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By KT Prasad – Country Sales Director, Zendesk India
It’s an exciting time for India as the economy continues to grow as well; Government policies encourage not only foreign investments but also the burgeoning startup ecosystem which is well poised for growth and expansion.
Globally so much has changed in the technology space over the last decade. Companies such as Google and Facebook have continued to grow and sit proudly among the most valuable businesses in the World. Interestingly, the subscription economy has led to companies like Uber and Airbnb who manufacture no products but now compete with and have overtaken some of the leading auto and hotel businesses from their sectors respectively.According to Uber, the company is fulfilling over one million rides on a daily basis and currently has over eight million registered users.
Set against this backdrop, it is no secret that startups have been burning the midnight oil trying to find new means to better serve their customers. With the services industry and the product segment witnessing a sea change, it is time for marketers to pull up their socks and reexamine the customer experience.
The answer lies in building a robust support system for effective customer relationship management that truly places the customer at the centre. One that can keep pace with the dynamic growth needs of modern day companies and businesses. A study conducted by Zendesk in India recently provided ample evidence of this fact, reflecting the changing sentiment of customer relations and management.
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The report articulates how modern day communication tools like chat and messaging have grown in acceptance in recent years. While a sizeable 43% of the respondents felt that they will be using more of chat in 2017 for customer support, over 20% of the respondents felt that they will be using more of messaging by next year. All this is evidence of the growing importance of technology, powerful analytics, unified data and intelligent customer support methodologies in customer relationship management.
Trends that are bound to dominate the year ahead…
Decoding Big Data or Digital Cemeteries
Data analysis is a buzz word today considering the ‘Big Data’ phenomenon enveloping the world. This in reality presents a huge opportunity for companies to dig into their own repositories to help employees and managers take informed business decisions.
Add to it the Internet of Things and the profusion of data that a company has to manage starts to become very complex. Key to this is not to see this as too challenging to deal with. With BI tools one can access just the right amount of data leaving complex calculations in the background to do its job.
However the irony is that due to fear of data complexity most companies simply store their customer and processing data in what can be termed ‘Digital Cemeteries’. Instead of being bogged down by ‘data fear’, companies need to wake up to the fact that in reality it is their biggest asset. Valuable insights and learnings can be gleaned from this vast repository of resident knowledge.
Accessible data shared across the business can provide a single view of the customer to whoever needs it.
It means the customer doesn’t have to continually repeat the same information regardless of whether they speak with sales, marketing, customer service or any other customer facing function. For the customer, it creates a single conversation with a business giving a positive and personalized experience and can enhance customer retention.
Growing Importance of Machine Learning
Vast amounts of data processed by companies each day have opened up new vistas for learning and processing. Using predictive analysis and prescriptive analysis, companies can today monitor patterns that can help craft marketing and growth strategies for a company. This presents the potential to develop algorithms that are highly effective and intelligent. In a customer service setting, they can expedite more manual processes that currently require human interaction and actually provide efficient, automated but intelligent responses for non-complex customer enquiries.
Wake up Call for Big Businesses
As businesses transition, established brick and mortar companies are bound to look outward for new age solutions to keep pace with the rest of the world. Smaller, more agile and disruptive businesses are challenging business models and responding to the changing nature of consumers who have an expectancy for their business relationships to be conducted on their terms. Bigger businesses need to take note and even adopt some of the practices these innovative smaller businesses are bringing to market. It’s a reverse leveling of the playing field where big companies are starting to aspire to be like smaller companies.
While change is inevitable, adaptation is the name of the game!
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