{"id":31958,"date":"2020-02-13T14:38:38","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T14:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=31958"},"modified":"2020-02-13T14:38:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T14:38:42","slug":"customer-engagement-done-differently-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2020\/02\/13\/customer-engagement-done-differently-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer engagement done differently in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Due to the amount of new technologies that is now available on the market, it is imperative that organisations keep up-to-speed to ensure that the customer has the right experience. Mo Areff, Business Unit Lead for Customer Engagement at Altron Karabina, tells us how customer engagement can be done differently this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite all the technological advances taking place, customer engagement remains one of the most fundamentally important components necessary to drive business growth. And yet, many companies are still not giving it the attention it deserves. There are several shifts happening around customer engagement and experience that will hopefully remedy this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nof the most interesting elements has been around the re-emergence of physical\nstores as an engagement tactic. Already, several online-only retailers have\nopened brick-and-mortar stores. This highlights the move to how customers want\nto experience products physically and not just browse pages on the Internet. It\nwill only increase in relevance in the coming months with personalised service\nbeing added to drive differentiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks\nto the growth of social media channels, customers have all but lost trust when\nit comes to targeted advertising and how companies mine their data. This year, it\nis the customer experience that will become vital. We are likely to see Augmented\nReality become a powerful tool for companies as customers expect to view,\ntouch, and interact with products in real-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From\na B2B perspective, it is concerning to note how few organisations are adopting\ntechnology focused on customer engagement. With so many sources of information\navailable to them, it is surprising to see decision-makers not leveraging them\nto gain a unified view of the customer. Along with enhanced customer\nexperience, this more effective and integrated view of the customer from a\nbusiness perspective will be critical this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engagement\ndone differently<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\ntough economy and pressure to retain increasingly fickle customers will result\nin price wars between competitors. This will drive businesses to embrace data\nanalysis in more innovative ways. In certain respects, it will give rise to\nconsulting-as-a-service where organisations will employ people for shorter\nperiods of time and use them to deliver on-demand services focused around the\ncustomer. How companies engage with and understand their customers will also\nchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nit is still in its infancy, gaming will become a powerful new marketing tool.\nFor example, players of popular online games will be incentivised to go to\nretail outlets to receive codes to unlock exclusive in-game achievements.\nInstant messaging platforms will also be used to renew everything from car\nlicenses to purchase prepaid electricity. It is all about embracing digital\nchannels to deliver services to customers faster. Yes, these will be available\nat a premium, but the time-savings will see more people use them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout\nthis, data will be instrumental. However, it will not be limited to profiling\ncustomers, but to use information to identify groups of people that can become\nonline ambassadors for a company. This year will be about the story of a\nperson\u2019s data and how it can be used to serve the customer better. Inevitably,\ncustomer relationship management solutions will evolve. Using each touch point\nas a data point, it will feed into how organisations segment their customers\nand deliver more engaging offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disruptive\nchange<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nit comes to great customer experiences, the financial services sector is\nleading the charge. This is especially the case when it comes to disruption in\nthe insurance space as well as the emergence of digital banks on local shores.\nAll these organisations are focused around customer engagement and trying to do\nthings in more unique ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore,\ncustomers are becoming financially strapped as the economy slows down. And the\nless disposable income customers have available to them, the more companies\nwill do to keep them. This is driving a lot of innovation, especially in the\nsectors of the market where organisations are struggling with a lack of\ncustomer loyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile\napps have also contributed to a changing customer experience. For example, many\nlocal banks report that most of their customers are relying on apps instead of\nvisiting their websites or going to branches for their needs. As technology\nevolves, so will banks and other companies be able to serve their customers\nbetter. The app culture is also changing the way consumers and businesses\npurchase and consume goods, as well as the way companies interact with their\ncustomers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately,\nSouth African businesses are on par with what is happening in the rest of the\nworld in terms of customer engagement and experience. While regulation that\ngoverns how customer data can be used does limit opportunities to a certain\nextent, this year will see many businesses adopt a back to basics approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nwill revolve around companies asking customers what they want instead of them\ntelling people what they are supposed to want. Businesses will have to refocus\non getting to know their customers again irrespective of whether that is a\nconsumer or a business client.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Due to the amount of new technologies that is now available on the market, it is imperative that organisations keep up-to-speed to ensure that the customer has the right experience. Mo Areff, Business Unit Lead for Customer Engagement at Altron Karabina, tells us how customer engagement can be done differently this year. Despite all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":31961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,6,399],"tags":[8989,12585,453],"class_list":["post-31958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-insights","category-more-news","tag-altron-karabina","tag-mo-areff","tag-south-africa"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31964,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958\/revisions\/31964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}