We probably all remember examples of great customer service we’ve had. We definitely remember the terrible ones. And no doubt most of us have bitched and moaned to our friends, family and colleagues – even, in the age of social media, complete strangers – about those negative interactions.  

It’s human nature. And with one-in-three consumers admitting they will walk away from a brand they love after a single bad experience, creating customer journeys that are relevant, deeply personalized, low-friction and seamless across multiple different touchpoints has never been more important. The question is, how? 

The CX perception gap 

Because doing so is easier said than done. While 80% of brands believe they deliver a great customer experience, recent research from Bain & Co. suggests that only 8% of customers feel the same way. And in order to bridge that gap between perception and reality, many organizations are turning to technology in order to up their game. A whopping 68% of firms expanded their use of CX technology last year in an effort to elevate both the agent and the customer experience.  

But according to CX leaders attending the recent CX Innovation Summit, a big part of what makes customer data management complicated right now is the sheer number of disparate, disconnected CX products companies are using. So making the right decisions now is critical. 

“The biggest challenge in pursuing seamless experience is consistency,” suggested AJ Triano, EVP and Practice Lead for Customer Experience at Syneos Health. “Whether you’re talking about data use, operations, technology, culture – whatever – you want to be starting from a common understanding, a common platform. And the underlying architecture is so important to that. You might have a single point of entry for a customer, but if the journey becomes fragmented after that then the fragmentation will ultimately show through in the customer experience.” 

Disparate systems 

Tyler Wonderlic, Senior Director of Customer Service at Hiya, agreed. He suggested that a lack of coordinated agent tooling is really holding brands back. “One of the worst things you can do is not empower your agents with joined up systems and data,” he says. “Disparate systems is a real problem.”  

It’s an idea backed up by the fact that two-thirds of companies responding to a recent Forrester report admit they’re operating in hybrid environments, with multiple different CX systems in play. Worryingly, over half said these were minimally – or, worse, not at all – integrated. And a further 40% reported only implementing their CX technology for a single department or use case.  

Fortunately, a new generation of tools is emerging to join the dots between different systems, channels and customer touchpoints. 

Emerging tools 

“We’re looking at technologies that let you get real-time insights to your customer agents – almost like a just-in-time knowledge graph – when they’re taking a call, in order to deliver great service,” explained Triano. “The challenge is getting data back into the system via feedback loops in order to inform the next touch.” 

According to Triano, that next touch might not simply be another service call. “It might be the CRM system. Or it might be dynamic web content delivered by your marketing tech stack. It’s about continuing the moment, continuing the momentum of that customer journey, and delivering a seamless experience across multiple different touchpoints.” 

For Wonderlic, having the right tools is critical to empowering your agents. “How you deploy data and get it into the hands of your agents is key,” he argued. “It’s all about action. You can have all the data in the world, but if you’re not able to get it to the right people and empower them to drive a beautiful experience for your customers, then collecting it is just a massive waste of time and money.”  

GDS Summits are tailored three-day virtual event conferences that bring together business leaders and solution providers to accelerate sales cycles, industry conversations and outcomes. Regarding the CX Innovation Summit 86% of delegates said the overall experience of Digital Summit they attended was either above average or excellent, and 71% of delegates said the digital summit provided them with actionable outcomes to support their current initiatives.  

Click here to hear from attendees on how GDS has helped them to achieve their business outcomes. And to continue the debate at GDS Group’s CX Innovation Summits – where we bring together senior marketing executives who are actively seeking to share, learn, engage, and find the best solutions – Apply to Attend here.