Customer engagement has changed substantially over the past few years. There is an interesting convergence taking place; one that will have massive implications in the way businesses reach out to consumers to offer products and services, influencing the purchasing decisions of consumers. In 2017, customer engagement will become smarter, more personalized and contextual – all thanks to emerging technologies such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and more.
Companies, whether large, medium or small in size, will need to redefine their consumer marketing strategy beyond the realms of just having a loyalty application or a fixed engagement program. With the plethora of communication channels arising in Asia, businesses need to be able to reach their customers in real-time through an omni-channel experience while constantly innovating their customer engagement tactics according to consumers’ behaviour.
In the coming year, customer experience is set to break the boundaries of traditional marketing and move towards building a more personalized customer journey by cohesively leveraging data, service, apps and customer engagement solutions.
Predictive Analytics
Predictive and smart data has redefined how we view marketing and customer engagement today. Over the last year, we saw how customer engagement has moved from the typical survey or mass mailing approach to become more personalized with individual interactions taking place with customers. Furthermore, the proliferation of predictive analytics in customer engagement will enable businesses to create richer and more targeted campaigns for their customers.
According to the recent Forbes Insight 2016, only 40% of executives polled believed that their customer data is highly accurate and provided desired insights. While businesses have started to realize the value of data, there is now a need to focus on whether they have the right technological solutions and the resources in place to efficiently capture real-time data and leverage that data effectively.
Businesses will also need to focus on digitalization in order to break the organizations silos to create a unified data stream, enabling businesses to gain a holistic view of their customers’ journey and behaviour.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in the market for quite some time, but in 2017, it is expected that a newer, smarter and advanced version of AI technology will lead to the proliferation of cognitive computing and machine learning systems, enabling businesses to employ sophisticated, adaptive and autonomous algorithms that will parse big data creating a hyper-targeted customer experience.
In 2017, more businesses will be investing in AI powered systems as they try to make the most out of their customer data from multiple channels. By leveraging machine learning capabilities of AI to engage consumers more strategically, businesses will be facing some exciting times in the customer experience space as business efficiency will now become more dependent on consumers’ behaviour and patterns than ever before.
Customer experiences will be attained through smarter platforms heavily driven by AI. With the stage being set for an automated era, businesses will need to start rethinking their technology strategies.
The customer will continue to be “King”