Unlock your information to unleash better customer experiences

When it comes to creating memorable customer experiences, there’s no such thing as TMI. In today’s age of technology-driven interactions, meaningful moments come from putting people first. Having access to the right information can help your business create memorable experiences that satisfy today’s customers.

Not too long ago, having a live person answer the phone when a customer called was considered meeting their expectations. Modern digital capabilities, combined with the widespread use of mobile technology, have uprooted business models and created convenience on a scale we used to only imagine. With all these advances, customer expectations have expanded and evolved.

If you’ve signed a mortgage digitally, used a chatbot to get a refund on a utility bill, or even ordered products based on suggestions made to you in an app, you know firsthand the value and convenience that can be achieved through rethinking customer interactions. It’s no surprise, then, that nearly 80% of American consumers say that speed, convenience, knowledgeable help, and friendly service are the most important parts of a positive customer experience.¹ In the B2B space, too, the entire buying experience is also shifting. In 2021, two-thirds of B2B buyers opted for a remote human interaction or digital self-service, according to a study from McKinsey & Company. ²

Satisfying your customers in this elevated reality is key. When you’re able to access information from all points of connection with customers, processes, and partners, you can create more of those meaningful moments, adding value and enhancing customer experiences. These heightened interactions can become the glue that drives customer loyalty and turns your customers into advocates, creating the word-of-mouth endorsements that are so important to driving new business.

Insights that elevate every customer experience

What do we mean when we talk about adding meaning and being more human? It’s about:

1. Elevating customer relationships

Whether a customer is entering a store, seeking treatment at your healthcare practice, or inquiring about an insurance claim, they want to feel “known.” Organizations can build that feeling by giving employees easy access to customer information that helps enable more relevant and personalized experiences. Knowing your customers better may bring certain efficiencies and, more importantly, will show customers that you recognize and care about your relationship. In turn, doing so may give organizations a bit of latitude when missteps happen. According to “The US Customer Index Rankings, 2022” from Forrester, “54% of customers who report positive emotions like feeling happy, valued, and appreciated are willing to forgive brands that make mistakes.”⁴

2. Creating moments of surprise and delight

When you unlock information, exciting things can happen. Customers can find new ways to search, pay, and pick up what they need. You can speed up interactions with your manufacturing, supply chain, medical network, or partners to help processes move faster. Adapting your ecosystem to get your customers or patients what they want, when they want it, can surprise and delight them with unexpected convenience, speed, and value. Positive feelings like this go a long way in building lasting relationships. And given that 8 out of 10 people believe customer experience needs to be improved⁵, finding ways to delight customers is the right point of focus.

3. Forging moments of trust

With information comes responsibility. Customers, patients, and employees count on you to keep their information safe. They also want to know how and when you plan to use any information you have gathered. When customers know that you dutifully protect the information they have shared, you can solidify your organization’s credibility and forge greater trust, all fundamental to creating and maintaining loyalty over time. When brands demonstrate transparency and humanity, customers are 2.5 times more likely to provide personal information that helps improve the product. ⁶

4. Giving customers their time back

When information is captured, connected, and integrated — and used to improve processes — customers are happy to have their time back. Efficient processes and fast resolution of concerns can add meaning to all interactions with your organization while preserving some of the customers’ time for their important connections with others. Giving customers self-service options to address their needs is just one way to drive time savings. In fact, 67% of people prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative. ⁷

How do we get there? TMI is the key.

Organizations need to dig deep into their data to uncover the information that will help them deliver a more human-centered approach. That means being able to unlock the data that’s hidden throughout every business unit in siloed databases, disparate systems, and even filing cabinets full of paper. This includes things like financial reports, sales trends, competitor analysis, and any data gathered when customers interact with you in person or online.

It may sound a little contradictory — but to be more human and make better connections with your customers, you need hard, impersonal data. Believe it or not, the two are tightly linked. To deliver on customer expectations, you need to know what they want, how they want it, when they want it, and why they want it. You need to maximize the value of your information to provide an experience that will keep your customers coming back time and time again.

Think about it. Every customer interaction, whether online or in person, creates data on your customer’s wants and needs. These are all raw, unorganized facts that could be used if they could be harnessed. Worldwide, that data will make up more than 97 zettabytes in 2022.⁸ Meanwhile, only 3% of employees can get the data that could help answer customer questions in seconds. ⁹

Freeing insights and hidden gems of information unleashes the power of organizations to respond to customer and employee needs, which is ultimately what it takes to create more human and connected experiences. 65% of companies say improving their data analysis is very important to delivering a better experience. ¹⁰ Data is meaningless unless it can be processed, structured, and presented in a context that makes it useful — to turn it into information and insights.

Personalized customer experiences start with TMI

There are so many ways you can use information to create interactions that add value: to save time, reduce steps, simplify processes, and be more efficient, just to name a few.

Ultimately, it’s about identifying the critical moments:

• Points of connection that you can have with customers

• Opportunities to correct problems with the customer experience

• Places to imagine new possibilities for delighting them at every turn

To get to that point, you have to be able to:

1. Identify sources of unstructured data that could provide insights on process or operational improvement areas.

2. Look for ways to streamline processes and make better use of information, if structured.

3. Apply information about your customer experiences across all interactions, and consider the ecosystem that affects them.

4. With the information at your fingertips, consider the elements that could reassure, surprise, delight, build trust, or save time.

5. Work across the organization and ecosystem to optimize those points of interaction.

Information is the way forward

Unlocking the power of information is the best way to help your business get ahead. Uncovering customer insights will help you elevate key moments in their journey. Studies show that brands that provide superior customer experiences bring in 5.7 times more revenue than those that lag behind. ¹¹