Today we live in a world – in our lives as individuals outside work, as well as our lives at work inside organisations –where information and communications technology is arguably the most potent force driving change – the change towards a more digital world.
And I would argue there are just three types of companies these days: those that actually operate a digital business, those that are transforming into a digital business and finally those that might never become a digital business and fail as a consequence. What is your company like? Does it value customer-centricity? Why should it?
“The accelerating global spread of ideas and expectations means that attempting to create a competitive position based purely on the price of goods or services that you offer, or on product features and functions, is increasingly difficult. When it comes to price, increasingly it’s the case that there’s somebody somewhere in the world who is prepared to offer the same thing as you, cheaper. When it comes to products, increasingly it’s the case that there’s somebody somewhere in the world who can copy your product (legally or illegally) and access your market in what is, in historical business terms, the blink of an eye.
Delivering sustainable competitive differentiation in a digital world has to be about more than products and price – it increasingly has to be about aiming to deliver the best possible experience to each customer.”1
Leading analyst firms like Gartner concur that customer experience is more than just the right thing to do; it's a recognized strategic imperative in need of a dedicated management discipline and explicit budget support.2 The business value of customer experience management (CXM) is based on the fact that customers are willing to pay more for a better experience. We see this in our own behavior but this is also evidenced by a number of studies:
Of course, the rationale we often hear for not investing to deliver a better customer experience is that the cost is high, however “delivering great experiences actually reduces the cost to serve customers from what it was previously.”3
Unhappy customers are expensive! They “return more products, log more complaints and require more support. Should they leave, they represent a pricey failed investment. Not only was your cost to acquire them greater than your cost to retain them, but now they risk threatening your future business through negative social and online commentary.”4 In fact cost reduction is among your most compelling positions for a CXM business case.
Garter predicts that by 2018, 30% of large organisations will connect customer experience to process by integrating customer journey maps with business process models.
Based on Gartner's outlook it is apparent that a successful digital business will be increasingly reliant on a sound customer experience management capability.5 CXM helps you understand what customers want and how customers want to interact with your business and underlying business processes. A good process is no longer good enough; it’s the customer experience reflected in your processes or business operations that really matters by designing and analysing customer journeys from the outside-in perspective.6 Importantly, the aim of a customer journey map is not a lovely diagram that gets pinned to cubicle walls; it is to find customer experience opportunities and problems and to drive action internally that improves customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.7
But in fact, the Business Analysis world missed developing a CXM solution that delivers the capabilities and the methods to design and analyze processes from an “outside-in” perspective. To close this gap, Software AG has enhanced ARIS to become the world’s first BPA solution that enables companies improve their customer experience by designing customer journeys. Our approach uniquely combines the traditional “inside-out” with the emerging “outside-in” perspective through well-designed touchpoints:
This ARIS-based solution for end-to-end customer journey mapping - together with the business value it can provide - has gained momentum with numerous customers, attracted independent research and been featured at leading conferences abroad and here in Australia - underpinning analyst recommendations to design, analyse and improve business operations from multiple perspectives to improve the customer experience.8
If you want to learn more about our integrated approach please refer to the attached presentation and white paper.
Feel free to reach out for any questions or recommendation. I am interested in your feedback!