfying customer relationship allows you to stand out with an offering with high added value, to perform and increase your reputation and your customers’ loyalty.
How to digitise the customer relationship?
Digitisation of the customer relationship has revolutionised practices and led to new ways of working, focused on the customers themselves and itself undergoing continuous change. It is a growth lever, which requires responding to the sales targets and the business's overall strategy. Identifying and prioritising information to digitise therefore remain essential for developing the right tools, steering the progress of the project and monitoring its results. This deployment is based on 6 methodological focuses, that need to be adapted to the particular business:
- Analysing the correlation between the target and the products/services;
- Analysing the digital behaviour of the target and the business;
- Identifying the sales channels already present and those that customers are demanding;
- Analysing current customer journeys and those to be developed;
- Defining a coherent, streamlined and customised digital strategy;
- Assessing performance and customer feedback.
In order to successfully digitise your customer relationship, the use of technological solutions and tools is essential. Choosing from among the range of solutions available requires some careful thinking as each needs particular technical know-how that cannot be overlooked:
- CRM: a CRM software allows customer data to be used to manage the customer relationship in a bespoke and satisfying way;
- Marketing Automation: a technology aimed at automating repetitive marketing tasks - newsletters - and customising the messages sent to improve the user experience:
- A Customer Success team: flexible and agile teams dedicated to improving the consumer experience during the customer journey ensure quality of service in line with expectations.
Opportunities of digitising the customer relationship.
Digitising the customer relationship provides businesses which make it central to their development strategy, with a growth opportunity given the increasing complexity of the purchase journey. It involves offering their prospects and customers new communication channels to develop their satisfaction and to increase their loyalty. Digitising the customer relationship therefore relies on the omnichannel principle, namely, the multiplication of contact points between a business and a prospect/customer.
The development of an omnichannel strategy gives businesses the opportunity to deploy new sales channels and solutions to reach new customers and capture their attention. A store brand for example can integrate digital signage into its sales outlets in order to create a relay of its digital store front.
Digital in-store offers an original immersive experience, and is one of the most efficient and attractive solutions to generate in-store footfall. Cenareo assists businesses in deploying an innovative communication resources thanks to its system dedicated to digital signage.
Easy to access, the Cenareo solution makes in-store digital signage an innovative communication channel with strong ROI, to meet the needs of digitising the customer relationship.
The omnichannel offers a streamlined experience from one channel to another and offers an overall vision of the customer journey, in order to create a qualitative relationship and a premium level of service. In addition, data collection provides businesses with a large amount of information about their customers’ habits and desires. Added to a good definition of their target and positioning, all these data are a precious database of information to become aware of the customer journey and to best respond to it.
Now aware of the importance of digitising the customer relationship, do you want to deploy high-performing tools to increase your customers’ satisfaction? Move forward with your customer-centric approach thanks to Cenareo and create greater loyalty among your customers. Cenareo offers bespoke assistance to deploy a powerful omnichannel strategy to attract and satisfy your customers and increase their loyalty.