If asked, would you be able to answer why your customers chose you as a supplier, and what makes them stay? Of course, there are lots of reasons, but there is one universal truth: delivering the very best customer experience is at the top of everyone’s agenda. The 2018 Digital Trends research, conducted by Econsultancy in partnership with Adobe found:

• 45% rank optimization of the customer experience as one of their three most important priority areas for the year ahead.
• 20% of respondents stated that this is the most exciting opportunity.

Leading companies understand that they are in the customer experience business and they appreciate how an organization delivers for customers, is beginning to be as important as what it delivers.

It pays to put customer experience first. Not only does it give companies a competitive edge, it’s cheaper to retain a customer than it is to acquire one. When acquiring new clients, those with a ‘low-effort’ experience are more likely to buy from the business again. The 2018 Digital Trends report substantiates the payoff: organizations with well-designed user journeys that facilitate clear communication and a seamless transaction are 57% more likely to have significantly surpassed their 2017 business goals.

What role does information management play?

You might not consider information management (IM) a major contributor to customer experience, because it’s often handled behind the scenes. A customer may never see the back-office dealing with their data, but how their information is managed and processed is closely linked to a positive experience.

Today’s world of near real-time communication has created higher customer expectations and is driving change in how businesses and public agencies communicate with end customers or citizens. Real-time communication also drives real-world complexity.

Individuals connect via email, text, messaging or social media in their personal lives and the lines are blurring with business. Many are now using these same tools to talk with companies. At the same time, some business-critical processes happen on paper, like completing a new account form or providing copies of documentation. This puts pressure on organizations’ ability to deliver instant, accurate responses to their clients across all channels.

Paper is not going away anytime soon. In order to seamlessly integrate both the physical and digital worlds, the processes to handle all business inputs still need to fully catch up. Information capture solutions that scan paper records and extract the data digitally provide a path to integrated customer communications. When companies digitize, they also reduce cost and time associated with old-fashioned processes for filing, storing, managing and retrieving paper-based information.

Customers expect more

An IBM Institute for Business Value report revealed that:

• 68% of consumers anticipate organizations will harmonize consumer experiences
• 76% expect organizations to understand their individual needs
• 81% demand improved response time

The business rewards speak for themselves. A good customer experience leads to high customer satisfaction, which results in repeat business or doing more business. Commenting on the 2017 Customer Service barometer Raymond Joabar, Executive Vice President of American Express servicing organization said:

“More companies are realizing that delivering great care is not just the right thing to do; it also makes great business sense. Seven in ten US consumers say they’ve spent more money to do business with a company that delivers great service.”

Three ways companies made a great first impression

Customer onboarding can have a far-reaching impact on satisfaction and long-term loyalty. First impressions count and stick with us for the duration of a relationship. The examples below highlight the impact of a great customer onboarding experience.

Banking: Loan Request

• Situation: A customer arrives at a bank branch office to apply for a loan, bringing with him all of the documents that were listed as required on the bank’s website.
• Poor customer experience: Bank clerk checks the documents and confirms that they are complete, but then spends significant time manually keying in the data while the customer is waiting, causing them to be late for a business appointment. A few days later the bank’s loan department calls to inform the customer their documentation is incomplete, asking the customer to return to the branch office to bring the missing information.
• Good customer experience: Bank clerk captures (scans) all of this information, the data is then recognized using Optical Character Recognition and automatically extracted and submitted to the loan application system. The assessment of the customer’s eligibility for the loan requested triggers a question that the bank clerk is able to verify with the customer right away. The original documents along with the loan approval are then handed to the customer while they are still in the branch.

Medical Records: Patient Onboarding

• Situation: Patient arrives at the hospital emergency department, bringing documentation about prior treatments and a heart condition. The information is vital not only for the doctors in the emergency room but also for the clinic department he is admitted to.
• Poor customer experience: The nurse examines the documents during admission and adds them to the paper-based record, which is available to the doctors in the emergency room. The doctor in the clinic department receives the notes from the emergency room, but does not have access to the full history, when the patient reacts with high blood pressure to the medication.
• Good customer experience: The patient’s documents are scanned during admission. The heart issue is flagged to the doctor in the emergency room as well as the medical staff in the clinic department, who can then proactively monitor the patient’s blood pressure.

Insurance: Claims Processing

• Situation: An insurance customer wants to submit a claim. When he calls his insurance broker he is asked to complete an electronic form on the company website and to submit documentation for the assessment of the damage. The client subsequently puts the documents in the mail.
• Poor customer experience: The customer posts the documentation but does not hear back from the insurance company. After two weeks, the agent is not able to confirm that the letter has been received and processed. After calling a second time the customer discovers that the documentation is still waiting to be (manually) processed.
• Good customer experience: Once the documentation has been received by the insurance carrier, it is scanned, information is extracted automatically, subsequently processed and the claim approved. This process then triggers a confirmation email (the customer’s preferred method of communication) to be sent.

The secret? Link IM and CX together

Customer experience is tightly inter-linked with many information-intensive business processes. It’s not just about the products; it’s about the customer experience, which is why the Alaris IN2 ecosystem provides the Right Fit, ensuring the solutions seamlessly integrate with the customer’s IT environment; the Right Experience, guaranteeing effective and efficient information capture and extraction of data; and the Right Results, to deliver superior business value and higher ROI.