Reinvent Your Customer Experience with Emerging Technologies

As technologies rapidly evolve, how can you adapt them to create new customer experiences and differentiated employee experiences that make you stand out? In just five minutes, this article will provide an overview of customer experience (CX) issues, the technologies that can help address them and a look at how one Lumen customer has applied these tools successfully.

3 Barriers to Implementing Customer Experience Technologies

Fifty-three percent (53%) of consumers say that the experience a company offers matters as much as the product or service it provides.¹ Emerging technologies are essential to delivering outstanding experiences that attract customers and keep them coming back. Yet many businesses are challenged with adapting these tools and struggle with aligning their technology strategies to drive ROI and stay ahead of their competitors.

Here are three common barriers to implementing next-gen technologies.

Data collection and analysis

The success of any business depends on the ability to draw in new customers and satisfy existing ones. Predictive analytics can help your organization break down data silos, learn from historical data, spot trends and make smarter choices with real-time insights to help create a connected and smooth experience. But to do that, you need a complete, connected data strategy that brings together customer insights and makes them available to every employee who affects the customer experience.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of respondents in an IDC survey reported they were investing in new digital infrastructure to help improve interactions and engagement with customers through enhanced data analysis.²

Network and security

Companies often encounter network problems such as slow speed, frequent downtime, poor coverage, congestion or interference, resulting in lost productivity, revenue and customer satisfaction. Ninety-one percent (91%) of global businesses experience at least one outage quarterly, pointing to the need for improved network resilience.³

Poor quality or connectivity can affect your customer loyalty numbers, with 49% of consumers saying that website speed and 53% saying app availability impacts their loyalty to a single company.¹ Not to mention that protecting your customer’s data (and your own) is top of mind. The biggest threat arises from ransomware, which was on track to extort over $900 million from U.S. businesses in 2023.⁴

Technology integration

Getting new technology integrated with existing systems also plays a role. One example of emerging technologies is artificial intelligence (AI), which can drive business value when leveraged strategically and intentionally.

A recent PwC survey found that 74% of companies used emerging technologies like AI to expand into new markets and 64% used it to transform business models.⁵ Identifying specific business problems that AI can solve for, mapping its ROI and TCO, and picking small-scale projects to test against are important.

Let’s look at how one company overcame these challenges by implementing secure and scalable networking designed to deliver an outstanding customer experience while providing a foundation for future innovation.

How Crowley Maritime Corporation Adapts to Changing Customer Needs

Consumers have more choice than ever and the cost of switching to a new brand has never been lower. Failing to stay relevant could come at a great cost to your business. Sixty percent (60%) of companies believe they need every data point possible to achieve a 360-degree view of their customer, but nearly 50% did not have alignment on what that means.⁶ Working with a technology provider that can help connect you with customers in an all-in-one solution is imperative.

Crowley, a private U.S-based logistics, marine and energy solutions company, wanted to provide a fast, secure and reliable global network to customers and stakeholders in different locations. This meant the company had to adapt to customers across industries who are transforming to a digital environment and changing the CX experience.

By implementing technology that has near zero latency, integrated software and seamless employee connectivity, Crowley provides an omnichannel interactive experience that allows customers to connect across various platforms quickly and securely.

Personalization, automation and efficiency through AI

“Transformation doesn’t just come from your internal change management, but it comes from observing how your clients are transforming, how your partners are transforming,” said Crowley CIO Erika Graziuso.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a key transformational technology that helps businesses deliver personalized experiences at scale. AI’s ability to use data and implement more personalized experiences for customers is fundamental to predicting what, when and where shoppers will buy and can drive both new and repeat business. Improving customer experience hyper-personalization was identified by 42% of AI decision-makers as the top AI use case.⁷

AI can also improve efficiency by automating routine processes. Removing redundant or repetitive human involvement needed to protect systems or mine CRM data can help keep prospective shoppers and customers happy. Eliminating the tedious task of mining and evaluating data is a key AI advantage that can provide significant time and cost savings.

Crowley realizes the need to build toward each new wave of technology, including AI, to better connect with their market. “Lumen is investing significantly in the digital inclusiveness of their network to make sure that it is available everywhere at a very high speed,” Graziuso said. ”The next solution we are looking to address is AI—while it is powerful, it is unfortunately still a machine. We are working with Lumen on how we use AI and data intelligence to prevent cyberattacks.”

These innovative strategies can empower your business to make new connections and deliver applications that delight your customers regardless of location or background. Mastering those interconnections will start you on the transformational journey toward accomplishing that goal.

Explore powerful solutions designed to better connect you to your customers.

¹Forbes, “Top Customer Experience Trends In 2024,” May 2, 2024.
²IDC, Modernizing the Network with Performance Enabled Digital Infrastructure, November 2023.
³Businesswire, “Only 9% of Global Organizations Avoid Network Outages in an Average Quarter,” June 20, 2023.
⁴Forbes, “The New Era Of Ransomware—And What It Means For Businesses,” Nov 30, 2023.
⁵PwC, 2023 Emerging Technology Survey, November 2023.
⁶Gartner, “Gartner Marketing Survey Finds Only 14% of Organizations Have Achieved a 360-Degree View of their Customer,” January 19, 2022.
⁷Forrester, “Predictions 2024: CX Teams Should Buckle Up For A Fun Ride,” October 25, 2023.

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