As seismic shifts continue to reverberate across the customer engagement landscape, most brands are struggling to keep up with drastically changing consumer behaviors and buying journeys. The rapid adoption of digital technology, the rise of mobile devices, and the new purchasing power of a highly informed and socially connected populous have forever altered the customer experience.
In this respect, CRM must evolve past its current limitations and unite the growing disparities among consumer awareness, conversion, and continuing customer engagement. To effectively manage the customer experience today, brands must find ways to embrace an array of real-time personalized strategies that engage a new generation of digital customers with speed and accuracy.
These are among the concerns that brought marketing professionals and technology experts to the recent Gartner Customer 360 Summit in San Diego, California. During a session titled, “SAP: The CRM Paradigm Shift: From Managing Relationships to Customer Engagement,” Dr. Volker Hildebrand, SAP Global VP of CRM Solution Management, talked about how SAP’s next generational Customer Engagement & Commerce suite can help overcome these challenges.
“In a digital world, customers expect brands to interact and engage with them in real time, in the moment, when it matters to them, and in a relevant context,” Hildebrand said. “And you have to engage through a channel that is convenient for them. So, clearly, customers have changed the rules of engagement, and they are using multiple channels, which they also expect to switch seamlessly between.”
These challenges should not come as a surprise to marketers. This is all part of the new normal. But Hildebrand wanted to take these reflections further, and make sure that brands understand what this means from the customer’s perspective.
“Customers do not think in channels like organizations do,” Hildebrand said. “For them, everything is already just a click away, so if it is not simple enough they will move on immediately.”
For CRM, this means that the term “multi-channel” has already become obsolete. And now the pursuit of a seamlessly integrated “omni-channel” customer experience is no longer a lofty goal. Omni-channel, rather, is now a prime business imperative.
The lines between physical and digital are blurring, and the old models of marketing are broken. Most people see marketing as a distraction, which is why creating a highly relevant and contextual customer experience is so crucial.
Data is the fuel that will drive this engine, but it too must be fresh and relevant. And this is one of the problems that SAP aims to solve with its Customer Engagement & Commerce suite.
“Most of the solutions that are already out there today have been designed before there was an iPhone or a tablet,” Hildebrand explained. “But we built the new platform from scratch, with a mobile-first approach, with applications for both consumers and employees. When you think about analytics, reporting on the past is a thing of the past. Organizations now have to think about how they can use predictive analytics to figure out their next best future actions, to engage with customers in real time, in the moment, and when it matters to them.”
SAP examined all these trends and started building a solution that truly focused on helping clients deliver this consistent, contextual, and relevant experience, regardless of channel or device, and throughout the entire customer journey.
From the front end to the back end, SAP’s Customer Engagement & Commerce suite supports this type of instantaneous engagement. It gives a single view of the customer, and then supports and unifies the process across multiple dimensional capabilities including commerce, marketing, sales, and service. And it does this all in a way that blends and supports every point of customer interaction.
During one example, Hildebrand offered a scenario featuring Mohawk Flooring, which is considered to be a very traditional and “old-fashioned” carpeting, hardwood, and tile company. It is using these new stools to blur the lines between the digital and the physical in very effective ways.
“If I told you 12 months ago that they could know about someone who live tweeted about a rug, and then close a transaction with that consumer two minutes later, no one would have believed me,” Hildebrand said. “But that’s digital transformation, even in traditional business.”
That’s what possible now. And that’s where customer experience is heading.
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.