2021 was the year of the ‘great resignation’. Dissatisfied with their employee experience, workers up and left. Life is too short to accept a raw deal and candidates now dictate the job market more than ever. But workers aren’t the only ones voting with their feet, an altogether more silent revolution is taking place. One that will make 2022 the year of the ‘great customer resignation’.
While it’s true that the people are the lifeblood of a business, a company is nothing without its customers. And particularly in the B2B space, customers are fed up with the poor experience they are receiving. Increasingly, they are emboldened not to tolerate it any further.
Alarming research in an upcoming SugarCRM report shows customer churn is worsening. Yet while organisations recognise the churn, many struggle to understand which customers are unhappy. If this is the case, their current CRM system is costing them time and money.
Meeting the threat
For too long CRM systems have not delivered on their promises, and marketing and sales departments have failed to work together to put the customer first. To bring to an end the customer relationship crisis this is causing, and to avoid being left behind, organisations must now go back to basics and build the entire customer experience with the customer journey in mind.
But where to begin, especially when customer expectations are evolving at an ever-greater pace? A good place to start is with a broader understanding and adoption of CX tools that provide a clear view of customers not only based on data residing inside the business but also taking full advantage of the data that exist outside their walls.
Particularly in the B2B space, customers are fed up with the poor experience they are receiving
In such a dynamic business environment, companies need to accentuate their value proposition and, most importantly, differentiate to retain their existing customers. But dissipated data and an inability to anticipate customer needs can quickly diminish interactions with brands. And as most CRM systems lack context-rich information, they offer only a fragmented view of the user journey, which soon results in very frustrated customers.
While consolidated software and data appear an obvious solution to many critical business pain points, a complete customer view is rarely implemented and available within companies. A holistic historical overview of customer interactions, however, allows a business to monitor customer journey evolution and achieve a high-definition customer experience.
A consolidated and intuitive CRM system also allows salespeople to focus more on revenue generation and less on finding information across siloed software. Clear customer insights and contextual data can ensure higher competitiveness levels because of their potential to utilise artificial intelligence in CRM and other operations. But not all AI is created equal.
The power of true AI
A true AI-fuelled customer relationship system is more than just simple automation. It can not only aggregate data from different sources - including in-house sales, marketing and service tools - it can also interpret it and identify patterns in interactions. On top of this, it can compile user data with open-source database information to offer deeper customer insights. AI’s prediction precision adds certainty when understanding customers and enhancing their experience.
As the world becomes more digital, the correlation between customer loyalty and profit is growing. Companies that invest in tactics and technologies to bring them closer to customers can unlock steady revenue growth. Although the inclusion of personalisation and investment in technology is vital, organisations must listen to customer feedback or risk losing business.
It is more important than ever to retain customers and ensure they play a part in your company’s growth, rather than your competitors’. Understanding that intelligent technology is a key enabler in creating an impactful customer experience will allow businesses to reap the benefits of long-term satisfied customers. Those that deliver a fantastic customer experience in 2022 will be better poised to benefit, not lose out, from the great customer resignation.
For more information, visit sugarcrm.com/hd-cx
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