IT Briefcase Exclusive Interview: The Customer Experience Gap – A Q&A with IBM’s Hannah Egan

Consumers today are more powerful than ever before, and their demand for personalized buying experiences has skyrocketed. At a time when there is an app for nearly everything, brands need to make sure they’re delivering on their promises and providing seamless and relevant customer experiences across all channels from mobile devices to store fronts. This requires they understand customers on an emotional level and engage them personalized way. This is how brands deliver value to their customers and ultimately drive powerful advocates.

According to a recent study from IBM and Econsultancy, there is a significant gap between what consumers expect and what brands are able to deliver. In fact, a surprising four out of five consumers believe that the brands they interact with do not understand them as individuals – and half reported changing their banking, mobile, internet or satellite/cable service provider in the last 12 months due to experience-related factors. At the same time, almost 90 percent of marketers agree that personalizing the customer experience is critical to their success. This perception gap has huge implications for brands’ bottom lines and begs the question of why are brands so grossly missing the mark?

We posed several questions to Hannah Egan, Product Strategy Specialist, IBM Commerce and she helped us understand the changing customer experience landscape and offered some useful tips.

• Q. Based on the Econsultancy study, there seems to be a massive perception gap between how successful businesses think their marketing efforts are and the actual customer experience, why is that?

A. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the gap between customer experience and business marketing perception is all too real. Our study with Econsultancy revealed that almost 90 percent of marketers think that personalizing the customer experience is critical to success. However, the majority of marketers are falling short of customer expectations—the same study also revealed that 80 percent of consumers don’t believe that brands understand them as unique individuals.

To bridge this gap by creating more personalized interactions, brands need to capture and interpret customer behavior data. The digital age has empowered consumers to share information from likes and dislikes to their favorite colors and most passionate interests. Just like any relationship, customers expect their relationship with brands to be a two way street. So, what do they expect in return? The answer is easy, a better customer experience.

• Q. How can brands better cater to today’s consumer? What are some of the things that influence customers brand loyalty and trust? Can you share some tactics that retailers struggling to deliver personalized experience can use to start bulking up their customer engagement and loyalty?

A. Brands need to understand that the customer is at the epicenter of their business, making catering to their preferences critical to profitability. Consumers today want their engagements with brands to be convenient and personalized in real-time. The reality for brands is a failure to deliver on such interactions can spark consumers to abandon one brand for another, before you even realize it.

Retailers struggling to deliver relevant experiences need to leverage insights from analytics to understand their consumer. Analytics are changing the game by providing visibility across all engagement channels to better understand consumer behavior. Analytics—from predictive to cognitive – allow marketers to understand customer behaviors and preferences, thereby allowing them to target the right consumer at the right time with the right offer.  In today’s world, no marketer will survive without the use of analytics. When you know your customer, you are able to engage more effectively and build a loyal client base.

The Econsultancy study found that 49 percent of consumers changed service providers in the last 12 months, primarily due to experience-related factors. Specifically, 51 percent cited customer experience as the number one factor and 59 percent switched because a new company was able to offer something better. By showing a commitment to the customer and meeting their unique need, brands gain loyalty and trust. For many consumers this means both opting in to share more personal information and advocating for brands to their friends, family, colleagues and more.

• Q. What are some of the roadblocks that retailers are experiencing in terms of effective customer service? What can they do to improve this experience?

A. One major roadblock is a lack of experience in multi-channel engagement. Consumers want a cohesive experience across mobile, tablets, PCs, in-store, and beyond. If a consumer has a great online buying experience but has to wait 45 minutes for in store pick up, they are at a heightened risk of abandoning the brand.

To increase brand loyalty, BCS Financial Group turned to IBM Commerce to help plan, execute and measure marketing campaigns, leveraging analytics to understand valuable customer insights. Now BCS can determine if a particular customer banks online or with a mobile device, and whether a company is looking to make an investment to grow its business. Based on a better understanding of the products customers are using, the company can create more impactful and effective campaigns

Another roadblock is technology integration. While many brands have a set of technologies they lack the right connectors that will allow them to personalize the customer experience from one channel to the next. The Econsultancy study revealed that only 37 percent of marketers have the tools needed to deliver exceptional customer experiences.

For those who fall into this category, look at the big picture. What are you looking to accomplish? With these answers looks for solutions that are part of a larger marketing technology ecosystem, which allows you to select precisely what you need while having assurances that each piece will work together to help you achieve your goals.

• Q. According to the recent Econsultancy study, only 35% of consumers said the communications from their preferred retailers are “usually relevant,” which poses a big problem for brand loyalty. How can brands ensure relevant communication with customers?

A. I’ve talked a lot about analytics so perhaps the best way to answer this question is to show how some companies today are using these innovations to produce success:

– Care.com offers more than 20 different welcome programs, each of which automatically triggers an email when a user completes registration. The programs use IBM Commerce capability to populate images and content that are specific to each users’ needs and interests, providing a personalized experience from the very beginning. The emails are exciting and helpful and, as a result, customer engagement has increased significantly.

– Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the western hemisphere, has reinvented the way it designs and delivers seamless visitor interactions across all touch points. Using our cloud-based digital marketing platform within IBM Commerce, to easily manage its email campaigns, Georgia Aquarium has increased revenue from email by 32 percent and email open rates by 60 percent.

– Homebase, a home and gardening retailer in the United Kingdom, uses analytics to understand and anticipate customer needs. For example, teams can now tailor their customers’ experiences across more than 160 different kinds of home improvement projects. By offering relevant Do it Yourself (DIY) tips and interactive product information, Homebase has seen double-digit sales growth in all digital sales channels and a 30 percent increase in online visitors.

– Teleflora is using sophisticated digital marketing programs and creating meaningful shopping experiences for its customers by providing them with the largest global network in the floral industry for more than 80 years. Working with IBM Commerce, Teleflora is able to market to a variety of audiences requiring their own distinct personalized marketing interactions in a timely and supportive manner

To all the brands who struggle with customer loyalty, take a look at how you are treating your customers. Are you engaging them in consistent cross channel interactions or are you spamming their email with mass messages? Think of customer relationship, as just that- a relationship.   Treat your customers like unique brand advocates and they will be more likely to brag about their experiences with your product!

Hannah Egan, IBM Marketing Solutions, Product Strategy Specialist

As a strategist for IBM Smarter Commerce, Hannah supports the market and business analysis functions for IBM’s customer engagement software solutions. In this role, she is responsible for market segment analysis, customer insight and product innovation research.