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Category: Internet of Things

Customer Experience And The Future of Retail Bookstores

Posted on by Neosperience Team

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The bookstore is dead, long live the bookstore. As the years pass by, we hear endlessly sad premonitions about the imminent death of the physical books shop. Today, the entire retail industry is facing a digital revolution but somehow bookstores seem to lag behind.

When online shopping offers choice, competitive prices and constant availability, why should you care to search for an actual store? What happens for clothes, furniture and design, is even more true for music, movies and books. And their only chance to survive could be the digital customer experience.

The experience has always been a huge part of retail success in the past decades. The very idea of a ‘favorite brand’ in customers’ mind has always been related to a sense of participation of people in peculiar values and narrative. The purchase decision, however, was ultimately influenced by external factors such as quality, price, advertising.

Then, the Internet came in and opened the business competition to the global arena: with the avalanche of E-Commerce firms, the traditional marketing levers have lost a great part of their appeal. In digital markets, the customer is the core of any business strategy, and the experience the key to create genuine engagement and loyalty.

Innovative brands are already at work to change the whole idea of customer experience, from something abstract and generic to something immersive and personal(ized). While other retailers are evolving to adapt - implementing tech innovations in their customer journey - bookstores are failing to accomplish this task.

We can highlight three main trends in this evolving scenario:

  • The growth and expansion of digital retailers, that have made book selling a worldwide competition, based on the quality of service more than the catalogue.
  • The arise of e-books, that are replacing printed ones, offering exclusive benefits: they are cheaper, easy to carry along and more immersive with extra features.
  • The revival of audio books, formerly known as books on tape: the most unlikely challenger that is outselling paper books and is set to compete with e-books.

Statistics say that digital books are expected to outsell print titles by 2018 (at least in U.S. and U.K.), but it does not mean that printed books are destined to disappear anytime soon - and bookstores with them.

Books and ebooks are not necessarily enemies: they are different and can work together to help editors and authors survive the digital transformation. The same way, shelves and new technologies can work together to reinvent the store as we know it. In the name of the experience.

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Is it true that an innovative digital customer experience could revamp the future of retail bookstores? Recently, we have witnessed something unexpected and - in many ways - pivotal: Amazon’s decision to open its first brick-and-mortar store in Seattle, an interesting example of business development that also tells a much more interesting story.

Many analysts have seen this move - in a simplistic way - as the extreme attempt by the E-Commerce giant to kill the competition in both digital and physical worlds. On the contrary, we see it as the demonstration that the retail store is not doomed; it just needs to evolve, embracing the technological disruption to involve customers in more meaningful ways. It is the same lesson that Starbucks has taught to any single coffee retailer out there.

To remain successful, retailers must improve the experience of buying books. They have to stop refusing innovation and review their entire marketing funnel. Just like any other company involved in the digital age, they have to find new methods to engage and monetize digital customers, delivering compelling experiences in any moment of truth.

The inebriating smell of paper alone will not help them to compete with the giants of digital commerce. In a world redesigned by mobile devices and social networks, there must be something more: a whole new customer experience, easy, amazing and powerful.

The connection between the experience and the future of retail is everlasting. You ‘just’ need to find a way to convey it in a unique, exclusive branded essence.

Here are few ideas book shops should consider to use disruptive technologies to win the challenge of digital darwinism.

IMPROVE DIGITAL PRESENCE

Small and indipendent bookstores usually think that they do not need a digital presence. The reason is that they mistake digital with E-Commerce. When the smartphone becomes the first screen, there is no business strategy without ‘digital’, even when you do not want to sell books online.

As stated in a recent research by Google about Micro Moments, we find out that ‘Near Me’ searches have grown 2x in the past year. You need to be there when people are looking for a local business or are considering buying at a local store. And ‘being there’ means a strong online, mobile, and social presence to connect the digital life to the physical world.

PROMOTE LOYALTY AND RETENTION

Retaining a customer is 6x cheaper than acquiring a new one. Customer retention is one of the key factors of an healthy business growth. It is a fact. But how can you convert random users into loyal customers? When you connect with empowered customers, you cannot rely on traditional fidelity cards, offers and discounts.

That is old times engagement that will never work in the ‘membership era’. What you need to do is to set-up a strategy that encourages customer engagement; to tranform existing clients into brand advocates; to focus on different dynamics of in-store and mobile involvement (beacons, push notifications, contextual contents, gamification).

CREATE A PERSONAL JOURNEY

The personalization is the main trait of a successful marketing strategy. No bookstore can live without shelves, a critical touch point of the retail customer journey, both in the digital and physical worlds. Just, the shelves do not have to be necessarily tangible. They could also be 'tappable'.

In the mobile era, though, there are many more points of contact that you must involve in your journey map. Attraction, engagement and delight happen in-store and - more often - online. The personalization of the shopping experience (through creative contents and tech applications) is the only way to stay relevant: the book store is not only a place where books are sold.

BUILD THE NEW (DIGITAL) STORE

Every path described till now brings to one inevitable conclusion: to survive the retail revolution, the book shop must to be reinvented. This is not just a suggestion, this is the rule. Even the digital presence is important but not enough to engage digital customers and convince them to buy.

The old dusty shops are fascinating but not ineffective. Technology - the one they fear so much - is the only life vest: multimedia interfaces that allow for digital purchasing, reading and other sensory experiences; the Internet of Things; with interactive shopping windows; digital shelves; augmented reality and 3D environments to boost the customer experience.

The bookstore is dead, long live the bookstore.

To help you provide a strategic advantage to your organization, Neosperience has crafted the first DCX 7-Steps Checklist, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. Download the free guide here:

Get the DCX 7-Steps Checklist

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in November 2014 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy with the latest trends and advancements of mobile technology and retail customer experience.

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5 Key Takeaways From SXSW 2016

Posted on by Neosperience Team

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SXSW Interactive is mostly known as a hub of innovation in everything digital and marketing. The 2016 edition made no exception. Every year, for an entire week, Austin is where the future happens. It is the place to be if you want to stay at the forefront of the tech world we all live in.

Between all day conference sessions, an agenda packed with meetings, and the nightlife, you come out of the event full of new business ideas and insights. Now that we are safe back home, here are the 5 most important things we have learned from SXSW 2016.

Last year, when we had to compile the report for the 2015 conference, we started by pointing out that mobile marketing and customer experience management have become the two sides of the same business coin.

This year’s edition of the South By Southwest confirmed that marketing, technology and digital customer experience are now closer than ever. So close, in fact, that you cannot even imagine:

  • A marketing strategy that does not think and act digital (and mobile) first;
  • A marketing strategy that does not start with customers and their experience;
  • A customer experience that is not influenced by smart and connected technology;
  • Tech trends that are not influenced by the evolution of society and markets;
  • Technological innovations that do not imply a deep change in how we live, buy and communicate.

Put all the pieces together and you will see a completely renewed customer journey; a complex map that moves across multiple touch points, and is not easily predictable. This suggests that the ability to engage and monetize customers in the moments of truth is the key to winning the competition for relevance.

As an example of this inextricable link, we can mention:

  • The pervasiveness of the smartphone, that has become the first reference to access online information, and is changing our purchase behaviors;
  • The spread of the wearable technology, that is forcing an evolution of the health experience, and is the primary force behind the self-tracking mania;
  • The importance of social networks, that have created a wider concept of community and human relationships, mostly lived in mobility;
  • The emergence of smart objects, that are able to communicate without human intervention, and to learn from habits and behaviors.

We have seen the breadcrumbs of this evolution in almost any keynote and panel at the Interactive week of the 2016 SXSW, with a schedule that could count on the likes of Barack Obama, Brian Solis, Brené Brown, Andy Puddicombe, Kevin Kelly, and Pedro Domingos.

EXPERIENCE IS THE NEW BRANDING

We want to start with Brian Solis, an analyst that we particularly appreciate for his ability to highlight the business disruption caused by the digital transformation. In his session, “The Future of Brand, Tech & Business is Experience”, Solis stressed out the idea that ‘experience’ is not a buzzword destined to fade, but the present (and future) of branding. It is the heart of all things disrupting our world.

The experience is the X factor in the evolution of marketing, but we need to define what is exactly this variable of the equation. What makes and experience “an experience”? It is not just mere theory: “Without defining experiences, brands will become victim to whatever people feel and share.”

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MACHINE INTELLIGENCE IS THE FUTURE

Just like customer experience is now essential to deliver on the brand promise, the evolution of smart technology will soon set the boundaries of what we call business. Pedro Domingos, a professor of computer science at the University of Washington and the author of The Master Algorithm, talked about this topic in his keynote “The Secrets of Machine Learning Revealed”.

Artificial Intelligence is not (or, at least, should not be) so scary as it seems when it translates into “artificial smartness”. Objects learn from us, and they can teach a lot about ourselves, in return. We especially loved the description of the five tribes of machine learning - Symbolists, Connectionists, Evolutionaries, Bayesians, and Analogizers - tipping points for the rules to invent your own master algorithm.

TECHNOLOGY WILL SHAPE OUR LIFE

Smart machines took the center stage also in Kevin Kelly’s keynote, titled “12 Inevitable Tech Forces That Will Shape Our Future” and based on the new book that will soon hit the shelves. Today, technology evolves at a faster pace, and there is nothing we can do about it. We will face many revolutions, and the ability to embrace the force will decide whether we survive them or not.

Much of what will happen in the next decades is independent of where we live or what we do. The evolution will be driven by tech trends that are already in motion, even though the future is often difficult to believe. Cognifying, tracking and interacting are just three of these trends; they amplify each other, they push our lives in new directions … and they are inevitable.

HIDDEN FORCES SHAPE BEHAVIORS

Actually, “Invisible Influence and Winning at SXSW 2016” looked more like a metadiscourse than a keynote. Jonah Berger, a professor at The Wharton School, tried to teach us how we could take the best from SXSW Interactive, and how it could change our life. It has been, after all, one of the most intriguing sessions of the entire week.

Based in part on the acclaimed book Invisible Influence, the speech explored the hidden forces and influences that affect every single decision we make. Yes, even how we decide to live the SXSW experience. Berger, in fact, focused on how to make our days a time to remember, how to make better choices, and how to have more fulfilling interactions and improve other people’s life.

WE ALL NEED A HEALTHIER LIFE

If you think about it, any experience we live in our daily routine is partly made of technology and partly of emotions. Smart objects and revolutionary devices can improve our lives, but they cannot bring us happiness like some sort of black magic. This was the starting point for the keynote by Andy Puddicombe.

“Why Happiness Is Hard and How to Make It Easier”: the title and the main question at the same time. Pubbicombe, former Buddhist monk and co-founder of Headspace, led us to an exploration of ourselves, blending science, technology, and mindfulness on a path to discover what it means to be happy and how we can tap into our creative potential. To reach a healthier life.

If you want to know more about what has happened at SXSW Interactive 2016, here are few articles that you should read:

The Top Digital Marketing Takeaways from SXSW

11 Things We Learned at SXSW 2016

To help you provide a strategic advantage to your organization, Neosperience has crafted the first DCX 7-Steps Checklist, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. Download the free guide here:

Get the DCX 7-Steps Checklist
Receive updates from Neosperience:

5 Steps To Rock Your Customer Experience Strategy

Posted on by Neosperience Team

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What is your ultimate plan for your brand? If you ask any single marketer out there, they will tell you they want to become digital rock stars. Still, so many are still thinking and acting like support bands or - even worse - they simply stand in the crowd watching.

The long way to the top (if you want to rock and roll) starts with the awareness that best-in-class experiences are the key factor if you wish to top the bill. The first step to creating a rocking brand, thus, is to rock your customer experience strategy.

This constant reference to the music business is not accidental: whatever the industry, the bridge that you build to connect your company to your (actual and potential) customers closely resembles the emotional relationship between celebrities and fans.

Just think about it. Today, social media dictate the agenda and digital technologies rewrite the rules of engagement. Celebrities become brands and brands aim at becoming celebrities.

The smartphone and other mobile devices provide you with the ability to be there and everywhere, but success is more than just new tools. To cut it short, if you think that technology can create the magic by itself, you are on the wrong path.

A meaningful experience comes from the perfect blending of rational and emotional elements. The digital transformation involves both aspects: ignore the intellect and you will be sidelined as ‘old’; ignore the emotions and you will be considered ‘cold’.

To conquer the heart and mind of your customers, you must give your whole self, deliver a top quality performance and involve both brain and emotions. This is the only way to engage and understand customers. This is where loyalty comes from.

If you pretend to be what you are not, your customers will soon find out, and they will immediately abandon you for a better choice. Now you see why we insist that product or price are not the main differentiators in digital markets: people - not brands - fill the core of every marketing strategy.

Your company lives in a global, hyper-competitive environment where the next potential competitor could come from the depths of a basement far away from your market. Tradition and the ‘name’ that you have created over the years will not help you if you keep on focusing on the wrong priorities.

The only way to grow your business, embrace the healthy effects of transformation and stay top of mind is to stop being self-referential and start focusing on your customers and their experience. Sales pass, loyalty stays (potentially) forever.

Quoting the new 2016 Digital Trends Report by Adobe, “It is official. Customer experience is in charge. In 2014, it emerged as a top priority for marketers. In 2015, it gained momentum. Now, in 2016, it is so important, it pulls other priorities into its orbit.”

What should you do to rock your digital customer experience? Here are few suggestions that draw attention to the trends shaping the way we live, communicate, share and buy.

BE QUICK OR BE DEAD

The spread of mobile devices has caused a steady evolution in customer behaviors. Using their smartphone, today they take in a few hours decisions that needed days (or even weeks) only five years ago. We have witnessed the emergence of what Google has called ‘Micro Moments’, fragmented interactions driven by a specific intent.

Customers move fast and act even faster. It is your duty to develop the ability to reach and engage them when and where it matters most, delivering useful and contextual content (in a word, a meaningful digital customer experience).

ATOM APP MOTHER

When we use desktop computers, browsers are the main entrance to the Internet. When we use the smartphone, browsers are replaced by mobile apps. Now that mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches, we are facing an epochal change: we own the entire world in our hands, and applications become the primary way to explore it.

The importance of mobile technology is strictly linked to the evolution of mobile apps. They have gone from plain web views to technologically advanced tools, which you can use to deliver the best message at the right time. Right-time personalization and contextual contents are the direct results of this evolution.

HEALTH IS THE NEW BLACK

Long gone are the days when technology was considered something that had harmful effects on our life (improving efficiency to the detriment of health). Despite the never-ending debate about the danger of Wi-Fi and other connections, it is now evident that innovation is trying to find an answer to the eternal question: “How can we use technology to improve our life?”

If you think that self-tracking is just the name of the usual trend destined to fade away, think again. The urge of a quantified self is, in fact, the signal of a clear shift in perspective: mobile devices (and the so-called wearable technology first of all) can be used to improve the quality of life, becoming healthy lifestyle icons. Just check the EU Pegaso - Fit For Future project as a perfect example.

EMPLOYEES WILL BE FRIENDS

What is the hidden ingredient of a successful customer experience? Company culture, that is the answer. You can invest all your money in new technologies; you can build the most beautiful brand image but if you do not have a shared customer-centric culture in your company, every action you put in place will probably fail.

Genuine customer engagement always lies on genuine employee engagement. Your employees are - and will always be - your best friends. If you do not treat them like that, their discontent will ultimately have implication for your customer experience. You have no choice but to share your business purpose and empower your people. Involvement, commitment, productivity: these are the key takeaways of a well-designed employee engagement

THINGS, BRAIN, AND HEART

The customer journey in the digital era moves across a multitude of touch points, both in the physical and the digital worlds. One single device (the smartphone) connects us to an expanded net of technologies (the smartwatch, wearables, beacons, cloud services, the Internet of Things, virtual reality platforms).

These objects and machines are able to communicate with each other, even without human intervention. The can study our behavior, trace our movements, learn from what we do and like, and act consequently. Technology knows your customers better than you do; it is a fact. The way you can exploit their capabilities to create immersive experience will make all the difference in the world.

Digital customers are ready to love (or hate) you. The dividing line is your willingness to invest and work hard to deliver a memorable digital customer experience. Today, the race for success has become a competition for relevance.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Customer Engagement - 5 Things Sports Can Teach You About Loyalty

To help you provide a strategic advantage to your organization, Neosperience has crafted the first DCX 7-Steps Checklist, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. Download the free guide here:

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Top 5 Requirements For Your Digital Customer Journey Map

Posted on by Neosperience Team

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Think about the last time you have made a purchase. Now consider all the steps - online and offline - that brought you from need to conversion (and over). That is your customer journey, a map that you can break up into many different pieces.

Customer experience looks like a puzzle, that you - as a business - can shape and analyze using a specific tool: the customer journey map. As the years pass by, new technologies change the perspective, and so the map needs to become more structured, to include the new touch points.

The map is not the result of the creativity of marketers. On the contrary, it draws a precise picture of the experience that customers actually live when connecting with a brand or product. Any single - even minor - change in the experience causes a profound change in the requisites of the customer journey map.

Far from being little obvious, the digital transformation driven by the smartphone has completely disrupted the way we live, communicate, share and buy. The Internet-gone-mobile has laid the foundations for the dawn of a new generation of customers. The digital customers: empowered, demanding, and connected 24/7.

Disruptive technology trends continuously shuffle the cards on the table, sometimes confounding marketers and entrepreneurs. What is evident is that digital leaders still need (more than ever) the customer journey map to stay on course, but the map they need is not the one they used to rely on.

A digital customer journey map is a complete framework that enables you to understand how clients and prospects connect with your brand and product. An illustration that shows all the different stages that your customers go through as they interact with you, from awareness, to consideration to purchase.

In the Age of the Customer, it is an incredible tool aimed at identifying areas for improvement and establishing the appropriate technology to enhance engagement and loyalty in the customer life cycle. Easier said than done. With empowered customers, old-style funnels won’t work anymore.

Although the map is still rooted in traditional marketing funnels, it is non-linear and made even more complex by a plethora of socioeconomic and behavioral factors. Thereby, there is no standard to create a digital journey map. You need to build - and get ready to rebuild - your own from scratch, shaping the experience from your customer's perspective.

The new customer journey must start from the following mandatory requirements:

CUSTOMER POV (Point of View)

The best thing about customer journey mapping is that it puts customers first, describing not just the experience that a brand wants to provide, but the quality of the experience that customers actually perceive.

The digital journey has replaced the traditional one, melting online and offline in a continuous sequence of micro moments. That is why your only chance to understand and engage customers is to track the interactions as they live them, including those interactions and touch points out of your direct control (i.e. social media).

DATA-DRIVEN RESEARCH

A great journey map is always rooted in data-driven research. You might already know your clients, but that all the surveys in this world will not ensure that you understand them. Only smart data can confirm or refute your assumptions about their behaviors or desires.

Today, technology gives you all the information needed to understand customers and markets at your fingertips. You just have to gather it across the different sources (user research, interviews, contextual inquiry, web analytics, sentiment analysis, social media monitoring), and finally dive through stats and facts to extract useful strategies from numbers.

MICRO MOMENTS OF TRUTH

Mobile devices enable new ways to explore the world and do things. They help us to find all relevant information in the blink of an eye. As a result, we can buy whatever we want, whenever we need it, from an increasingly wide set of suppliers. This activates the multiplication of touch points and the dawn of micro moments.

The framework of your map should communicate the type, channel and order of touch points, including those out of your control. Of course, some interactions have more impact than others, and your map has to separate those essential micro moments of truth from those less impactful.

GOALS AND EMOTIONS

There is no action that is not fueled by emotions and objectives. A proper map always shows goals at each stage of the process. That includes your business goal AND your customer’s goal. Keep in mind that objectives are never static: in an evolving scenario, they can rapidly change as the process unfolds.

The main cause behind this change is the heart, not the critical mind. You need to take into consideration the emotions that arise during the connection, not just the behaviors. Emotions are critical to any experience, and there is no possibility of customer engagement or loyalty if you ignore them.

TIMELINE AND METRICS

As said, no map lasts forever. Time is critical to transfer the value of digital customer experience. At the same time, mapping is useless without measurement. If you want to stay on top of your clients’ mind, start by refining and redefining your framework according to the evolution of technology.

In a world where mobile, proximity and real-time marketing constantly rewrite benchmarks, good metrics become the key to deliver a meaningful experience when and where it matters most.

The creation of a proper journey map is one of the blocks of the DCX 7-Steps Checklist crafted by Neosperience, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. Download it here for free:

Get the DCX 7-Steps Checklist

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in November 2014 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy with the latest trends and advancements of digital customer experience.

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3 Smart Things To Improve Customer Experience in 2016

Posted on by Neosperience Team

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Steve Wozniak once said that “wherever smart people work, doors are unlocked.” We can also say that wherever smart tools are at work, successful strategies are easily unlocked. In a world that changes constantly, you must understand that what you have done till now will not help you to attract and engage customers in future.

Managing the experience has never been easy, even before the arrival of mobile technology. The evolution towards digital, that will hasten in 2016, may make it look like a daunting task, but it is not. You just need a few smart things to improve customer experience for the years to come.

‘Smart’ is the keyword to survive and evolve in competitive environments. Technology has acted as the main driver to give birth to a new generation of customers. The digital customer is smart, empowered, demanding, but also high spending and willing to try new things. This is exactly how your company should be too.

The days are numbered for age-old marketing: customers move at a fast pace, they want to be heard and expect that you are able to provide them with what they want, when they want it. This translates into the ability to reach your customers with valuable contents, on any device and when it matters most. In one word, a meaningful digital customer experience.

If you do not follow the prescriptions to deliver an amazing experience, you inevitably expose your brand to a huge risk, a risk called irrelevance. Today’s brand identity, in fact, is driven by two main forces:

  • Wider fierce competition - Your brand competes against the whole world, and that means that customers can choose from a widening set of suppliers. Why would they choose you? Prices are dropping and quality is taken for granted. They can’t be considered key business differentiators anymore, and they are replaced by the experience itself.
  • Social connected communities - Not so long ago, purchase decisions were heavily influenced by the power of traditional marketing techniques (advertising, to name one) and the opinion of a small circle of relatives and friends. Today, digital customers mostly rely on their social communities, online reviews and the opinion of a wide circle of strangers.

As a consequence of both forces, customers are now more informed than ever. They use their smartphone to research for product information, before and even during the purchase. They trust what they see on the Internet because it comes from other customers (bottom-up) and it is not controlled by companies (top-down).

Also, they are not shy when it comes to promote great experiences or complain about bad customer experience. Mobile technology and social networks have given customers platforms to let the entire world know their desires and complaints in real time.

The way to customer engagement and brand relevance is long and hard, and you will never get there if you do not preside over these elements. Statistics leave no doubt:

  • It will take twelve positive experiences to make up for one poor one;
  • A customer will avoid your brand for two years after a bad experience;
  • Half of the customers will share with friends and family a negative experience.

“Digital has highlighted a primary shift that people want business to make. To become more relevant, personal, useful and thoughtful. To design products and experiences that are actually useful and exciting.” (Mike Saunders)

Businesses have no choice but to respond to the challenge and face that digital transformation that is changing customer behaviors and marketing logics forever. You need to redesign your experiences with customers in mind; you need to find a balance between the physical and digital worlds; you need to learn new ways to create genuine engagement when and where it matters most (for customers).

Emerging technologies - mobile apps, smartwatches, beacons, the Internet of Things - have a deep impact on the connection between brand and customer. This new world brings unexpected new questions and new solutions to old problems. To answer properly, you must learn to watch from a different perspective, your customer’s perspective. You must be smart and use smart tools.

SMART JOURNEY

The traditional customer journey map has been used by marketers for decades. Then, all of a sudden, it has become inadequate to understand the experience of digital customers. Because of the mobile mind shift - and the emergence of micro moments - we need to redefine the map, starting from client’s POV. The new customer journey has the same foundational elements, but it takes into account the multiple channels and touchpoints that customers go through when they connect with a brand, online and offline, across any devices. Its framework is liquid and in constant motion, and that makes it smart.

SMART CONTENT

The best way to engage with customers and foster their loyalty is to provide content that is unique and useful. This is a constant valid throughout the entire history of marketing. What has changed, with the emergence of social networks and connected devices, is the importance of context. Today, delivery is as important as the content itself. What makes a specific content relevant for customers is where and how you deliver it. To be smart, content marketing must reach customers when they need it (in terms of location and moments of truth) and where they need it (in terms of channels and communities).

SMART DATA

If digital customers are so hard to define and reduce to patterns, how can you understand what they want and where you can create the best connection with them? The answer lies in data. Numbers, reports, statistics have always been food for marketers, and now they have more data than ever, thanks to the smartphone and connected objects. If the scarcity is a problem, the abundance is no less. The only way to extract insights from mud is to connect the different sources and use tools that transform average data into smart data.

These are only three - although probably the most important - things you will have to consider if you aim at delivering a memorable digital customer experience. Smart businesses, just like smart people, never stop to listen, learn and adapt.

If you need more insights on how to improve your strategy in the next years, take a look also at the 4 Mobile Marketing Trends For 2016 Digital Customer Experience.

To help you provide a strategic advantage to your organization, Neosperience has crafted the first DCX 7-Steps Checklist, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. Download the free guide here:

Get the DCX 7-Steps Checklist
Receive updates from Neosperience:

5 Digital Transformation Predictions For 2016

Posted on by Neosperience Team

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As the year comes to a close, digital leaders are already projected to their next move. In an age of constant changes, in fact, what’s next is always more important - and interesting - than what you have already accomplished.

Do you have a bold goal for 2016? Does your business plan include the terms ‘digital’ and ‘transformation’? If the answer is “Yes”, you are on the right track. You just need one more hint, in other words the top digital transformation predictions for 2016 and the years to come.

In the past months, digital transformation has become a serious business buzz, but what exactly does the term mean? There is no shared opinion, as it is translated into different things by different marketers. The best way is to divide and define the two terms separately:

  • Transformation - It is a whole scale change that disrupts the foundational elements of your business (customers, products, organization, markets). The change forces the renovation of the entire value chain model, starting from operating models, business infrastructure, and customer experience management. There is no change in the environment that does not affect the organization, in terms of structure, strategy, and people.
  • Digital - Every major shift in human history is strictly connected to technological innovation. Technology is the main driver of transformation, and it creates an inseparable ecosystem with customer behaviors and market competition. When one changes, the others are destined to change consequently. Today, the digital screen and the smartphone are the main catalysts of the disruption of our markets, brands, and identities.

In the last ten years, the Internet has created a layer on our life, melting the physical and digital worlds. With the spread of mobile technology, guided by the smartphone, we are now submerged in a stream of constant connectivity. Anytime we use the smartphone we literally possess the entire world in our hands.

The dematerialization of reality and the fragmentation of life into micro-moments have had two consequences:

  1. The emergence of the digital customers, empowered and demanding. They have a strong personality; they want to fulfill new needs and desires; they show different purchase decisions and behaviors.
  2. The evolution of the customer journey, that defies traditional definitions and unravels across different touchpoints, online and offline. To engage and understand the digital customer, marketers need to assume a mobile-first (if not mobile-only) approach.

Given the premise, it is evident that going digital does not mean simply “going paperless” as stated by those who want to reduce the power and range of this radical change. Digital transformation is not limited to a technological improvement or a business model evolution. It implies a shift in your culture, mindset, and perspective.

It surely starts with the revision of the customer experience management and the employee engagement. The first step to improving your business is to put people where they deserve to be, at the very core of your strategy. To quote our favorite guru Brian Solis “the digital innovation is as much about technology as it is about people."

Of course, a transformation with so deep implications cannot happen in one year. In the last ten years, and especially in 2015, we have already seen some important seeds of evolution:

  • Customer-centric approach - Wearing their customer’s hat for the first time, most companies are now aware that the customer experience is the main element of differentiation in highly evolved markets.
  • Mobile as the first channel - People and brands now live online and offline. Mobile is not just another channel among the others; it is the primary channel to engage with customers.
  • Wearables and quantified self - Wearables have soon become part of customer’s life, and the success of activity trackers and smartwatches responds to the need for a connected and quantified self.
  • Customer journey rebuilt - While you try to figure out how to include them into your digital marketing strategy, smart phones, watches, glasses and wristbands have already reshaped the customer journey.
  • Big data marketing - The key to a successful transformation is the ability to collect meaningful information and translate data into actionable insights to prioritize activities and investments.

These are the foundations to take a further step towards the evolution of your business. Going back to the opening question, what should we expect that will happen in 2016? We see five more seeds which will add their influence to those already listed.

TECHNOLOGY WILL ENHANCE EXPERIENCE

Why are you investing time and money in new technologies? The answer to this question will increasingly focus on the experience. You unlock the power of emerging devices to improve customer experience and win the race to relevance. Digital deletes the limits of physical reality, pushing the experience to a whole new level where virtual and augmented reality become the perfect companion to deliver immersive experiences and engage customers emotionally.

THE INTERNET WILL CONNECT THINGS

We are surrounded by increasingly intelligent devices, objects that do not need human intervention to learn and communicate. We will soon move from the Internet connecting people to the Internet connecting things. The so-called Internet of Things has the potential to redefine competitive advantage and “fundamentally alter how consumers interact with enterprises and how enterprises interact with their supply chain and distribution partners.” (Forbes)

MARKETING WILL BE CONTEXT AWARE

Any marketer knows that content without context is powerless. This is, even more, true in a world where mobile devices redefine the connection between companies and customers. The implementation of technologies such as beacons, geofencing, push notifications and the Internet of Things will spruce marketing up. Location and context will rule your strategy, ultimately allowing you to engage digital customers where and when it matters most, on every device.

MACHINE LEARNING WILL MAKE YOU SMART

The information technology has made possible for objects to handle complex operations at a speed not suitable for human beings. We could not consider these computers really smart, however, because they did not learn from the environment. Machine learning is a huge bet many big companies are doing: the future of business lies in the adoption of smart connected tools, able to autonomously learn and predict customer behaviors. This will ease the retail revolution we are all waiting for.

DATA WILL FOCUS ON CUSTOMER EMOTIONS

It is recent news that Google has created a tool that solves for computers the problem of seeing. It will soon recognize our emotions, identifying faces and learning from the what we do and how. If embedded in mobile apps and combined with machine learning, this technology will allow companies to gather real-time data about any single customer. Information that could be used to deliver (finally) personalized content and experiences, based on their behavior and emotions.

Now it is your turn. Which do you think will be the technologies that will drive digital transformation in the next years?

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 5 Digital Best Practices For a Brilliant Engagement Strategy

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5 Mobile Commerce Myths You Need To Debunk To Improve Strategy

Posted on by Neosperience Team

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The number of smartphones, tablets and smartwatches sold has increased steadily in 2015, leaving no doubt that mobile connection is now more important than desktop. The new mobile-friendly algorithm launched by Google would be enough to certify this paradigm shift.

Despite this irreversible trend, less than a third of Western companies have a long-term mobile strategy that includes ‘selling’. Why is that? The problem is - at least in part - due to mobile commerce myths that obstruct the necessary changes, in terms of vision and investments.

After all the innovations that we have witnessed in such a short time, do you still believe that retail today still looks like ten years ago? Many times we have already debunked the idea that retail customer experience is limited to what happens in the physical store and that the smartphone is not built to sell.

Here are few statistics - taken from reports by Hubspot, Altimeter, ComScore - to highlight the importance of mobile commerce when building digital customer experience:

  • Mobile sales are estimated to reach 62 billion dollars in value in the next five years, the fastest growing segment in retail.
  • Considering the total sales of e-commerce, 25 percent of those will come from mobile by the end of 2017.
  • More than one-third of customers already use mobile exclusively when they have to decide what buy and where.
  • Roughly 40 percent of all digital sales are cross-device, meaning customers use more than one device during the journey.

These numbers tell that the customer behavior in the digital era is driven by the evolution of mobile technology, and the only thing you can do - as a business - is to keep the pace and plan your digital transformation. Far from being easy or painless, this process will ensure you the capability to engage your clients and retain their loyalty.

Keep in mind that the customer journey might be a circle, but it has three specific objectives: engage, understand AND sell. Every single technology you deploy must serve all three goals: sales should never be taken for granted like it was a natural consequence of good management of the first two.

Although each one of us utilizes the smartphone in a personal and unique manner, one of the most popular activities includes researching and buying products. Mobile is already the primary way customers shop online, and 63 percent of customers expect to be doing more shopping on mobile in the next years.

Whether you are an e-commerce firm or a traditional retail brand, you can’t ignore that fact that mobile beats the rhythm of our life, reshaping the selling and shopping experience:

  • 60 percent use a smartphone while they visit a store, 50 percent on their way to the shop.
  • 47 percent use a smartphone to search for local information.
  • 46 percent use a smartphone to look up prices online before going to the store.

Mobile platforms now account for 60 percent of total time spent on digital media, and yet a very large number of companies are still not mobile-ready. With this discrepancy between how customers gather information / connect with products, and how brands plan / execute their marketing strategy, it is no wonder many retailers are scrambling to invest in mobile devices.

Just implementing sophisticated tools, though, is not the answer if you want to succeed in overcrowded markets. If you do not stop and think about ‘Why’ and ‘How’ you are going mobile, no ‘What’ might save you. In a few words, the use of mobile devices or apps for the sake of mobile is totally useless, if not dangerous for your brand integrity.

Here are the five common mobile commerce myths that can impact how you connect with customers via mobile. Debunk and discard them before going mobile because no technology matters unless you take care of the basics.

MOBILE IS YET ANOTHER CHANNEL

They say mobile is just another channel you can include - or not include as well - in your marketing strategy. False: mobile is the key to understand how customers take purchase decisions in the digital era. Selling online is the new frontier, be it mobile commerce or social commerce.

As shown in our recent article about the future of retail from 2016 on, today’s typical customer journey is fragmented and moves across various channels without predictable schemes. You need to think past the channels, the most critical micro moments (of truth) already happen on a mobile screen.

MOBILE COMMERCE IS FOR MILLENNIALS

Being a relatively recent technology, mobile is something that appeal mostly young people. False: Millennials live glued to their smartphone, but they are not the ones that move markets. Mobile shopping is a trend even among the less digitalized generations.

While millennials have grown up during the mobile outbreak, the fastest growing group of mobile users is those between 46 and 54. As for the so-called Generation Y, it is the most powerful force ever witnessed, set to surpass the spending power of their parents (something like 1.4 billion dollars before 2020).

MOBILE MARKETING MEANS ADVERTISING

When it comes to applying the rules of marketing to the mobile world, advertising is the first (and sometimes only) word that comes to mind. False: mobile marketing includes all practices that enable you to communicate and engage with your audience through any mobile device. That means not only paid media but also owned and earned contents.

The ultimate aim of developing a mobile strategy is to reinforce the connection with customers, using all kind of tools available: while advertising is steadily losing relevance (due to AdBlock software), social media and mobile app development become more and more critical to showcase your brand and sell your products.

MOBILE COMMERCE KILLS THE STORE

Two false myths in one: mobile commerce is not for brick-and-mortars that hold their core essence tight in the physical store; at the same time, the emergence of mobile players is killing traditional stores, forcing us all to a cold, aseptic relationship with bots.

On the contrary, it is now evident that the spread of smartphones is the primary force behind the reinvention of the store, that is not destined to disappear anytime soon. Commerce online is an extension of the shop, that expand its range and perfectly connects digital and physical, in the name of proximity marketing and the Internet of Things.

MOBILE COMMERCE IS FOR BIG BRANDS

Mobile marketing is expensive; the development of a mobile app is expensive; selling through mobile channels is expensive and only fits the big brands. In this unfair race, small businesses have no chance to get customer’s attention, and will be swallowed up by merciless holdings. False.

The truth is, mobile commerce has proved ideal for small and local brands. Even Google indexing is focusing on the localization of customers and contents. The “think local, act mobile” philosophy will push to context-aware marketing services, providing you with innovative ways to connect the store and the mobile experience.

Once again, focus on what really matters for customers: the experience. Take advantage of mobile to provide a fast, easy, memorable shopping experience to your customers, across all touch points of the customer journey. Only then will you survive the evil influence of false myths.

 

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 4 Mobile Marketing Trends For Your 2016 Digital Customer Experience

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4 Mobile Marketing Trends For 2016 Digital Customer Experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

mobile_marketing_trends_2016.jpg

“What's Next?” is always the most common question when you talk about the future of business and digital customer experience. Digital leaders look at the years ahead, ready to change their point of view and embrace the power of emerging technologies.

Too many brands are missing the importance of mobile in the everyday life of customers. It is our duty to trace the seeds of evolution and outline the top mobile marketing trends that will leave their mark on your strategy from 2016 on.

While mobile marketing still remains a relatively young field of study, the smartphone has become so relevant in shaping business success that mobile can’t be considered just another channel. And yet it is, more often than not.

In the digital era, mobile technology beats the time of our daily lives and reshapes the most critical touch points in the new customer journey. The constant changes in customer use of digital channels and new technologies are core to understanding trends in marketing.

What we know is that today's purchase decision is getting more and more complex. Customer behavior constantly increases in complexity. The marketing initiatives we design and invest in today will soon become dated, inefficient and irrelevant.

As the mobile device usage continues to grow, so does mobile marketing:

  • The number of mobile-only Internet users has surpassed that of desktop-only, and mobile platforms now account for 60% of total time spent on digital media. (ComScore)
  • Mobile commerce will grow to 25 percent of the total e-commerce sales by the end of 2017: roughly one-third of customers use mobile exclusively, and more than half consider mobile the most important resource when it comes to the purchase decision. (Hubspot; Altimeter)
  • Half of customers believe mobile is the most important resource in their purchase decision-making. More than a third confessed that they used mobile exclusively, and 44 percent of customers say they would be interested in receiving deals directly on their mobile devices. (Nielsen)

Thanks to the spread of the new generation of smartphones - powerful and always connected - we are literally submerged in a digital world: we rely on mobile to live, work, explore the world, connect with brands and product.

In a company’s perspective, this implies the unprecedented opportunity to understand customers, learn from their behavior and build genuine engagement. All this by providing experiences that add value to their life and are really meaningful to them.

Now that the experience has become the main differentiator in the race for relevance, mobile could be the secret weapon to engage effectively digital customers at every touch point of their relationship with your brand.

This relationship is made up of several micro moments, lived online and offline, influenced personal devices. The purchase decision may originate in any of the stages of the customer journey, not a sequence but a circular path.

In a connected world where real and virtual coexist, the journey doesn't end with customer satisfaction and loyalty. It rather starts from there, amplified by sharing the positive experience on social networks and communities. Your goal - as a business - is to reach your customers where and when it matters most, with context-aware and personalized contents.

As 2016 approaches, all major mobile marketing trends seem to focus on the enhancement of this connection between brands and people, to streamline the process, empower customers and ultimately provide relevant digital customer experiences.

The world is running so fast that you really need a compass to maintain focus. Taking note of the most popular trends that will dominate from 2016 on, you will be sure to develop a successful long-term strategy through mobile.

GOOGLE INDEXING: APP & MOBILE

Right in the middle of 2015, Google has brought panic to everyone with the latest update in the search engine algorithm, the infamous Mobilegeddon. The warning sign was evident: since mobile devices have become the main reference to access information online, 'mobile' is now the top priority for every single brand.

The urge to optimize translates in the need to create a mobile-friendly online presence, in the development of a well-designed mobile app, and in the creation of a mobile-first (if not mobile-only) marketing strategy. This trend will accelerate in the next years, when indexing will be more and more a matter of “think mobile, act local”.

ADS: SOCIAL MEDIA, APP & VIDEO

What is the destiny of advertising? Few years ago, the online world seemed to be the safety net for advertisers and publishers. Actually, the relationship between ads and the Internet has been way more complicated. Analysts point their finger against the emergence of ad-blocking software and add-ons, and mobile appears to be the only lifeline.

The future of advertising is mobile, then? Only time will tell: on the one hand, major players are working to offer full powers to users that want to block annoying mobile ads, even in-app (see Apple); on the other hand social media, mobile applications, and video will represent the last hope for brands to engage customers through ads (i.e. Google will incorporate video ads in search results).

PROXIMITY MARKETING

The biggest challenge for a brand today is to recognize the uniqueness of any single digital customer, each with peculiar habits, needs and desires. In the past few years, companies have started testing and implementing location based services (i.e. beacons and push notifications) that help retrieve information about the current location of customers/prospects.

Proximity marketing is the name of this new methodology that uses mobile technologies to engage customers, offering personalized content (when they are close or inside a store) to encourage specific behaviors and facilitate the purchase decision. Location-based marketing services will grow even more in 2016, providing innovative ways for marketers to connect the online experience with the retail store.

WEARABLES & INTERNET OF THINGS

Proximity marketing is the a major catalyst for the retail customer experience revolution. The store as we know it is destined to disappear very soon, replaced by a smart shop that engages customers and implement all sorts of intelligent technologies: wearables and the Internet of Things devices represent the forefront of this revolution.

With more customers using smartwatches, activity trackers, and other inter-communicating objects, marketers will be able to more accurately pinpoint locations and deliver highly targeted contents. To delight customers (gamification), enhance their experience (augmented and virtual reality), and streamline the purchase process (mobile payments).

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: The Future Of Retail 2016 - How To Reinvent The Customer Experience

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Digital Commerce: 5 Trends To Rewrite Retail Customer Experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

How will commerce evolve in the next five years? What is going to happen now that the mobile screen has become the main reference for digital customers? What should retail brands do to respond to the challenges of digital commerce?

We know that the retail customer experience is not a concept valid now and forever, as it is the product of the revolution brought in by technology. The future of retail industry lies in the ability to adapt those innovations, to enable continuous experiences across all channels and devices.

The innovation of consumer, retail and distribution is a topic we have already talked about very often. The reason is simple: retail industry is the main battlefield for the old and new marketing, that will ultimately decide the fate of the relationship between companies and customers in the years to come.

There is no industry whose customer experience depends so heavily on technology like retail. This peculiarity makes it the ideal barometer to highlight the difference between traditional funnels and the new customer journey.

To make it short, the entire retail value chain has been rewritten: brand and product lose their leading position, replaced by the experience delivered to customers. Too many marketers, however, are still missing the importance of mobile and digital in the everyday life of customers.

The role of the smartphone is so important that traditional retailers should reimagine how they create and capture value to compete effectively in the global arena. How? Going beyond the single channel to learn how to engage, understand and delight digital clients, by delivering memorable - and contextual - experiences.

We have gathered a relevant amount of information, used for this article, at the last Gartner Symposium that took place in Barcelona. A truly inspiring set of keynotes ranging from the technological advancements affecting digital strategies to the latest trends in customer experience management.

One useful insight that came out strong from the speeches is the difference between traditional commerce, e-commerce and the digital commerce:

  • Traditional Commerce: customers buy products and services from trustworthy suppliers, relying on the opinion of family and friends; their purchase behavior is predictable and mostly influenced by price and location.
  • E-Commerce: customers buy products and services using virtual channels and e-stores located all over the world, relying on the opinion of family/friends, social contacts, online reviews; their purchase behavior is mostly influenced by quality and price.
  • Digital Commerce: the combination of e-commerce and traditional transactions. The process involves both physical and virtual elements, and might end up online or in store. The interaction results in a transaction of value to the customer, where value is based on different factors, such as the overall experience, price, time spent, ease of use and the quality of the journey.

The emergence of digital commerce brings new - and somewhat unexpected - challenges for B2C and even B2B organizations. Gartner identifies four areas for improvement:

  • Competition: By 2017, due to markets more and more flat, digital customer experience will be the key brand differentiator.
  • Understanding: Predictive analytics and customer behavior analysis will be critical to understand and exploit the new customer journey map.
  • Consumerization: The digital customer will be the epicenter of all strategies, for B2C companies and even for B2B business models.
  • Complexity: The customer experience comes from all the interactions between the brand and the client, it is not the result of a single technology or touch point.

Your ability to keep the pace with the (social and technological) evolution will ultimately decide your role in the race for relevance. True customer engagement is not a one fits all solution; it is a never ending effort to improve, instead.

All trends traced by Gartner start from this awareness: the inevitable necessity to design - around the customer - a continuous experience that is omni-channel, collaborative and contextual.

COMMERCE IS ANYWHERE

The advent of mobile devices has changed the very idea of retail, and now the bond between content and context is so strong that you can’t ignore it, even if you want. Commerce is anywhere and the customer sets the rules, demanding that the retail brand is able to deliver location-aware contents (i.e. push notification) and to supply anything he needs, anytime he needs it, on any device.

COMMERCE IS PERSONAL

Retailers need to acknowledge the uniqueness of customers, each with his peculiar habits, behaviors, desires and pain points. Retail strategy must be personal (with tailored contents), contextual (across all touch points) and not invasive. Remember that, in this new era for relationships, it is all about the customer, not your brand or product. Recognize him and make his life easier and fun.

COMMERCE IS VISUAL

Now that social networks have become the primary community circle (and the advertising arena so crowded and inefficient), the road to engagement and loyalty goes through epic visual contents. For the retail industry that translates into a whole new way to show and display products and brand identity, unlocking the power of technologies such as virtual reality (HoloLens, Oculus Rift), 3D Showroom, augmented reality, innovative mobile apps.

COMMERCE IS CONNECTED

The times when the shelves and aisles of the physical store were the only way to experience products are over. Today, worldwide competition make it easy to buy and sell anywhere you like. In the connected era, everyone can produce, sell and deliver, and the most fierce competitor might be not your neighbor but the start-up from the smallest place on earth. To survive, the shop must evolve accordingly, becoming smart and autonomous (i.e. the Internet of Things).

COMMERCE IS SOCIAL

The social element is the foundation of commerce itself. Social commerce is just the next step in the natural evolution of the brand-customer relationship. All major networks (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram) are now aiming at translating into an “e-commerce with a social root”. A win-win situation for retailers, that will finally give full meaning to their digital presence sharing deals, building trust, interacting with customers and showing a human touch.

Is retail really dead? The answer is 'No', but retailers surely need to change. Advertising, product, price and production efficiency have represented the core of marketing for way too many years. While they are still part of your strategy, digital commerce has brought the most underrated element on center stage: the customer and his experience.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: The Future Of Retail 2016: How To Reinvent The Customer Experience

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The Future Of Retail 2016: How To Reinvent The Customer Experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

The evolution of the retail industry usually moves at the same speed with the evolution of technology. Over the last ten years, we have witnessed a major shift in customer behaviors, driven by the impact of the smartphone and mobile connectivity.

In a customer’s perspective, new tools mean new ways to connect with products and brands; in a company’s perspective, new tools mean new ways to create value and deliver memorable customer experiences. So, what’s in store for the future of retail?

No doubt that mobile devices have helped to change retail customer experience merging the physical and digital worlds and paving the way to other technologies (such as beacons, the Internet of Things, geo-fencing). Both the in-store and the online experiences have come out from this shift more complete and satisfying for the customer.

To say it with “The Retail Transformation” report from the Deloitte Center for the Edge, “technological advances and public policy liberalization are contributing to new flows of information, knowledge, and resources. As a result, retailers face new pressures:

  • Lowered barriers to market entry are bringing in many new small players and fragmenting the retail landscape.
  • Online marketplaces are transcending geographic proximity and expanding market demand for highly specific offerings.
  • Technologies such as on-demand fulfillment are changing how and where retailers hold inventory.
  • New retail models are arising out of new technologies and new ways to connect with consumers.

Amid all this change, the retail value chain is unbundling, and even remapping. To compete effectively, traditional retailers should reimagine how they create and capture value, thinking past omnichannel positioning to examine, and find the best uses for, their assets.”

The ultimate goal for every retail brand is to build a strategy to accomplish three different tasks:

  • Engage customers across all touch points of the new customer journey;
  • Understand customers’ needs and desires, studying their behavior patterns;
  • Delight customers, offering experiences that are enjoyable, innovative, and contextual.

In our digital ecosystem, the proliferation of the points of contact between brand and customer forces even the most traditional retail companies to realize that they extend and live way beyond the concrete walls of the physical store.

The typical journey of a customer today is very different from how it was not so many years ago. A simple example:

  • I visit the store to get an idea of what products may fit my needs;
  • I look for more information on Google;
  • I scan the reviews of blogs and communities;
  • I compare the different prices and offers online;
  • I post all my questions on the official Facebook or Twitter page;
  • I finally purchase the product using the e-commerce site;
  • I get back to the store to pick up the product;
  • I use the live chat or the mobile app to access the customer service to solve a problem.

It is evident that retailers need to learn to connect with customers across different channels, simultaneously and seamlessly. Clients want to waste no time and demand that you can be there and everywhere!

The perceived quality of your brand depends on your ability to provide value, combining both useful/informative contents and personalized experiences, anytime and on any device.

This is the essence of an excellent digital customer experience in retail, the one that engages and keeps customers coming back again and again. This is your most critical differentiator in markets where the quality of the output (products/services) is taken for granted.

To get back to the initial question, what will happen next in the retail industry? To answer, we will use as a reference "The Future of Retail 2016" report by consulting firm PSFK.

This take on the subject delivers a different point of view on how the idea of shopping is changing, and how brands need to reshape their retail customer experience to overcome the challenge of digital transformation.

In more detail, they identify four key major areas for improvement in the shopping experience, and ten pillars to create and deliver a truly omni-comprehensive strategy.

ENHANCING THE PURCHASE PATH

Create Confidence: empower customers with useful contents, create new opportunities to discover products and help them choose the best option.

Eliminate Obstacles: streamline your technology and services to eliminate pain points, and avoid wasted time when customers connect with you.

BUILDING BETTER RELATIONSHIPS

Democratize Access: create a sense of exclusivity with your brand identity and values, while offering the same opportunities to every single customer.

Recognize & Personalize: recognize that not all customers are alike, promote personalized contents and tailor-cut the experience acting on specific needs.

Promote Transparency: in the Age of Digital Customers, communication is always a two-way process. Remember that your brand also speaks with what you do.

CREATING A VALUABLE COMMUNITY

Perfect Partnerships: choose the right partners and platforms to deliver more (and more useful) services and create a unique customer experience.

Optimize Ownership: the conversion path never ends with the conversion. Be ready to support customers and respond in real-time to their questions and problems.

Cultivate Community: as taught by sports teams, the sense of community is decisive to create loyalty and legacy. Use the mobile app and social media to strengthen the bond.

ELEVATING THE TOP TIER

Encourage Advocacy: the inbound marketing methodology aims at transforming generic users into brand advocates. Engagement paves the way to loyalty.

Deliver Delight: never stop improving and testing. Work to provide fresh and personalized contents that delight customers and reinforce the relationship.

Now it is your turn. Do you think there is something missing? What would you focus on to reinvent retail customer experience and fulfill your brand promise in the digital era?

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: These 3 Top Digital Trends Will Change Your Retail Marketing Strategy

To help you provide a strategic advantage to your organization, Neosperience has crafted the first DCX 7-Steps Checklist, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation. Download the free guide here:

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