Kate Leggett, VP & Principal Analyst at Forrester Research and leading expert in customer relationship management and customer service strategy, joined Guy Nirpaz, CEO & Co-Founder of Totango, to talk about customer centricity and the technology that is disrupting the traditional approach to achieving it.
Check out the 6 key takeaways from the webinar:
- The customer controls the conversation, so differentiated experiences are key.
In what Forrester calls “The Age of the Customer”, companies need to deliver experiences in line with customer expectations to garner satisfaction and longtime loyalty to a brand. Just a decade ago, companies controlled all the information on the products and services they offer, but the world has shifted. Customers today, especially in the B2B world, control their conversations with businesses.
- Good customer experiences are good for business.
Good customer experiences have a direct, positive impact on top-line revenue and shareholder valuation. Good experiences correlate to satisfied customers, who are more likely to do business with your company. A satisfied loyal customer will have a higher lifetime value and serve as an advocate for your company, products, and services, which ultimately drives future sales.
Forrester’s surveys find that a majority of respondents across industries say they’d be willing to pay a premium for a good experience with the brand. The better the customer experience that you are able to deliver, the higher the price premium you can command.
- Companies need to deliver customer experiences in line with customer expectations.
Customers today want to be nurtured and hand-held every step along their journey with your company. From on-boarding to training to industry best practices, customers want their business goals reached with the purchase of your product. Only after these goals are reached can expansion opportunities be pursued.
- All employees must be empowered with transparent customer information.
Employees must be connected to their customers to deliver high-quality customer experiences, but few are. There is a real disconnect between the goal of being customer-centric and actually empowering employees whose actions influence the customer. Employees must be equipped with the tools and technologies to not only get their work done but to understand their customers’ situations.
Very few employees impact customers at all stages of their journey or have a full view of the customer. Customer success technologies do a great job of empowering the customer success manager, but they do not democratize the customer to the rest of the influencers in the organization. Customer data must be democratized and employees must really understand their customers in order to be successful.
- Changing dynamics in our workforce is changing the nature of how work is done.
Millennials are bringing their values into work relationships in non-traditional ways such as collaboration, trust, transparency, easy access, and authenticity. Employees today seek autonomy, mastery, and purpose, and want to feel connected with their work, colleagues, and customers. They want to feel empowered to do the right thing for the company and customers, and have a deep understanding of who their customer is. Employees today want to be engaged in complex work, and to do it well by integrating information, engaging in technologies, and mastering their domain. They want to work in a culture that rewards ownership and do work impacting the company and customers.
- Technology like Zoe is changing the game in how companies achieve a customer-centric culture.
Zoe is a conversational interface that gives access to customer data to everyone in the company in the tools they use everyday, and enables them to swarm organically to make impacts on their customers. Zoe empowers every role and department within an organization to align around a customer, which enables a customer-centric culture. Zoe breaks down information and data silos and enables company-wide participation in customer success. Zoe’s effect ripples across the entire organization, affecting how employees do their job and ultimately impacting customers.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tool that democratizes customer data and aligns the company around customer success? Meet Zoe!
Forrester’s key message around the future of customer-centricity is that the customer experience is directly tied to a company’s business results, so it’s imperative that businesses invest in tools and technologies to empower their workforce. Zoe is the leading technology that can help businesses centralize their focus on customer success. To gain the business advantage of company-wide alignment, contact Totango today to set up a demo of Zoe.
You can access the presentation slides here.
