Addressing data overload: Tips for effective CX management

During the Singapore edition of Sprinklr’s CX Connect conference this year, chief customer officer Scott Harvey, spoke about the “greatest challenge” facing enterprises today: the number of channels and volume of data that exist.

Channels and data are the lifeblood of modern CX and service; knowing how to manage and extract value from them is essential. Yet according to Harvey, the combination of multiple channels and billions of digital consumers is creating chaos and confusion for the modern enterprise – and its CX practitioners – as they attempt to engage customers in a meaningful way.

In fact, when we conducted our annual research into the Global State of CX this year, the ability to extract actionable insights from data emerged as a top-three challenge for 22 percent of practitioners.

Reflecting on his keynote, Harvey (pictured below) tells CX Network how practitioners can overcome their current challenges and why the changing role of the chief information officer (CIO) is the most interesting thing happening in CX at present.

CX Network: Your keynote at Sprinklr’s CX Connect conference looked at the greatest challenge facing enterprises today: the number of channels and volume of data that exist. Our research into the Global State of CX found that creating actionable insights from data is a top-three challenge for 22 percent of practitioners. How can practitioners start to overcome this challenge?

Scott Harvey: In a word, AI. The only way to embrace CX data, due to it's volume and unruly nature, is via AI. The second critical step is connecting data via an application layer. Insights are only valuable if they are actionable.

Actionable insights for CX mean that the insights need to live where CX teams live – within the marketing and contact centers. CX practitioners will only be able to overcome this challenge when CX data is unified into a single, CX platform that delivers data and insights within the tool or platform where they interact with their customer.

CX Network: Elsewhere in the survey, 38 percent of practitioners said data insights and analytics is a top-three investment priority this year. For those who are actively looking to invest, which capabilities should they focus on acquiring?

Scott Harvey: If they haven't already, practitioners need to achieve a center of excellence in unsolicited research. We are talking about social listening and understanding customer reviews. The next evolution of the research center of excellence model really comes to life when an insights team can swivel between unsolicited research and solicited research, which is usually conducted through surveys.

Although one may argue that surveys deliver less authentic feedback, they do give CX leaders more control on which questions are answered. CX leaders can extract the best insights and be more efficient when they are able to validate unsolicited insights via targeted, solicited outreach, and vice versa.

Sprinklr is fully committed to this notion of unifying solicited and unsolicited feedback. We believe this is the future of listening and research.

CX Network: From the customer perspective, channel choice offers a dynamic and convenient experience. But how can these different touch points be orchestrated into end-to-end experiences?

Scott Harvey: Especially at the enterprise level, it is simply impossible without a platform that can provide structure, governance and cross-functional and cross-platform visibility into every touchpoint a brand has with the customer. We call this unifying your edge.

In simple terms, a customer forms a perception of your brand based on one unified experience. The in-store interaction, Instagram ad, or time on hold with your contact center, are not isolated. They are all part of that unified experience.

But brands do not have a single unified experience with that same customer. Interactions are managed by siloed teams, working on different platforms, and data is often inaccessible or simply not shared across the organization.

This must change, and brands are striving toward a single, unified experience with their customers. This is not easy, and it requires customer service leaders to look to the marketing center for insight. Furthermore, it demands they ensure marketing leaders think of the contact center as a crucial customer touchpoint and the chief information officer (CIO) is embracing the fact they now sit at the center of CX.

RELATED CONTENT: 6 customer behaviors influencing
CX strategy in APAC

CX Network: Aside from AI, what is the most interesting thing you are seeing in CX right now?

Scott Harvey: Further to the last question, the most interesting thing at present is the emergence of the new CIO as a strategic unifier who is driving innovation. CX is the traditional domain of either the CMO or COO in the contact center – and these functions have traditionally been very separate.

AI is the technology that can bridge and unify these camps to create the single experience with customers that is needed.

But the only way to achieve this is with the leadership of a modern CIO that is focused on innovation and driving results across the business.

The rise of the CIO and the technical innovations they will bring to CX are the most exciting things I see right now.

All Access: Customer Data Analytics APAC 2024

APAC businesses need customer data analytics to deliver best in class customer experiences, but many are facing challenges in collecting, integrating, analyzing, and acting upon customer data.  

Attend All Access: Customer Data Analytics APAC as it addresses these challenges and provides actionable solutions to data integration, quality management, and collection challenges. 

 

Register Now