Issue October 2008
Overview

Clarity creates sustainability

Understanding the customer of tomorrow

Customer expectations are constantly rising. Anyone who also wants to succeed in economically difficult times must be able to fulfill customer requirements better than the competition and thereby work extremely efficiently. The following example should illustrate how “intelligent” systems can help you better understand your customers.

Scenario: intuitive service for field sales staff

Mr. Clever, the Sales Representative from NEXT, has an appointment to visit his main customer. As planned, he is woken up by his business iPhone, which suggests that he should set off earlier because of current traffic congestion. He gets into his car and is able to get the latest information on the customer from the customer dossier and from the press using his iPhone. During the meeting with the customer, he has at hand all relevant information clearly laid out in the customer dossier. He therefore comes across as very well informed. On his return trip, Mr. Clever uses his iPhone to dictate the customer’s requirements, the knowledge he has gained about the customer, follow-ups, e-mails and his visit report directly into his CRM system. His colleagues are informed immediately: NEXT processes the customer’s orders or complaints while Mr. Clever’s is still on his return journey and sends the customer the agreed information. The customer is regularly notified about the processing status automatically. His confidence in the professionalism of Mr. Clever and NEXT increases.

In this scenario, customer-oriented people and processes are the key to success. The customer is impressed by the perfect preparation, expert advice, fast and exact implementation, and smooth procedures. To achieve this, Mr. Clever and all of the other employees are supported by intelligent networked technology.

What expectations do the customers of tomorrow have in a networked world? What key qualifications must our company acquire? What changes can we predict today and thereforeand thereby initiate the necessary measures?

Customers become partners

Technical networking between customers, systems and the provider drives a new, customer-focused company organization. During communication between customer and provider, a paradigm shift is currently taking place: in the future customer-provider relationship and communication will be arranged less asymmetrically. The customer becomes a partner in a mutual value creation process. With this in mind, the customer interface must be adapted accordingly.

Simple and intuitive

The object of creating customer experience with a variety of interfaces and the involvement of products will become a strategic organizational task. Even with an increase in complexity, the customer still expects smooth processes and intuitive, appealing products. Through their outstanding success on the market, companies such as Apple demonstrate the successful implementation of this customer requirement.

Effective and reliable

In future, the demands on customer communication will be dominated more intensively by a high level of awareness for time and efficiency. The networked customer is always ready to switch to the competitor. He or she is very unwilling to wait, and every unfulfilled expectation can mean the end of the customer relationship. “Smart assistants” aim to ease the burden on customers and providers. Rule-based communication tasks will be delegated to autonomous agents. For example, your phone will simply notify you when it needs to be recharged or you will be reminded in good time about a due tax payment before you receive a formal reminder and are charged interest.

Personal and appreciative

Customer differentiation no longer results in customer segmentation, not even when each customer is dealt with individually. Context intelligence is called for: in future, we must respond better to the customer’s current needs. Using optimized customer models you will even be able to anticipate a customer’s needs before he or she is aware of them. This requires a detailed knowledge of the customer’s biography and current needs.

The appreciation is intentionally ambiguous: with customers who provide a large amount of potential business, an investment is made in direct personal customer relationships; and with all customers the appreciation can be experienced in all interactions.

The discussions on customer forums provide a valuable source of information. Analytical tools help to evaluate customer opinions and experience reports. The results are used for further development and for customer segmentation. Through customer evaluation and systematic customer surveys, the most useful suggestions for improvement are filtered out and used for developing products in line with market requirements. The ProUser, Producer (Pro) and User in one, will become reality to a certain extent.

Emotionally appealing

The customers of tomorrow also want to know that their material and emotional needs are fulfilled authentically. In order to arouse their enthusiasm, we not only need smiling employees who fulfill the customers’ requests honestly, in a friendly and competent way. We also need smiling processes that are fault-tolerant, can be adjusted flexibly and quickly to the customer’s needs, and that quickly consult a friendly employee if the customer’s requirements go beyond the foreseeable. If this employee is given enough leeway, then a problematic customer can often become one who enthusiastically recommends the company.

Focusing on the customers of the future

For our staff, a "customer-oriented mentality" is a coveted key skill. The orientation of our company towards Customer Excellence provides a competitive edge today – tomorrow, companies that prefer to focus on their products will no longer be competitive due to the change in customer requirements.

We at CAS Software AG see our task in providing our customers with CRM systems that are optimized towards changes in customer needs and ensuring mutual lasting success for ourselves and customers.

© CAS Software AG