Consumers are becoming more demanding and this isn't set to change any time soon, with new technology and emerging retail channels priming consumers.
That's according to Teradata, who says consumers are becoming far more particular about the brands they choose to interact with and buy from, rather than the actual product or service.
"To remain competitive this year, businesses need to develop an understanding of end-to-end customer interactions and how to optimise the customer experience at every touch-point," explains Geoff Andrews, general manager, retail, Teradata, ANZ.
Teradata has identified three ways businesses can meet increasing customer demands this year:
Accurate experience measurement
"It is important for businesses to accurately measure customer satisfaction and make operational changes according to what they find," says Andrews.
"Optimising the customer journey can boost customer satisfaction by 20%, lower the cost of serving them by 20%, and increase revenue by 15%," he says.
"Measuring customer satisfaction by asking for customer feedback after a single interaction can provide misleading results," Andrews explains. "Businesses must combine attitudinal data, including net promoter scores and behavioural data from multi-channel customer journeys to better understand the customer experience.
Journey analysis
According to Andrews, customers are no longer following a linear decision-making process and are increasingly following more complex paths that can fluctuate between buying stages and channels. "This means businesses need to adapt their journey analysis capabilities," he says.
"The future of journey analysis involves a move away from a business-only view of journeys, towards the practice of following the customer's path to purchase," says Andrews.
"This gives greater visibility into unexpected changes between channels, failures within a journey, and leakage.
Support an omni-channel experience
To be competitive this year, businesses need to support consumers' changing purchase habits, Andrews says.
This involves providing an omni-channel experience so they can begin a brand interaction journey in one channel and seamlessly pick it up in another.
"Customers want to be able to switch from an online application form to a call centre to complete the process without having to provide the background details of the application again," says Andrews.
"Meeting this demand for omni-channel support saves time and effort for both customer and business.
