TALKING

Fortunately , the sheer amount of technology now available means CIOs are better positioned than ever to drive Digital Transformation . And much of that technology is finally catching up with customer expectations . We ’ re starting to see things like AI , Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing , begin to realise their incredible potential . In particular , businesses are using these technologies to deliver enhanced personalisation and self-service that takes the customer experience to the next level . personalisation that ’ s going to make your customers feel good and make it faster and easier for them to conduct business with you .

Don ’ t do everything at once

CIOs need to identify emerging customer experience trends and determine what impact they ’ re going to have on their business . It can be easy to be swept away by promising new technologies and think you have to adopt everything as quickly as possible . Here ’ s some advice I regularly give our clients :

Jonathan Tam , VP – Marketing , Liferay

AI and Machine Learning may sound futuristic to some – to CIOs it might just sound costly ! But something as ‘ simple ’ as a chatbot proves that effective selfservice is both affordable and achievable for most businesses , if properly applied . You just have to look at the explosion in self-service over the last decade to realise these technologies are no longer just cutting edge ; they ’ re core to customer service .

But it ’ s important to not get carried away by technology . The customer always comes first .

With that in mind , here are some key pointers to consider when rethinking your customer experience .

Make it personal

Slow down . Prioritise your objectives and pick a project that is manageable and measurable . Then adopt technology in a phased approach . Use your success with one project to broaden your initiatives and deliver more .

Stop searching for unicorns . It ’ s highly unlikely you will find one piece of technology that solves all your problems . Start small and integrate different pieces of technology that do individual tasks very well .

Align your front end and back office priorities . Keep customer needs in mind at all times . But remember that while customer experience is the primary focus , you can ’ t just forget security , business process goals , or GDPR in the name of serving the customer .

At Liferay , we always encourage our clients to start with their customers ’ needs . For instance , we may often recommend that organizations experiment with various types of AI / ML . But technology on its own is not a magic bullet – everything must be wellintegrated and serve a clear purpose .

Personalisation is key . You want to reduce friction and make customers feel like they ' re getting an experience that ’ s unique to them , even online . There ’ s plenty of ways to achieve this using the technology available to you .

If you opt for a login , you can use the information your customers provide , including their history , interests and the products they use , to provide a highly tailored experience . Even if you don ’ t require a login , you can still use cookies or tracking . Ultimately , it ’ s

We ’ ve seen a huge increase in customers using our platform to create self-service portals for customers in order to deliver the experience the customer expects .

Bring everyone onboard . CIOs are uniquely positioned to align key stakeholders and pool their collective knowledge and resources . You can use that position to bring teams together , working with colleagues to identify the challenges and opportunities in your personalisation and self-service strategies .

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