Providing a customized customer experience in Hong Kong

Over 60% of organizations in North Asia particularly Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea expect transformation in the areas of customer experience and care in 2013. Acquiring customers and reducing churn is their top business concern.

The days of product-oriented sales and marketing are long gone. Today, having a good product and spending some marketing dollars to promote it will not guarantee your success. It never did, but now you will find it harder than before. Not only competition has increased, but also customers have changed.

Here is a test. If you want to buy a product, for example a laptop, would you go to the nearest computer store and ask the shop attendant for a recommendation, or would you rather check online, compare features and pricing, and ask friends for advice before making a purchase?

Recent research shows that 45% of buying decisions are made before the sales rep even says hi. Let's admit it, you are no longer in control, the customer is.

Customers know more about your business than they did before. But, how much do you really know about your customers? Do you understand their changing needs and address their expectations?

If you are a retailer, you probably know your customers' names, perhaps the number of credit cards that they have, and also whether or not they have kids; beyond this, you may also analyze historical customer behavior data. But overall you only know what customers tell you or want you to know. That's not enough.

With competition increasing, and customer churn rates becoming a top concern for organizations, you can't only compete on pricing; it would be more sustainable for your business to focus on enhancing customers' experience (CX).

In fact, according to the IDC Barometer, the top business concern for organizations in AP is acquiring new customers and reducing churn, so customer centricity is back in the agenda.

Many organizations feel that a CRM solution can help them address this challenge, and based on a recent IDC survey 21% of organizations in Hong Kong see CRM solutions as driving key business transformation initiatives in their organizations; and 29% will increase or newly deploy a CRM solution in 2013.

But, while CRM can be a very powerful tool, it will only begin providing real value if it's used beyond keeping track of customer leads. This is because CRM applications are usually deployed to streamline business processes, rather than to improve the understanding of the organization's customers, or maximize its customer relations.

As a result, internal data structures are optimized by functional area, and the customer database gets dispersed among the different departments, preventing the company from having a single view of its customers and interactions.

CRM applications are still in great demand across the region and are a good starting point, but CX goes beyond this. This is our advice:

• Know your customer: the rear-view mirror view is not enough. Knowing your customer does not only mean looking at historical trends, it means anticipating what your customers may need in the future. The social channel can help you get deeper customer insights, since you don't need to wait for customers to tell you what they want, but you can listen to them in real time.
• Be the customer: map the customer lifecycle from the view of your customer. Today's consumers interact with brands through various touchpoints. You need to build an ongoing relationship, and create customer advocates.
• Move Beyond CRM: CX is more than technology, it's a practice. You need to coordinate the internal functional areas and data structures, as well as the external touch points, in order to respond consistently to customers across the different channels.