Engaging your customers in a digital landscape
The landscape of customer service is in constant flux, and 2021 will witness many fundamental changes. Many of these changes will impact how companies personalize experiences for their customers. There is a high demand for immersive online experiences catered to individual needs.
With these changes, we see a heightened need for reliable and effective eCommerce platforms that give customers the ability to experience a brand themselves. Allowing businesses to collect data to further continue that experience for them, creating frictionless channels and 24/7 interactions.
But with the changes in the landscape, how are businesses able to keep that human aspect of engaging their customers from the point of entry into their customer journey, all the way to the sales handoff?
Here are some tips on how we have approached digital engagement:
B2B tactics look more like B2C tactics
Buyers today have higher expectations, and in general, the buyer, whether in a B2B or B2C space, is increasingly self-educating through online research, peer opinions, and social media.
B2B marketers who are traditionally focused on providing customers with information are now looking at ways to build an emotional brand connection. On the other hand, B2C marketers are now refocusing their strategies to create more educational and professional content for their customers. What we are seeing successful now is that organizations need to be able to do both. Those who are blending each approach are finding more success in engaging their customer on a deeper level.
It is all about human engagement, and yes, there is a difference between consumer and organization, however in the end, you are simply communicating with people, whether that be in a group, or as individuals.
So, where is the disconnect?
Many organizations believe they are customer-centric, but their customers may not think the same! Organizations that have strategically embraced the digital transformation of their business have made strategic investments in modern technologies like customer data platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) to gain a holistic 360-degree view of their customers. With those valuable data points, businesses can follow through on those insights to optimize their customer engagement by tailoring the messages to their needs.
It is proven that many customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience, according to research from PWC. In fact, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.
And in terms of the potential benefits a great experience can have on sales success, a McKinsey study reported that organizations can expect:
10-15 percent lower customer churn
20-40 percent increase in the win rate of offers
Up to 50 percent lower service costs
How do we approach 2021?
Moving on from larger groups of impersonal data to solutions that can unify your customer information across their full lifecycle gives you the opportunity to grow and learn from those trends and adapt as their needs change.
By basing your strategy on personalized customer data, you start to build your credibility and trust of your organization. In gaining those insights your business can begin to run multi-channel campaigns to increase sales-ready leads, create individual experiences, and use guided processes and AI to anticipate and respond faster to customer needs. The building of these relationships is on-going, and having high-quality relationships is essential to the long-term success of your business as we all know.
Building these relationships and turning your prospects into engaged customers is a process driven by these four key priorities:
Nurture more demand
Personalize buyer experiences
Build relationships, at scale
Make insight-driven decisions
All four of these key principles provide results through intelligent insights by taking a more human and personalized approach.
Nurture more demand
Relying only on conventional lead generation like direct emails, networking, and traditional advertising, as your primary source of lead generation is simply not effective enough in reaching consumers today in a digital world. You need to meet them where they are spending most of their time; online. The more focused and demanding the consumer universe is, the more important it is to have access to the deep insights of what those customers expect in their experience.
Northrop & Johnson, a leading global yacht brokerage, competes for multi-million dollar customers using technology its industry has been slow to adopt. Using Dynamics 365 for Marketing has created a decided competitive advantage: Vital insights into their customer base have helped to drive a 70 percent increase in charter sales.
The ability to generate leads across multiple channels using data-driven insights to hand-off leads that are sales-ready is critical to an organization's growth.
Personalize buyer experiences
Personalized experiences are a hot topic these days. But many companies are still falling short of having frictionless and consistent customer experiences. With the benefits of technology and CRM platforms like Dynamics 365 Sales, companies can acquire a holistic view of their customers, predict their intent, and create a connected and personalized journey for customers.
In an era where guests have more choices than ever for leisure and entertainment, Tivoli delights its guests by using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to stay one step ahead of expectations and transform the guest experience. With its deeper understanding of guests, it can add new chapters to its long tradition of imagination and innovation.
We can see now through experience that consumers are expecting, and frankly demanding highly personalized experiences. But this is good news for businesses that can deliver or adapt. These customers are willing to spend more when they receive custom-tailored service.
Build relationships at scale
The opportunity to build relationships with people that would be otherwise out of our reach is right at the tips of our fingers. Technology continues to grow each day, but just because we have these tools at hand to reach new audiences around the world, does not mean it will happen at first glance. Companies need to build credibility to establish and grow relationships with their customers. Give without compulsion, and though communication is still key, context matters more than ever.
As HP approached its 80th anniversary, the global technology innovator decided to embrace new capabilities that would help it create the sales workforce of the future. HP already has one of the world’s largest implementations of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales. For the next step in its journey, HP decided to use Microsoft Relationship Sales, which combines Dynamics 365 for Sales with LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Within just four months of rolling out the training program, HP noticed it was generating significantly more leads through relationship selling.
Make insight-driven decisions
By leveraging the wealth of digital insights available at your fingertips and embracing the power of AI, it will help lead your business to make more informed decisions throughout the sales process.
By implementing the right reporting tools and understanding how to analyze and measure your data accurately, you will be able to make the kind of data-driven decisions that will drive your business forward. Improving performance, empowering your employees, and enabling your company to gain increasingly effective strategic insights.
With more than 1,500 pubs serving guests throughout the UK, Marston’s launched a business transition by bringing together guest data that was scattered across multiple systems into Dynamics 365. With their locations’ guest data now unified, Marston’s will gain a complete view of guests, which can be harnessed to generate customer satisfaction and strategic insights. This approach helps drive improved performance throughout the company, including the opportunity to empower employees – an often-overlooked aspect of a company’s success.
Aligning business to succeed
If your business has the vision, processes in place, and technology to harness all the data available to you, it gives you the power to create immersive experiences, drive more qualified leads, increase revenue, and align your entire business.
This requires high-level technology with well-defined business goals and sales and marketing applications fueled by intelligence. Betach Solutions is here to help you accomplish just that with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Let us help you understand those goals and find a solution that aligns with your needs.
Learn more about how Betach’s business solutions can help your sales and marketing teams stay connected to your business and customers. Contact us today to learn more!