As the capabilities of technologies evolve, customers have started to expect new standards of excellence, performance, and everything in between. Whether it is AI, chatbots, real-time texting, or interactive video, technology dominates the discussion today whenever the topic of customer engagement and experience comes up. This is because technology is shaping customer experience and engagement today and here is how.
Not only is technology changing how companies operate each day by giving them tools to be more efficient, it is also changing the way companies engage with the customer. Before the advent of the internet, customer engagement was fairly limited to the traditional forms of advertising and interaction. Customer engagement and customer experience are closely related as how a company engages with its customers shapes the latter’s experience with the business.
So, how is technology helping to enhance customer engagement? Before you find this out, it is important to understand that the definition of customer engagement isn’t static. Instead, it is consistently evolving with the company due to new trends, technologies, and techniques. Considering this, the best way to define customer engagement would be the interaction between the consumer and business through any channel that the business is on. Thanks to the internet and smart phone technology, consumers today can interact and engage with companies from anywhere and at any time, 24/7.
You can’t buy great customer engagement—it is as simple as that. Instead, it’s a competitive advantage that you have earn through continuous improvement evolution. The good news is that technology can help you get there. How exactly? We find that out next.
How Technology is Helping Increase Customer Engagement
Customers today operate with a digital-first mentality. In fact, the digital channels: social, messaging, SMS, Chatbots, are fast becoming the first entry into the entire customer experience. Technology is changing how people want to live, work, and engage and no one is willing to wait—or settle for less. In such times, businesses need touchpoint technology to better connect with customers, no matter what business they’re in.
If you’re wondering how you can use technology to enhance customer experience and engagement, then the following trends in customer experience and engagement will give a good idea of what is required from your side to increase customer engagement and enhance the customer’s experience with your business.
Technology is Making Customer Experience More Personalized
The new era of technology allows businesses to offer ‘personalized marketing’. This type of marketing is based on the interests of the consumer—which are collected using Internet cookies and Browsing History. For example, if you’ve been searching for headphones on Amazon for the past five minutes, the ‘recommended for you’ section would most likely include headphones. Not only has the feature made things easy for shoppers, it has helped the Amazon to boost revenue by 10% to 30%.
The above feature enabling personalized marketing can benefit your business’ bottom line while helping increase customer engagement. The success of this form of personalized marketing can be gauged by the fact that 44% of consumers in 2015 started their product searches on Amazon due to the above-mentioned customer engagement feature of the eCommerce giant.
VR is Changing the Definition of Customer Experience
More than any other technology, virtual technology (VR) has the capability to fundamentally change how we define customer experience. Providing them with new experiences of a product or service, VR can immerse consumers to help brands enhance their customer experience. VR can capture the attention and imagination of a consumer better than any other technology as it is designed to provide a sensory experience. As a result, more and more businesses today are using VR today to make the most of its uniqueness.Businesses are hoping that customers will appreciate seeing their products in a new light and maybe, just maybe, it would propel them to not look elsewhere.
Omni-Channel Customer Experience Will Grow
Successful business will further fuse digital and physical experiences as brands increasingly accept the need to provide customers with joined-up journeys. The boundaries between the different realms—human, digital, physical, virtual, are blurring. As a result, customer-driven businesses are starting to integrate systems of insight and systems of engagement to interconnect people, places, and objects with data to improve customer engagement and forge a two-way relationship.
In the coming years, successful businesses will increasingly focus on the human experience and will make significant investments to integrate technology into the physical experiences of both customers and employees. According to Forrester—the American market research company, the coming years will see significant growth in the use of technologies that integrate digital and physical experiences through mobile devices. Examples of these technologies are image recognition, gestures, and augmented reality (AR). Forrester predicts that by 2019, companies will augment physical experiences with emerging digital technologies.
The Growth of Chatbots Will Increase in the Future
It wouldn’t be wrong to say to that chatbots are turning heads today. Today’s artificially intelligent chatbots represent an outstanding step forward for brands keen to offload easier, routine queries and encounters to an intelligent system.In the coming years, chatbots are expected to gain a greater ‘voice’ among consumers and businesses. When this happens, there will need to be a proper balance and integration between machines and humans.
Most consumers today prefer chatbots for routine customer service. Moreover, 69% of consumers prefer chatbots for quick communication with brands.
By now, it should be clear that technology can enhance customer experience and engagement. However, a digital-first mentality will require both: high tech and high touch. How can you ensure that? get in touch with us today to find out.
by Bobby J Davidson
We love our company and we love what we do. Check out the ‘Why Percento‘ page to learn more: Love of Technology and Business! As the President of Percento Technologies International, I provide day-to-day leadership to the company’s senior management and I am personally involved in the strategy, business development and sales activities of the firm.
The company was founded in 1999 with the purpose of providing a one call source for organizations in need of Enterprise IT Consulting and Management. We also provide a line of products in the boutique Cloud Server space with a touch of high-end website strategy consulting and design services. We personalizes the IT Service experience with a team approach, working with clients from diverse sectors of industry, including energy services, financial, legal, entertainment, healthcare, hospitality, retail and general and/or corporate business.
Our Mission: “Creating innovative IT solutions for business leaders worldwide through cutting edge technologies.”
Contact me today to discuss how our great team can assist: 1 800 614 7886 or our Contact Form.