Customer experience and loyalty

1. Customer Experience
& Loyalty

2. Columbus is a listed IT services and consulting company with 2,000
employees serving customers worldwide. Columbus helps ambitious
companies transform, maximize and futureproof their business
digitally. We are experts within the industries retail, food, distribution
and manufacturing. We’ve proved this through more than 28 years of
experience helping more than 4,200 customers world-wide. Columbus is
headquartered in Denmark with offices and partners all around the world.
Publisher Richard Hadler
Project manager Sarah Callaghan
Editor Kelly Owen, Gerrard Cowan
Designer Harry Lewis-Irlam, Samuele Motta
Head of production Justyna O’Connell
Digital marketing manager Elise Ngobi
Although this publication is funded through advertising and sponsorship,all editorial is without bias and sponsored features are clearly
labelled.For an upcoming schedule, partnership inquiries or feedback, please call +44 (0)20 3428 5230 or email info@raconteur.net
Contributors
Publication sponsored by
Ben Rossi
Formerly editorial director at Vitesse Media
and editor of Information Age and Computer
News Middle East, he writes for national
newspapers and business publications.
Finbarr Toesland
A freelance journalist, he specialises in tech-
nology, business and economic issues, and
contributes to a wide range of publications.

3. Contents
04
Navigating the journey
to data value
06
The future of rewarding
B2B customer loyalty
12
Putting CXM at the
heart of your business
With innovative technology at their disposal, are companies
utilising the connected customer experience to drive loyalty?
08
Five technologies
that will reshape the
customer experience
10
The human element of
a successful CRM

4. B
2B organisations are increasingly
understanding that data is a major
asset that can provide great value to
the business. But simply hoarding
as much data as possible does not equate to
value. Companies therefore must focus their
efforts on gaining access to the information
that will truly make a difference to their busi-
ness performance.
Businesses typically use storage models that
scale the costs according to usage, making vast
data collection an expensive task. Most data
stored in organisations will provide little value,
either because there is no need to hold on to it
or they lack the ability to use it. All too often,
businesses just don’t know what data they have.
“Organisations need to undertake an inves-
tigative process to expose all the areas where
they are currently hoarding data, whether
they are using it or not, and why,” says Gareth
Edwards, head of data science at Softwire, a
software development firm. “Only once this
Navigating
the journey
to data value
The idea that data holds the key to great value
journey to achieving it requires careful steps that
many aren’t yet prepared for
BEN ROSSI
4 RACONTEUR.NETCUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
is widely accepted by businesses today, but the
Know more about
Customer data solutions

5. 16%
of all data is unknown
Vertisa
80%
of companies will list data
as an asset on their balance
sheet by 2020
Gartner
It will ultimately be the role of people,
ensuring the right questions are asked,
that brings success
exercise has been completed can any busi-
ness really understand which data sets are of
most value and which are being unnecessar-
ily collected and stored.”
In most organisations, the grim reality is
that information is all over the place. On aver-
age, 16 per cent of data is unknown, according
to Vertisas’s 2017 Data Genomics Index. The
growth of unstructured data shows no signs
of slowing, either, with a 50 per cent jump in
the number of unknown files in organisations
between 2016 and 2017.
Digital transformation is ultimately defined
by the value of information, so addressing
this soaring volume of unknown files with
appropriate data management tools is crucial
in turning that data into genuinely useful
insights for the business.
“This will allow businesses to deploy data
classification tools that can scan and tag data
in a granular, intelligent and automated man-
ner to help them quickly discover, analyse
and access it and on-demand,” says Jason
Tooley, VP Northern Europe at Veritas.
Successful utilisation of data also relies on
people. The managers in a B2B organisation
know where the value comes from, and they
know what answers they lack to create that
value. But simply knowing the right questions
to ask when evaluating data is not enough -
managers must communicate better with IT
to develop systems that can find and action
the right answers.
Consumer brands are often perceived to
be ahead of B2B companies when it comes to
generating value from data, though this may
be because their attempts to profile custom-
ers are more visible. B2B businesses selling
devices, machines or tangible systems, in
fact, generally have more valuable data -pro-
cessing opportunities, particularly around
areas like preventive maintenance and con-
figuration optimisation.
The Internet of Things, which involves con-
necting objects with internet-enabled sensors
that speak to each other, is also more preva-
lent in B2B scenarios and is one of the most
powerful methods for collecting, processing
and ultimately gaining value from data.
“What is complicated for B2B brands is
when they produce a subsystem which is
integrated in a larger system by their client
– itself selling the larger system to the final
customer,” says Yannick Meiller, assistant
professor of information and operations man-
agement at ESCP Europe, the business school.
“This is the case of Valeo in the car industry.
The subsystem may be equipped with many
sensors, but the data is captured by the main
system, and therefore by the producer of this
larger system.”
Accepting there is significant value in data
is only the first step to realising its worth.
B2B businesses must implement technologies
and processes that ensure the correct data is
collected and then integrated and analysed
to find context. It will ultimately be the role
of people, ensuring the right questions are
asked, that brings success.
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6. The future of rewarding
B2B customer loyalty
C
ompanies in the B2C space have
long understood the importance
of effectively rewarding custom-
ers for their loyalty. But many B2B
brands still believe that sending a Christmas
hamper or bottle of champagne to long-term
clients is enough to thank them for their
long-term commitment.
While these types of gifts are not unwel-
come, the advent of advanced data analytics,
alongside several other innovative technolo-
gies, has made it possible for even small com-
panies to better understand their clients and
learn exactly what they want.
Customers, too, are increasingly inter-
ested in being rewarded for showing loyalty.
According to ‘The Loyalty Report 2018’, pub-
lished by customer engagement agency Bond,
a huge majority of people (87 per cent) say
they are willing to have their activity tracked,
if they get access to personalised rewards.
B2B brands can ensure their data collection
is delivering value to their customers by using it
to create a consistent omni-channel experience.
Utilising data to engage customers on an emo-
tional level can add value to the service offered
to clients and, ultimately, make them more
likely to remain loyal. Without detailed cus-
tomer data it’s not possible to provide the most
personalised rewards, insights, service and
assistance during the entire customer journey.
A human element is still important to
achieve a positive result for B2B loyalty pro-
grammes, but the future of rewarding loyalty
will be underpinned by technological tools
that empower staff to give customers exactly
what they need, when they want it.
Accurately measuring B2B customer loy-
alty can be difficult as it’s hard to discern
FINBARR TOESLAND
Innovative ways to analyse customer data are setting
the scene for a new-age of B2B loyalty
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Know more about
Customer loyalty platform

7. The future of rewarding loyalty will be
underpinned by technological tools that
empower staff to give customers exactly
what they need, when they want it
87%
of people are
willing to have their
activity tracked if
they get access to
personalised rewards
Bond
what activities are directly due to loyalty and
which are, for example, related to competitive
prices or offers. One of the most effective and
obvious ways to calculate customer loyalty is
the repeat customer rate (RCR). If a customer
has been purchasing the same product every
month for the past 10 years, this information
can be used to access the success of new loy-
alty initiatives.
Using this rate is a solid baseline for quan-
tifying loyalty, but joining the customer
lifetime value (CLV) with RCR can give com-
panies a deeper insight into the different
segments of customers they are trying to
reward. Clients that are both high-spenders
and regular customers should be rewarded
in different ways than low-value, regular
customers, meaning the need to measure
total spend and purchase frequency are
highly important.
Perhaps the single most relevant metric to
measure customer loyalty is the Net Promoter
Score (NPS), which is the likelihood of the cus-
tomer to recommend a company’s products
or services to their colleagues. Unlike the B2C
space, where individual needs are often the pri-
mary purchase consideration, B2B purchasers
must factor in different purchase motivations
around what the business itself needs.
So, it may be the case that a regular B2B
purchaser is only buying products due to their
low price and will move away the moment
this factor changes. This type of consumer
is hardly loyal and the NPS will uncover cus-
tomers who are purchasing for other reasons
than loyalty.
To be successful in the future of rewarding
B2B customer loyalty will require each client
to be targeted on an individual level and not
as part of some larger grouping. It’s no small
task to create an effective B2B loyalty pro-
gramme, but with the cost of acquiring new
customers being up to five times more expen-
sive than increasing spend from current cus-
tomers, it’s clear the investment will pay divi-
dends over the long-term.
BlueScope Steel
Australian-based steel producer BlueScope
Steel first introduced its B2B-focused loyalty
scheme in a bid to increase the amount of
money SME customers spend on its products.
This programme, called ‘Constructor’, offers
clients one point per dollar spent, which can
then be used to buy items from a rewards cat-
alogue, and provides customers with detailed
information about the cost, special offers and
opportunities to earn extra points.
B2B reward systems like this mark an
important step in the journey to create an
effective scheme that helps reduce customer
churn and better engage with high-value cli-
ents. Yet, as BlueScope Steel soon realised,
customer data was the key to making the most
of the loyalty programme.
The company worked hard to ensure all data
held on their customers was accurate and
up-to-date, by improving how databases were
managed, and established a fully joined-up sys-
tem where customers received personalised
offers based on their previous transactions.
By combining a reward system to incentivise
B2B customers to become long-term clients
with advanced data analytics that provides
detailed information about customer inten-
tions and expectation, businesses will be better
placed to meet ever-changing client needs.
This data-driven approach resulted in bot-
tom-line benefits for BlueScope Steel, with the
firmreportingthe1,200customerswhoarepart
of the ‘Constructor’ programme spend more
than double they used to before the scheme
started, leaving BlueScope Steel to concentrate
on creating the best products for clients rather
than focusing on managing margins.
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8. 1
Emerging technologies are on course to personalise the B2B customer journey
Five technologies
that will reshape the
customer experience
Chatbots
Few people enjoy calling up a customer support
line for advice to be greeted by an automated
voice reading out an unpersonalised list of
questions about why they are calling. But the
next generation of natural language processing
(NLP) software will allow customers to simply
say or type their query and advanced chatbots
can instantly analyse this input and offer a rel-
evant reply.
The chatbots of tomorrow can move beyond
answering specific questions like “Has my order
left the warehouse?” to more complex ques-
tions that require detailed information about
the exact circumstances of the customer, such
as “What is the best printer for my business?”
FINNBARR TOESLAND
2
Artificial intelligence (AI)
The role AI plays is already significant, but there
is far more this game-changing technology can
achieve soon. Through using AI-backed solu-
tionsbusinessescanmakethecustomerjourney
more personalised and offer customers more
accurate product recommendations based on
recent purchases.
If research company Garner’s prediction, that
by 2020 customers will manage 85 per cent of
their relationship with the enterprise without
dealing with a human, proves correct, busi-
nesses who fail to incorporate AI tools into their
customer experience journey will not keep up
with consumer expectations.
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Learn more about
Intelligent chatbots
Learn more about A.I-powered
platform for eCommerce

9. 4
3
VR and AR
Virtual reality and augmented reality solutions are
no longer futuristic concepts that have little prac-
tical application in the business environment. As VR
and AR devices become more commonplace, how
customers experience products will be fundamen-
tally changed, especially in terms of how businesses
can better listen to their customer’s needs.
Companies can share new product designs
through VR and provide a detailed, visible
guideline of the exact specifications and bene-
fits their customers can expect. Using AR to see
how potential products and blueprints fit into
current operations allows customers to give
more relevant feedback than ever before.
Internet of things (IoT)
With market research firm Statista forecasting that
therewillbecloseto31billionIoTdevicesworldwide
by 2020, it’s clear the massive amounts of data col-
lected by these tools can be used to gain valuable
insight into the customer journey.
Machine manufacturers can include IoT-en-
abled sensors in their products to alert ser-
vice personnel when the first signs of break-
down occur and send out engineers to fix the
issues before a major failure happens. In the
future, these IoT devices will be able to com-
municate with each other and troubleshoot
problems through AI reducing the need for
human interaction.
5
Data analytics
There’s little point in amassing large amounts
of customer data if it isn’t going to be analysed
to extract actionable insights. Cutting-edge
algorithms can interrogate data to discern and
predict what the customer wants at every point
along their journey. From learning when to sug-
gest certain products to tailoring prices to match
customer expectations, mining data can provide
a clear understanding of what clients need.
By using real-time data analytics, there will
be no delay in discovering customer prefer-
ences and using this to personalise the services
offered to them, improving companies’ ability
to retain clients.
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AR & VR solutions
Customer data platform
for mobile apps solution

10. P
owerful technologies like artificial intelligence (AI),
augmented reality and chatbots may be enabling
brands to enter a new phase of CRM, but a lack of
thought into how these innovations actually come to-
gether to increase engagement risks isolating customers.
AI can ensure consumers receive personalised recommen-
dations and targeted offers on their favourite devices and
channels. Chatbots can give users a rapid response based
on real-time consumer data. Augmented reality can bring
products to life. When integrated and transparent, they allow
brands to demonstrate that they value each customer.
However, when customer experience initiatives are run in
isolation, human engagement is often lost. The best brands
make experience their entire business and implement this
ethos across every department – from marketing to sales, IT
to customer services – so they can utilise insights from one
another to drive better performance.
“By breaking down these organisational silos, brands
can gain a singular view of their customers across each and
every touchpoint, and ensure they receive the most relevant,
personalised experiences possible,” says Bridget Perry, VP
of EMEA marketing at Adobe. “It’s the unified experience
that’s key here – consumers feel they’re engaging with one
brand and one brand only, giving their experience a more
human feel.”
The human
element of a
successful CRM
Trendy new technologies no doubt have the power to
transform customer experience, but when done badly they
can also isolate buyers who miss the human touch and may
worry about the use of their data. How can brands create a
successful CRM in the digital age?
BEN ROSSI
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11. A connected user experience relies on per-
sonalisation, which can only be powered by
customer data. In a world where media cover-
age of data breaches and new regulations like
GDPR can inspire public scepticism in com-
panies that collect data, organisations should
clearly communicate the value customers
will receive for providing information.
As well as enabling a personalised experi-
ence, predictive analytics can be a powerful
tool for transforming that collection of data
into more customer loyalty by highlighting
bottlenecks and pinch points in the user jour-
ney. On a wider scale, it can highlight channel
usage preferences and performance, allowing
firms to prioritise resources.
First Direct, the online bank that com-
monly ranks highly for customer service in
the UK, uses data to build a more complete
picture of each user, meaning interactions
can be personalised and issues resolved more
quickly. However, Joe Gordon, who heads up
the bank, says human interaction will always
remain crucial to its customer experience.
“Processes will become increasingly auto-
mated and technologies such as AI will
become more mainstream, but at the same
time, what cannot be automated will become
even more valuable,” says Mr Gordon. “People
will always be needed and establishing emo-
tional trust with your customers is what will
really make the difference.”
It’s not just collection that can cause prob-
lems, but rather what organisations then
choose to do with the data. According to
research by global analytics firm SAS, 93%
of businesses are unable to use data to accu-
rately predict what individual customers will
want. Many brands are trapping customers in
a cycle of repeated recommendations.
There is no doubt that AI will play a signifi-
cant role in improving the customer journey,
but companies risk losing business by auto-
mating their communications using incom-
plete or irrelevant data. Even where the data
is relevant, analysis tends to be retrospective,
meaning firms often fail to establish the next
best action for customers.
“Too many companies are not using all of
the information available to make accurate
predictions about their customers’ latest
tastes and circumstances, trapping them
in the digital shadows of their past selves,”
says Tiffany Carpenter, head of customer
intelligence at SAS UK & Ireland. “As a result,
businesses are missing out on new revenue
streams, not to mention the risk of damaging
their customer relationships.”
Having a customer-centric approach when
developing AI applications is essential. By
limiting the efforts to incorporate AI and
other innovation to only technical teams,
businesses risk alienating users. For maxi-
mum value, the people who engage directly
with customers need to work with IT to build
a truly connected experience for users.
Marketers and researchers are still trying
to determine how to create the right balance
between human and non-human interaction
across the customer journey. The challenge
for businesses is they can try to design that
journey, but customers usually decide how
they use the touchpoints and often each user
has a unique journey.
“In the short-term, I don’t see companies
moving away completely from other forms
of touchpoints, instead it will happen sim-
ilarly to when telephone, social media and
other new channels emerged,” says Dr Rod-
rigo Perez-Vega, a lecturer at Henley Busi-
ness School. “Companies still give customers
choices as to how they want to contact the
firm, but in the long-term, human interaction
might become part of a premium experience.”
As companies look to reap the benefits of
automating elements of its CRM, it’s clear
they must do so in a way that not only trans-
parently documents their use of customer
data and integrates technologies through
departments and the business itself, but
also doesn’t lose any human engagement.
People will always want to buy from people.
63%
of CRM initiatives fail
Merkle Group Inc.
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12. Customer experience is the beating
heart of any company. Chris Mean,
chief operating officer at Columbus UK,
describes how Customer Experience
Management can intelligently inform
business decisions.
Putting CXM
at the heart of
your business P
roviding the best possible customer ex-
perience (CX) is crucial for any success-
ful business. For this to happen, every-
one in the organisation must be in sync
with what’s going on in and around the compa-
ny, particularly when it comes to customer in-
teractions. That’s where Customer Experience
Management (CXM) comes into play.
CXM expands and enhances the classic
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
concept, which mainly operated as a contact
management system. While it was a useful
place to get telephone numbers, or to meas-
ure salespeople’s performances, it was never
viewed as a crucial element in supporting the
customer journey.
Thanks to CXM, that’s all started to change.
Building on CRM, CXM solutions manage and
intelligently act on the many layers of infor-
mation flowing through a business along the
various stages of the customer journey. CXM
doesn’t just enable us to “market and sell”: more
importantly, it helps us “develop and serve” our
customers in a personalised manner. This can
include interactions on social media, or person-
alising and optimising a customer’s favourite
website. It can range from the development of
CHRIS MEAN
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
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Explore Customer Experience
Management Solutions for Business

13. 2
3
4
1
Pursue a “unified” experience at all stages
of the customer journey, including in the
touchpoints where departments outside sales
engage with and influence your customers.
This should be a seamless and consistent expe-
rience, where the customer is seen as a single
entity throughout. For example, marketing
could use a modern Product Information Man-
agement (PIM) system to oversee brand and
product campaigns, while operations could
build field service frameworks or accelerate the
introduction of servitisation models.
Think “agile”, and don’t be afraid to experiment
with proofs of concepts. Breaking the project
into phases and building on the success of each
will help deliver value into the business imme-
diately and validate assumptions on poten-
tial return on investment. This also ensures
the CXM system picks up users gradually as it
moves through its various stages.
Look to “digital feedback loops”. This Micro-
soft term describes the use of information to
proactively establish and analyse relation-
ships between customers, products and data.
Remember, data is the lifeblood of any organ-
isation. The intelligent business solutions of
the future will focus less on chasing informa-
tion and more on supporting decision-making
through machine intelligence. It is essential to
build this concept into any project.
By putting customers first and processing
relevant information consistently to produce
actionable insights, companies will gain a com-
petitive advantage. Working with a partner like
Columbus,withexperienceofthebestsolutions,
technologies and approaches, will amplify your
results. We work hard to understand our clients’
USPs. Our customers can leverage not only our
experience of different products, but perhaps
more importantly, our knowledge of what works
in different industries to help deliver the best
possible CXM solution. By conducting business
process analysis, we can identify the surest
paths to success.
fully servitised products using the Internet of
Things, Case Management and Field Service
Management to maximising product availabil-
itythroughpredictivemaintenancealgorithms.
A modern CXM solution is a platform for all
thecommunicationswithinacompanyandcov-
ers touchpoints like the various digital channels
that are now so central to business. CXM con-
siders how happy customers are and whether
they are likely to recommend your product or
service to others, rather than simply looking to
their next purchase or other company interac-
tion. This deeper level of knowledge can provide
unprecedented insights into consumer habits
and the best ways to boost customer loyalty.
It’s an integral part of digital transformation:
rather than simply overseeing a spreadsheet of
customers, it helps you seamlessly integrate the
wide array of productivity tools that businesses
now use.
Buying structures in businesses today are
more complicated than ever. In retail, for exam-
ple,therearemultiplebuyingpersonasforevery
prospective customer, from professional (going
to work in smart dress) to personal (walking the
dog or going mountain biking). Each of these
levels of information can be hugely valuable to
a business that’s trying to take a new product to
market or find people that might be interested
in its service. CxM provides the platform to col-
late this information and – more importantly
– the opportunity to add context and generate
truly actionable insights.
When it comes to deploying a CXM solu-
tion, adopting the following approaches
can bring immediate results.
Think “outside in” and put the customer experi-
ence first. The ability to measure and articulate
improvements in CX ensures that your efforts
truly add customer value, and that you aren’t
simply changing processes for the sake of it.
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
CXM solutions manage and
intelligently act on the many
layers of information flowing
through a business
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