What should be your customer experience strategy in new circumstances?

Some years back, one of my friends started a yoga studio. Within a year, they started doing so well, that her husband left his well-cushioned job in investment banking in order to focus on the venture. Their success journey was disrupted by the current health crisis, which forced them to close their physical doors. However, they did not shut their operations. they moved to an online model, where they started, stay-at-home services with a subscription for live and on-demand classes. This change in approach not just helped them to sustain, but also resulted in the clients from other continents. That triggered the thought – “How will the marketing change because of our current situation?” 

As companies are finding new ways of operating in today’s business environment, they need to think about new way of communicating with their customers. Some companies are looking at technology like chatbots to take in requests from the customers. Chatbots are only one of many solutions that can help businesses to run. Digital solutions can help to bring in self-service experiences to their customers.

One example of the successful use of technology to enable business continuity is SRL Diagnostics, one of India’s largest private testing laboratories. This laboratory is using Oracle Service Cloud to manage a high volume of queries from their patients coming through web site, mobile app and calls to the customer service center. The patients can now receive results from COVID-19 tests within 24 hours via various digital channels like email etc.

Another Indian stalwart – Aurobindo Pharma is currently using Oracle Sales Cloud for their Indian operations. The cloud has enabled them to have a single source of information now that all the scattered information is collected into a single place, thus bringing efficiency in the production processes. Having a proper sales management system in place has brought about transparency in the entire flow of information, which earlier used to be on paper or email. It has reduced process inefficiencies besides bringing more visibility concerning future forecasting. They are now able to plan their production better because of the demand forecasting. With enriched data, their execution has become faster. It has brought more efficiency in terms of sales. Indirectly, it has also impacted their demand plan thus reducing the stockpile up in the manufacturing units.

No business and no industry will remain immune to the current situation of uncertainty. These uncertainties will bring in the challenges and also the opportunities to find out ways to serve the customer. Based on my experience of interacting with so many business leaders, I can see that next-generation experiences will start with digital self-service throughout the customer lifecycle.