While technology is an important aspect of customer service and engagement, it is just a component of the overall customer journey. The customer experience (CX) begins and ends in the real world, and technology serves as an enabler to enhance interaction.
This is according to Clint Payne, architect of Upside Down CX and culture transformation expert, who delivered the opening keynote address at the ITWeb CX Summit 2023 in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Focusing on ‘the human face of CX technology’, Payne said customer-facing technology has had a massive impact on customer service and ultimately the customer experience. It has changed traditional customer engagement tools and strategies.
Journey mapping playbook
He stressed the value of a CX journey mapping playbook. “Journey mapping is a resource-intensive process and having a playbook is vital to define the type of journey and the language of that journey. I believe it is also important to adhere to the principle of effort ratio… and this is three-to-one, meaning for every one request we address to a customer, we need to be doing three things to make fulfilling the request that much easier.”
There can be loads of technology as part of a customer journey, but if you have a playbook, you can make your technology sing, said Payne.
He said there is a lot of focus in the market on customer experience strategies, or the plans in place to manage the number of resources available, to define CX operations, processes, and actions. “This can feel daunting, but there are tools to help.”
His advice for businesses in developing a concrete customer experience strategy is to begin by asking and answering several questions, including: What is the CX destination? What does the business want to achieve? Is there an approach in place? Is there a playbook? Who is our customer? And what channels do we have in place to engage them?
CX experts at the event underlined the importance of customer experience in business.
According to research by Accenture, 72% of respondents to a survey acknowledge that external factors like social movements, climate change, inflation and economic pressure is impacting the way they engage brands.
As more brands enter the market and customers have more choice, CX will become increasingly important in determining the success of brand engagement.
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