How Technology Is Changing The Customer Experience
So much of our lives has been and continues to be improved by technological innovation. It’s truly mind-boggling when you sit back and realize the exponential increases in technology over just the last fifty years.
Today’s businesses benefit from technological advances in many ways, but one of the more important of these is in the field of customer service. After all, a business without customers becomes extinct. Technology that improves a customer’s experience will keep that customer coming back time and again, as well as encourage positive word of mouth, which in turn brings more customers.
Here are five ways that today’s technology helps businesses provide better service to their customers.
Customer Portals
What better way is there to give customers a means of getting to know a business than by creating a customer portal? Put simply, a customer portal is an online support tool that allows customers to log into a business’ dedicated internal system and access specialized data (while naturally keeping those visitors away from sensitive information). It provides an interactive service that’s extremely personalized, giving them access to blogs, info databases, search functions, feedback, and more.
You can find a good example of a customer portal in the article “iOffice Customer Portal: The Future Of Support”.
The Internet Of Things
The Internet Of Things (or IoT for short) gives everyday objects such as vehicles, appliances, and electronics the means of collecting data via sensors and transmitting the results over the Internet without the need of human intervention. When that data is collected and processed, a business can formulate better marketing and sales strategies that speak more to the customers’ needs and wants. This kind of informed approach makes for happier customers who feel that they are getting special, personalized service.
Data Management and Analytics
You can’t mention the Internet of Things without dedicating a few words to this particular technology. All of that information delivered via the Internet Of Things, as well as the other information supplied by Big Data, needs to have a way to be managed, analyzed, and processed. Only then will a business have actionable content. Increasingly sophisticated and comprehensive data management and analytics help businesses to make sense of all that information and get a better idea of their customers’ habits and choices. That greater understanding leads to better customer relations.
Unified Communications
How many times have we heard that the world would be a better place if only people communicated better? There’s a lot of truth there, and good communication between customers and businesses is a key to a mutually beneficial relationship. With unified communications, no voice message or email ever need go unnoticed and consequently unanswered again. As a brief, non-scientific example of this, check businesses on Angie’s List, particularly the ones with negative items against them. In many instances the complaint is “They never returned my call.”
Mobile Apps
The whole world is going mobile, and smart businesses are the ones that know this and are taking advantage of it. Industries and organizations of all sorts are providing customers and clients with mobile apps that help enhance the experience of browsing and shopping. Whether it’s a health insurance provider or local favorite sports bar chain, downloadable apps empower, inform, and entertain the users, who in turn are more inclined to use the services or frequent the establishments. Mobile apps can provide menus, keep track of customer loyalty programs, offer updates and promotions, and even give directions. If it makes frequenting a business easier, customers will embrace it.
The march of technology shows no signs of slowing down. The businesses that will come out on top are the ones that march to that beat.
