Any company that wants to survive in this fast-changing world understands the importance of rock-solid customer experience. An opinion undoubtedly shared by CIOs of large companies. But how do you put the customer first? How far can you go as a company? What role does data play and how can you anchor customer centricity in your business operations? This is where fear of the unknown often reigns. At the CIONET round table discussion in January, Bart Kerkhofs, Vice President IT, and Laurent Regnier, head of retail IT, of Bridgestone, global leader in tyres and sustainable mobility solutions, spoke about the transformation the company has gone through in terms of customer experience.
But just how do you achieve that? Success depends on a multi-channel strategy. This is challenging
for Bridgestone because you need to combine an eCommerce experience with the reality of physical shops, with all their challenges: waiting time, a bad mood because the car is broken, bad weather. A lot of things can go wrong. For this, Bridgestone has invested in people and in digital assets. Post purchase, Bridgestone aims to remain relevant by providing relevant content online to retain customers, and by offering extra services through their internal Retail networks and partners. In this process, the company collects a wealth of customer data. Using this, new contact moments can be accurately predicted and thus customers can receive personalised offers in their mailbox at the right time.
That is Bridgestone's revamped customer experience in a nutshell. There were of course hurdles to
overcome. Physical and digital customer experiences had to blend seamlessly. To combine the
experience in the real world and the digital part, Bridgestone used Adobe Experience Cloud. The
ultimate goal of this investment was to make customers feel truly part of the Bridgestone
community. "Invest in connecting with customers, customise the experience individually, create awareness and ultimately bring Bridgestone into their lives", outlines Kerkhofs.
“Then you can proactively manage the relationship and really help customers. Let them know when they need new tyres or services and make an offer if you can convince customers that it has benefits to service their car now rather than later. For example, if new tyres pay off by being more fuel efficient. That way, as a company, you can build predictable contact moments to offer the right deal at the right time."
From single personas to a personalised experience
But how do you really put that customer first? Previously, customer profiles were created based on personas. An approach that varied from a handful of personas to several hundred. But with today's data analytics capabilities, every customer has become their own persona. Every customer's desire is different, and every customer experience can be customised. For the B2C sector, being able to serve customers almost individually is key. That way, you can pick the perfect moment to entice them to buy a product or service.What drives every customer experience?
CIOs found that content plays an important role when driving customer experiences. Crucially, it
creates a data stream. If a consumer sees or reads something interesting to them, they can be
encouraged to visit a shop or website to find out more. Data can be collected, and analysts have an opportunity to work with it using techniques including AI. A key task here is to understand why
consumers make certain choices and to identify patterns in them. With this information, companies
can begin to anticipate these behaviours. At a basic level, this sounds simple. However,
implementing it into business operations to gain that information is a different matter.
-1.png?width=572&height=322&name=BE20230117%20-%20App%20Modernisation%20-%20RT%20VMWare%20(2)-1.png)
Changing business operations in this way should be an evolution, not a revolution, Bridgestone
outlines. In almost every company, fear of change prevails. But those who want to improve in this
area commit to the process. It has to be built into the corporate culture and you have to let
marketeers experiment. If it doesn't work, try something else. Not all businesses are the same, you have to look for what works best for your business.
The future
For all participants in the CIONET roundtable discussion, there is no doubt that companies today
cannot do without a high-quality customer experience. Looking for partnerships can help. If
companies offer more services together, this can strengthen loyalty. In addition, the power lies in
data. Gathering the right data should always be one of the focal points. Finally, a word of advice to
all companies that do not have customer contact regularly: find your touchpoints and improve them.
.png?width=3190&height=852&name=logo_CIONET_horizontal_nosignature_white_RGB%20(8).png "logo_CIONET_horizontal_nosignature_white_RGB (8)"){kind=logo}
-1.png)
-1.png)
No Comments Yet
Let us know what you think