Build customer loyalty by finalizing the feedback loop

CX Network, one of the global leaders in premium content for customer experience professionals, recently announced the winners of the CX Elite Awards 2022 at InMoment’s Experience Forum.

The CX Elite Awards 2022 is a celebration of outstanding CX achievements over the past year.

The awards saw machine industry company TRUMPF win Best CX Insights and Analytics in recognition of its CX program that used customer data to allow the company to gain a better understanding of customer behavior. 
CX Network had the opportunity to  interview Indrajit Rana, head of sales excellence and customer intelligence at TRUMPF, in reaction to the award win.

CX Network: As part of your award-winning CX initiative, you developed a program to expand the company's customer orientation to gain better insights into customer motivations from customer data. What are your top tips for companies looking to implement a similar program to your award-winning one?

Indrajit Rana: There are three important things to focus on: 
Firstly, finalize the loop of feedback – intelligence – action – feedback. It is extremely important to foresee the entire loop before doing the survey. This will ensure the action orientation to the entire process. Last but not the least, the loop must end with informing the customer about what was done with the feedback as this builds customer loyalty.

Secondly, the internal mind-set is an important lever for driving the organization toward customer focus. Internal communication keeps everyone informed and activates the company to think and believe in succeeding along with the customer.

Finally, gain management buy-in. Return on Investment is important. Leads are an important part of the quick wins and a vision defined on the basis of sustainable anchoring. This brings in management buy-in and this is imperative to drive the strategic focus toward customers.

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CX Network: As part of your customer loyalty and retention program, you created a precise picture of your customers. Our readers have admitted they struggle to understand their customers’ digital behavior. Can you provide any tips for decoding it to improve customer retention?

IR: Personas are an ocean and it is completely understandable that we all struggle with the split between digital and analog. Creating a good balance between the two helps companies to keep up in the era of digital transformation but also prevents them losing personal contact with their customers.  

The key to decoding the behavior is first to understand the split of customers and then identify the intensity of digital versus analog, as not all customers are happy being served fully digitally. It is important to derive an understanding, but this does take time and a defined structure to identify, classify and satisfy their needs.

CX Network: Data and tech silos can cause real issues when collecting and analyzing customer data. How did you address this challenge?  

IR: In my previous answer, I spoke about finalizing the loop. This means developing or defining the path ahead with hypothesis and the complete path of the survey. This helps in tackling the data and tech silos and exploiting the tech possibilities to the fullest.  

In the world of Big Data, it is important to identify the right links and create interfaces in order to make the best possible use of the data.

CX Network: One of your aims was to identify customers who are willing to churn and reduce the loss of customers through loyalty-building measures. What challenges did you encounter when implementing this and how did you overcome them?

IR: We are at a preliminary phase where we have developed a model based on customer feedback data and internal sales data and we are testing this. The problem, I foresee, is the dynamism of this aspect.  

Data needs to be collected and analyzed in real time and needs to be reviewed by the local teams and defined action plans need to be executed with speed. Only then will we be able to see data’s actual impact. Hence, it is important to define the operating model toward the concept in addition to the data itself.  

Finally, the right responsibilities must be involved so that the model is not only accepted and trusted but also lived.

How is your company using data to understand customer behavior? Let us know in the comments below!