Make digital innovation your business priority in 2018

When it comes to enhancing the customer experience, digital innovation can have a significant impact upon customer satisfaction and loyalty. Digital has the power to unlock a rich portfolio of insights and reveal valuable data about customer engagement levels, buying preferences and emotional drivers.

Given that 84% of Australians access the internet daily, CEOs and leaders who own the digital space will be better equipped to boost customer engagement and promote brand awareness.

Creating an online community centred around your brand is key to business success. However, a digital presence alone is not enough. To truly stand out in the market, organisations must lead the way with innovative digital technologies.

Enhance customer engagement with robotics, KM and speech analytics

So where are the opportunities to get engaged with customers via digital innovation? In my view, robotics, knowledge management (KM) and speech analytics are the three key areas that forward-thinking businesses should prioritise in 2018.

1. Robotics.

   Businesses wanting to reduce the human effort required for manual labour and cut costs are investing in robotics. Time-intensive tasks tend to negatively impact employee productivity and divert attention away from serving the customer.

   Robotics can enable organisations to operate 24/7 and streamline internal processes, freeing up talent to engage more effectively and meaningfully with customers. By automating manual labour, robotics can encourage people with the organisation to refocus on providing a ‘human touch’ in customer service.

2. Knowledge management.

   Leaders are beginning to adopt KM as a key strategy for enhancing the customer experience. KM is an integrated technology platform that improves operational efficiencies and internal data sharing.

   By making it easier for the customer to access information and for employees to respond, KM reduces the effort and time usually taken up with phone calls or in-person consultations. KM also places power back in the hands of the customer, ensuring that each customer can effectively self-serve.

3. Speech analytics.

   Speech analytics can be a powerful tool enabling leaders to truly ‘listen’ to the voice of the customer and gauge their emotional reactions and drivers. By providing deeper insight into customer metrics, speech analytics can help employees to provide a more personalised customer experience.

At Verint, 92% of customers would recommend Verint Speech Analytics. It’s a platform that enables employees to respond quickly to customer needs, driving continuous improvement in the customer journey.

By investing in these areas of digital innovation, organisations will be better equipped to improve operational efficiencies, while freeing up talent to better serve the customer. At the same time, digital technologies provide valuable data and insights, enabling employees to truly understand the individual needs of each customer.

Leverage digital innovation to remain competitive

In today’s always-on world, customer trends are changing at dizzying speeds. This means that organisations have to work doubly hard just to keep up with the changes, let alone stay ahead of them. New advancements in technology and higher customer expectations have placed pressure on organisations to be innovative and leading, or else be overtaken by competitors.

Some leaders may hesitate to invest in innovations such as robotics, KM and speech analytics, fearing that these platforms will soon be overtaken by something else. In reality, these platforms can equip organisations with the tools to analyse, track and stay ahead of changing market trends.

This year is set to be yet another one of technological change, with a strong focus on robotics, artificial intelligence and big data. The insights gained from more streamlined operations and more effective data capturing will help organisations to better plan and forecast for the future.