Customer experience matters

Customer experience matters, and not just to the customer. According to PwC customer experience partner Joven Pillay, customer-obsessed companies are growing revenues at 1.6 times the pace of those that are not. “Customer experience is a fundamental growth engine for most organisations,” he says.

Pillay hails from South Africa where he worked with PwC before transferring to PwC Ireland last December to head the Irish firm’s customer experience practice.

Unlocking that growth potential is as much if not more about mindset as it is about investment in technology, explains Pillay. “It’s about understanding what puts a smile on a customer’s face. It’s not about how much money that customer can bring you.

“Everyone has the right to feel special sometimes. For example, when you walk into your local coffee shop and you are greeted by name and they know what you usually order. Those simple things can leave you with the most impactful experiences and wanting to return them.”

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Turning data into insights

As that suggests, delivering excellent customer experience begins with data. “Data is just information,” Pillay points out. “Everyone assumes data is technology-related but we grew up in an environment with no smartphones. If you wanted a loaf of bread, you went to the bakery to buy it. Everyone in the bakery knew who you were and knew your family. They knew your preferences and your family’s. That’s all data.

“The only difference is that we now have ways to store it, curate and use it digitally. Fundamentally, it’s about enabling real-time interaction with people by utilising data. The organisations doing it really well are those that are investing in turning the data into actionable insights.”

it’s the organisations that use data to make life better for their customers rather than just sell things to them that are the most successful

—  Joven Pillay, PwC customer experience partner

It’s how the data is used rather than how much you have that is important. “If you think about personal interactions from a data perspective, it’s the organisations that use data to make life better for their customers rather than just sell things to them that are the most successful. Instead of being transaction-oriented, they are not asking people to buy anything, they are putting an offer in front of customers at the right time and allowing them to decide if they need it.”

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He cites a number of examples of this approach in the banking world. “I have worked with a bank that didn’t look at customers as individuals, it looked at them as part of a family unit instead. They understood the importance of giving customers the right kind of experience today that will get them to recommend the bank to their kids in future.”

In another case, a South African bank gave free internet access to its customers. “The bank realised that it had invested in highly secure IT infrastructure which was not used outside of banking hours and had lots of spare capacity during the business day,” he explains. “It had a societal benefit as well, as people in poorer areas of the country were able to get their kids educated better and open up new opportunities for themselves and their families. The customer loyalty that comes with that is huge. It was such a smart thing to do. They had already spent the money on the infrastructure, why not share it with their customers?”

That’s not all they can do to make their customers’ lives better. “By looking at spending and income patterns, the bank can see if there are times when a customer might need a bridging loan or an overdraft for a certain period of time. They are not forcing them to take it, just saying they are there to help them be a bit more comfortable and at peace financially.”

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That approach also has applications in healthcare, he notes. “Proactive prescription fulfilment is an example. This would be useful for elderly people who may not find it easy to get to pharmacies. They can be offered the opportunity to pick up a prescription in advance the next time if it suits them.”

This opens up other possibilities. “Grocery retailers which have invested in delivery services could partner with pharmacies. They could give people the opportunity to get their prescription filled and have it delivered with their groceries and sign for it on delivery. That would give them the peace of mind that they won’t be left without their medication. Looking at it through a business-to-business lens, it creates an augmented revenue stream for them by giving someone else access to their delivery system.”

A real win-win-win for the retailer, the pharmacy, and the customer.

The phygital experience

Companies are also using data to deliver “phygital” experiences to customers. This blend of physical and digital experiences allows customers to interact seamlessly with brands through a variety of physical and digital channels.

“It could be as simple as click and collect,” says Pillay. “You don’t need fancy terms for it. It can be as sophisticated as augmented reality or a Metaverse experience. Or it can be as simple as getting a video of a product in operation on your phone before you buy it in store.”

Trust is like a currency, it’s hard to make and easy to lose,” Pillay says. “It only takes one bad experience for people never to go back to a brand

—  Joven Pillay

He points to the example of a long-established clothing manufacturer that found its client base was ageing and shrinking. “They transformed their flagship London store to put in smart mirrors that were activated when people tried on items of clothing. The mirrors showed videos of how the fabrics are made, how they are waterproofed, how each item is hand-stitched, the craftsmanship that goes into the products, and communicated the message that people are buying quality and heritage. It worked. That’s an example of how digital technology can be applied to the customer experience of a very traditional product.”

It’s all about trust

Of course, for customers to make their data available to third parties requires trust. “Trust is like a currency, it’s hard to make and easy to lose,” Pillay says. “It only takes one bad experience for people never to go back to a brand. The trust equation says that trustworthiness equals the sum of credibility plus reliability plus intimacy, all divided by self-orientation. If you say you are 24/7, you must be 24/7. If you say you will answer a query within 30 minutes, you must do it all the time. Success means fulfilling your customers’ needs, not your own primarily.”

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being employed to improve the customer experience, sometimes with unfortunate results. “We’ve all had poor experiences with AI,” he notes. “It’s about understanding how to use it to create a good human experience. You have to train the platform and do it through trial and error. I know one firm that created a lab to trial AI and fail fast before deploying it for customers.”

It’s about being authentic in your engagement with your customers and letting them know that you are there to help in good times and bad. It’s about putting a smile on their faces

—  Joven Pillay

Beyond training the technology, there is also the matter of deploying it properly. “Some companies got caught up in the hype cycle of the technology. They have to ask if the business is ready for it. They have spent years building websites. Then they started developing apps with customers able to go from one to another with as little friction as possible. Now they are adding new technologies like generative AI and AI-powered chatbots and so on and they need to integrate them properly.”

Creating smiles

Companies don’t need vast budgets to deliver data-driven excellent customer experience. Pillay says: “It can be as simple as allowing people to see if you have an item in stock on a fairly basic app. It’s about knowing your customers and fulfilling their needs. That can be as simple as addressing them by name on an email or a letter or when they walk into the store. It doesn’t take massive investments in technology as a starting point, though technology investment is important. It’s about being authentic in your engagement with your customers and letting them know that you are there to help in good times and bad. It’s about putting a smile on their faces.”