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Roehm
Technology Alone Doesn't Create Customer Value
Tanja Tschech
Why customer-centricity increasingly depends on trusted, customer-facing data?
For decades, companies have relied on their internal data and data was seen as an internal asset to run the business, improve efficiency and manage operations. Today customers expect organisations to understand their business challenges, anticipate their needs and support their decision-making processes with trusted information. In response, many companies have focused on digitalisation, automation, operational efficiency and investing in the most modern technology platforms. Yet, technology rarely creates the required customer value. While these investments are relevant, technology doesn’t always equate to customer value. What influences the customer buying behaviour is the customer experience, and the quality, accessibility and relevance of the information the organisation provides to the customer.
The way customers interact with companies is changing. Customers are engaging more via digital channels rather than through sales, service or support channels, in great part due efficiency measures. In these cases, an employee is not acting as an intermediary and customers are direct consumers of enterprise data. Key data sets such as inventory availability, order status, delivery tracking are no longer used solely internally, they are part of the overall customer experience. Customers return because these capabilities solve a business problem, create value in the market or allow them to sleep better at night.
Digital procurement networks such as SAP Ariba are an example of how buyers increasingly expect greater efficiency, transparency and speed in day-to-day processes. Yet, procurement is only one key stakeholder group. Innovation teams, sustainability teams, strategic decision-makers and operations experts all consume information and require distinct insights to make decisions. The information, support and offers must be tailored to their needs to provide the solutions and create value. Understanding customer needs is essential, and knowing the right problem is being solved, otherwise symptoms rather than root causes are resolved. This mandates a corporate culture with a customer-centric mindset because these are not the stakeholders that the sales teams are typically meeting with. While each group relies on different information and data, all contribute to the overall customer experience.
Only after customer needs are understood should organisations begin focusing on the actual digital experience. The goal is not to just launch another platform, but make the company easier and faster to do business with, and drive customer loyalty and growth. This requires customer input from a Customer Advisory Board, NPS surveys and ideally even observing how the customer works in their daily environment. The objective is to become the easiest partner to do business with. The digital experience design should begin with customer outcomes and work backward into systems, processes and data requirements.
And now comes the challenge: the organisation’s internal data now becomes transparent to customers. The customer will have a window into your ERP or your CRM because your customers are now consuming data directly. Data stops being solely an internal topic because it’s being used to solve your customer’s daily tasks and work. Organisational data from your organisation is now contributing greatly to the customer confidence level. When this data is exposed, the company must focus on data governance, master data management and processes to ensure data quality. Customers increasingly make buying decisions based on the quality of data, accuracy and knowledge the suppler brings to the table, either in discussions or via self-service portals. The result is greater customer confidence, what do and the digital experiences become a true driver of growth.
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The goal is not to just launch another platform, but make the company easier and faster to do business with, and drive customer loyalty and growth.
One lesson consistently emerges across digital transformation: technology alone doesn’t drive the relevant customer centric digital experience. What is required is transparency, customer-focused operating models and a relentless focus on creating customer value by understanding customer needs.
B2B digital transformation is about defining customer needs by listening, understanding how your customers work and creating digital solutions around their day-to-day work and your customer-facing employees. It is about steadfastly redesigning how the organisation works around your customers need.
Customer-centricity is the outcome of aligning internal digital excellence with external digital experiences. Organisations that simplify their operations, expose the right data and equip customers with intuitive self-service capabilities become the easiest, most trusted and most valuable partners to do business with and in doing so, drive growth.
