Connecting employee and customer experiences is a clear path to omnichannel personalisation and overall business success, says Lucidworks.
According to a new study conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Lucidworks, Connected Experiences Are Personalised Experiences, companies that provide connected experiences report dramatic benefits around revenue growth, innovation, cost reduction, customer experience and digital transformation.
Employee Experience Drives Customer Experience - But Data Woes Abound
Most brands put personalisation and omnichannel capabilities at the top of their enterprise-level priority list. Despite this, two-thirds of respondents report an inability to consistently service customers across touchpoints and personalise those experiences.
For years, customer experience (CX) has taken priority over employee experience (EX), but companies are increasingly discovering a connection between better EX and improved CX. Engaged employees, on top of being more productive and higher performing, deliver better customer experiences. However, data woes hinder employee productivity.
Almost every respondent in the survey reports having data-related challenges serving customers over digital channels
A majority of survey respondents say they are not using data from individual voice of the customer channels for strategic decision-making
Enterprise Search and Customer Search - Better Together
Strong customer search delivers results that are personalised and demonstrate an understanding of customers intent. Strong enterprise search helps employees do their job faster, more effectively and with greater satisfaction. However, it is the connection between customer search and enterprise search, using data from one to feed the other, that empowers employees and delights customers.
"Personalisation is more than delivering the right results according to what users are typing into the search bar," says Will Hayes, CEO, Lucidworks.
"A connected experience applies insights to deliver what users need, in real time across every channel," he says.
"Customers receive relevant product recommendations, support agents help customers in their moment of need, and employees see the bigger picture to make strategic decisions."
Hayes says for many companies, this is still aspirational.
"The survey shows that search remains an incomplete tool for personalisation, and data from search is rarely used to connect employees to customers, or to empower those employees to do their jobs optimally," he says.
"Companies that understand real-time intent from customer search and browse to personalise an experience within that moment gain quantifiable business benefits."
The report found 50% of respondents were more likely to report revenue growth, while 40% were more likely to report innovation, and 35% were more likely to report operational efficiency.
In addition, companies that strongly agree that they provide connected experiences across channels are almost twice as likely to report major operational efficiency gains as a result of their employee search capabilities than those who do not (64% vs. 33%).
"The study findings mirror those we see in our own customer base with clients such as Morgan Stanley and SAS. Enterprises who connect search and knowledge management experiences across channels consistently outperform those who don't," says Hayes.
"Our customer Lenovo saw conversions increase by 35 percent after they began capturing customer signals and applying those insights to their business," he says.
Five Attributes Underpin Connected Experiences
The Forrester survey uncovered five key business capabilities that, taken in concert, enable businesses to deliver connected experiences. Lucidworks customer base also sees examples of these five capabilities.
Real-Time Personalisation: The Forrester study shows highly connected companies are 40 percent more likely to use real-time intent to personalise experiences in the moment. Lucidworks customer base includes a leading retailer who uses Fusion to deliver signals-based personalisation, creating a $10 million annual increase in revenue.
Harnessing Customer Signals: The Forrester study shows the lack of signals from customer behaviour, as well as an inability to derive insights from signals, were two of the top five challenges identified by respondents seeking to personalise customer experiences. Lucidworks discovered that one of their customers, a leading department store, saw a 50 percent increase in conversions by capturing signals and applying insights in real time to optimise the shopper experience.
Understanding Intent: The Forrester study shows an overwhelming 97 percent of respondents have challenges understanding customer intent. Lucidworks saw one of their customers, a leading provider of open source software solutions, use signals-based intent detection on their customer support portal to improve customer self-solve rates by 300%.
Cross-Channel Delivery: According to the Forrester survey, without a coordinated cross-channel strategy, creating relevant experiences that span the customers journey is nearly impossible. Lucidworks found that one of their customers, an enterprise data management firm, saved over $5M in costs after deploying signals-based personalisation across multiple support channels using Fusion.
Machine learning (ML): According to the Forrester study, 40 percent of respondents cite a lack of machine learning as an obstacle to understanding customer intent. However, when brands deploy ML they can realise major benefits. Lucidworks reports that one of their customers, a major home goods retailer, deployed Fusions out-of-the-box ML to improve their digital experience, resulting in $200 million in organic annual growth.