Customer experience is the one megatrend that’s driving the technology trends and innovations we are seeing today. Customer experience has three dimensions to it:
- High-quality product/service that meets the customer’s need
- Meaningful engagement throughout the customer’s journey with your brand
- Consistent brand experience every time the customer engages with the brand, creating trust and loyalty
Building consistent customer experience throughout the customer’s journey requires front-end technologies and systems of engagement such as web, mobile, chatbots, AR/VR and metaverse. The real question is, can we automate customer loyalty?
Customer trust and loyalty are built when the front-end experiences are delivered consistently and seamlessly every time the customer engages with the brand. This requires interoperable back-end systems that can create transparency and visibility across the ecosystem. Only then can organizations give customers control over their journey. Some examples of how this plays out for customers: tracking a plane hours before boarding, tracking the delivery of a package or controlling the temperature of a hotel room from a mobile phone.
Ways organizations are leveraging tech to automate loyalty and trust
Deploying robotic process automation (RPA) at scale can optimize back-end and customer service processes to reduce waste and reduce human errors. This makes processes that fuel front-end systems more timely and efficient. These processes include:
- HR processes, including employee onboarding, expense management, attendance tracking and payroll management
- Accounting processes, including AR/AP, reconciliation, finance reports generation and management and client/partner onboarding
- Contact center processes, including responding to inbound customer calls and complaints and updating client data
By automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks, reducing human errors and creating a self-service channel, brands can provide consistent and differentiated services that build trust.
Digital Twins and Connected Systems Automate Trust
Digital twins, digital threads and connected systems provide digital mirror images of a structure or a process/workflow. They are fed with real-time data to troubleshoot and solve real-time problems and reduce waste. Digital twins leverage technologies such as IoT and blockchain to provide complete transparency and visibility across the ecosystem and better serve the end customer.
Many airports are leveraging this to solve real-time issues, such as managing traffic and signposts, troubleshooting plumbing and electrical issues, reducing fuel burn and improving turnaround time for aircraft. Aviation and hospitality sectors are also leveraging digital twin technology and connected systems to automate back-end processes that build trust.
How Automation Helps Promote ESG initiatives
Many Travel and Transportation companies have committed to reducing their carbon footprint as part of their vision for their future. Regulations and compliance also drive some of these efforts, but customers are playing an important role. Consumers are buying from brands that match their environment goals – waste reduction, ethical sourcing, green initiatives – and social ideals – diversity, equality, inclusion, reduction of modern-day slavery.
Enterprises are using technologies across connected ecosystems, including IoT and blockchain, digital twins, RPA at scale and cloud migrations, to address the “E” of ESG. They are also using emerging tech to meet health, safety and labor standards for the “S” of ESG. For the “G” part, companies are using technology to manage risk, ensure anti-corruption and tax transparency. All of these are ways of automation customer trust.
Customer trust is key to customer experience. Organizations that are automating back-end processes to provide consistent and seamless experience are answering this need – and building greater, more reliable customer trust and loyalty.
ISG helps enterprises use emerging technologies to address the needs of their customers. Contact us to find out how we can help.
