As organizations pivoted amid a global pandemic, 2020 was a year of avoiding the human touch. A mobile, contactless approach was not only a necessity in 2020. It’s an approach that offers convenience and flexibility to customers well beyond COVID-19. For CIOs and CTOs determining new and reconfigured priorities, personalized and customized mobile communications and contactless solutions should remain an important consideration.
Essentially, customers want to interact with organizations on their own terms. The marketing and delivery approach of throwing everything at everyone is no longer useful. Customers are willing and able to discern what is targeted at them and what has value.
Still, contactless, mobile solutions cannot be cold or distanced. We have had to avoid human contact, and some prefer to keep it that way, but a personal, human approach is still needed. In fact, that tailored human approach will draw customers, versus having to push messages en masse.
For CIOs and CTOs, this means using technology to understand what customers want and provide it in contactless, mobile ways without becoming impersonal. That personalized approach ensures that even completely contactless communication still feels valuable to customers. Engage with your clients without putting them at risk or stepping too far over the line into their turf.
Customers Want Contactless
While there will always be customers seeking special help and human contact, the vast majority prefer contactless. A GetApp survey found 65 percent of customers wanted contactless services as they align with health and safety priorities, and thus, positive customer experience. More than a third of those customers said contactless service will be important even when the pandemic is over.
That desire for contactless extends to in-store navigation, with customers wanting indoor navigation, self-serve, in retail environments. Anywhere you can use wayfinding technology for your customers, they will likely use it! They also want contactless payment, shopping and ordering via apps, and even telemedicine and similar services.
How to Personalize and Customize Contactless and Mobile
Even before the pandemic took hold in North America, organizations were starting to note the importance of personalization. Statistics showed 71 percent of customers felt frustrated with impersonal shopping experiences, and 91 percent were more likely to shop with relevant brands. The vast majority of consumers found marketing personalization appealing, engaging, and preferable, actively stepping away from impersonal organizations.
User experiences clearly must be redesigned for the contactless and mobile world. This means CIOs and CTOs will have to investigate technologies to do so, and get buy-in from all levels of stakeholders. From adding biometric support to apps to ensuring your organization is set up for voice searches and virtual assisting, there’s a lot to be done.
McKinsey points to the confluence of empathy and AI as an important step forward. Humans try to understand and relate with one another, while machines have not been able to do that so well in the past. Now, machine learning responds to emotional cues, interprets data, and considers human feelings, a big step toward true personalization.
McKinsey’s examples include new features for Amazon’s Echo voice assistant, which will listen for physical signs of illness. If your Alexa hears that your nose is stuffed up, she might recommend chicken soup or cough drops, which you can purchase right from the device. It’s a great example of true personalization, all stemming from technology.
While your organizations might not be as advanced as Amazon when it comes to these virtual, contactless personal touches, it’s a sign that anything is possible. Your solution might look more like new features in a company app, or looking further into customer data to understand the next likely request.
Cloud-based technology plays a crucial role in this new priority. Using the cloud, organizations can access all kinds of information, transactions, and data from any device at any location. The cloud makes it easier to integrate all of this information into one central repository, which then helps deliver personalized brand experiences.
Mostly, the ability to deliver personalized, customized solutions to your clients comes down to data. The more you know about your customers and the easier that information is to access, the higher quality experience you can deliver. CIOs and CTOs should be looking to data integration and customer relationship management platforms to understand clients and deliver directly to them.
Our systems, including GroupLink everything HelpDesk, GroupLink Workflow Process & Incident Tracking, and GroupLink for SafestSchools all have excellent eWorkflow, WFH, and ITSM capability. That means they’re an excellent solution for any personalization and data repository work you have in mind.