An exceptional customer experience (CX) builds a foundation of loyalty and trust. Similarly, a positive user experience (UX) encourages brand connections with people wanting to come back for more. And yet, local organisations must learn to embrace these more effectively to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

When customers trust a business, they are far less likely to communicate dissatisfaction publicly. They are also willing to pay more if they feel the organisation prioritises relationships over revenue. A CX-centric approach helps companies understand their customers and market dynamics better. For its part, effective UX enhances the usability of a system, improves its ease of use, and delivers products and services to the target market better.

Learn From Others

It is advised that South African businesses learn from international stand out brands such as Virgin, Amazon, Harley Davidson, Disney, and Zappos. However, there are a few local retail and financial services organisations that stand out too. These are the ones that use technology to understand customers’ shifting needs and act accordingly. They deliver a seamless online and offline experience and build a personalised reward system. All these combine to offer a unique brand experience that is amplified through market communication.

By putting customers at the heart of their solutions and business, these organisations can disrupt the market. With more companies adopting technology to improve CX (think artificial intelligence-driven chatbots to provide immediacy to requests), they can use data to better understand their customers. 

This results in the ability to tailor their products and solutions and ensure a consistent and repeatable experience across customer channels.

Some government departments are also experimenting with AI and automation for better self-service applications. These, in turn, improve the way service delivery is done to citizens. However, from a B2B perspective, organisations still struggle with putting relationships above revenue and transforming themselves into a ‘new’ business.

But when it comes to UX, we are on par with some of the best companies in the world. There is so much innovation happening in this space that end users are in for very exciting times in the coming months.

Cloud-Driven

The arrival of multinational data centres is bringing cloud technology to businesses. These open new ways to deliver customer experiences through connected data sources and on-demand real-time uninterrupted services. Such services dramatically change digital customer and employee experiences given the flexibility of the infrastructure.

The ability to access these services at any time, from anywhere, using any device, and being able to store massive amounts of data in the cloud, enable companies to better anticipate customer behaviour. So, when it comes time to digitalise customer and employee experiences, the best way to do so is through this online environment.