A Customized Journey of the Customer Based on Trust

A CUSTOMIZED JOURNEY OF THE CUSTOMER BASED ON TRUST
By Dorian Selz, Co-Founder and CEO at Squirro, as printed in the exclusive C-Level magazine

The core of every customer relationship is trust – trust of the customer in the company’s products and services as well as the trust of the company in the customer. In the digital world, these customer relationships generate a growing volume of data.

The Economist magazine calls Data the “most valuable resource in the world”. But research shows that companies hardly know how to use this data for better customer relations. It can be used to build trust and put customers first.

KEY TO BETTER CUSTOMER RELATIONS

How can customer relationships be made more sustainable in the future thanks to data? The clever, legitimate linking of different data points can be used to create strong customer experiences: 1.) 360° view: from the beginning, there is a complete 360° view of each customer. Contextual information gives employees insights for better customer interactions. 2.) Better offers: accurate analysis allows customers’ needs to be linked directly to the company’s own offerings, comparable to Amazon’s successfully demonstrated suggestion function. 3.) Proactive approach: concrete suggestions can be generated for a good customer approach. A client advisor can proactively address after-sales cases with concrete suggestions for improvement. 4.) Self-service: a well-made, proactive, self-service platform offers opportunities to sustainably strengthen a customer relationship even outside of business hours.

The available data about customers is rich in insights. Now it is important to make them transparent. A good starting point is the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

IMPLEMENTATION IN THE COMPANY

A multi-step approach is well suited to introducing new technology such as AI, adapting the day-to-day business to new requirements and quickly achieving initial successes: 1.) Start – Simple First Goals. The starting point can be a 360° customer view. AI automatically creates a comprehensive picture of a customer relationship from internal and external data. 2.) Scale Up – Identification of New Sales Opportunities. While step 1 was about finding an existing customer relationship, step 2 is about exploring new market opportunities. 3.) Future – Personalized Customer Relations. The next generation of smart AI apps will allow completely personalized customer relationships.

AI allows employees to make faster, more reliable, and effective decisions. A company that knows its customers better can provide a better service, streamline business processes, and strengthen its competitiveness.