At the Heart of Customer Experience Management

Transcription

1 At the Heart of Customer Experience Management The Case for Integrated Monitoring in Customer Experience Management Paths to achieving synergy in touch points, transactions, and technology Abstract What does the term Customer Experience Management (CEM) really mean in a digitized world? It depends on whom you ask. Some may offer a simplistic vision of social media monitoring. Others may talk about compute power for a website. And then, there are those who provide an all too myopic view based on query resolution. While these are different facets of CEM, what businesses need is a way to orchestrate an experience symphony across every facet. And this orchestration can be achieved with an integrated monitoring tool one that delivers more value. Think of it as a universal dashboard that brings together the customer, the touch point, the immediate transaction, and the underlying technology.

2 The Usual Suspects in a Fragmented Experience When customers interact with businesses across channels and geographies, what gets in the way of a consistent experience? It is simple to list the usual suspects disparate IT systems, legacy processes, diverse channels and a lack of focus on customer engagement. And, of course, the age-old problem: many believe that when they invest all their energies in delivering products and services, they are bound to be underinvested in managing the customer experience. A simple change in perspective will help businesses customer experience cannot be viewed as customer service with a few additional components. And the techniques that apply to customer service are merely a subset of the myriad techniques needed for successful CEM. When Transaction is at the Heart of Experience, Do Not Overlook SOA Experience now depends on the time taken to execute a business transaction no longer on turnaround time and meeting service-level agreements (SLAs). While this remains the foundation of digital customer engagement, it is not enough; customers are increasingly looking beyond metrics. Rather than just monitoring infrastructure platforms or application platforms that support the transaction, it is more relevant to leverage service-oriented architecture (SOA) for monitoring end-to-end business transactions. SOA brings flexibility to business processes enabling systems and solutions to communicate dynamically. This will make it possible to run and operate platforms without a break for maintenance or deployment because the updated systems will use automated code promotion and deployment techniques. The result is greater process agility, enhanced system performance, faster transactions, and hence, better customer experience, regardless of whether the customer is external or internal. Low Tolerance Calls for High Performance As organizations compete to connect and attract prospects and customers, it is important to scrutinize user expectations and perceptions in order to deliver the right experience. For example, tolerance levels of consumers waiting for a website to load are at an all-time low. They expect optimum performance irrespective of the devices or location from where they connect. This kind of prejudice against latency sharply underlines the need for organizations to ensure high performance of their websites. What matters most to customers is end to end transaction time. A transaction delay of even one to three seconds can result in dissatisfaction and abandonment of the portal. Businesses are now shifting their focus to mobile apps in order to reduce dependencies on portals and associated performance issues. However, the dependency of mobile apps on APIs calls for an entirely different performance management mechanism.

3 Want to Deliver Faster Access? Start with Benchmarking The mission to provide digital experience on desktop browsers and websites has rapidly shifted the focus to areas where customers have the ability to move between channels without noticing major changes in user experience. Customers expect a quick response/resolution to application performance or availability issues sometimes within minutes. A barely working application is no longer the yardstick; rather, it is about performing to satisfy user expectations. To achieve such satisfaction levels organizations are now adopting benchmarking, which can help prioritize areas where enhancing performance is imperative. Some of the key drivers for benchmarking include increase in mobile usage, the necessity to rank customers digital experience, measurement of browser user experience and recognition of changes in the industry. Using benchmarking, organizations can study user needs and pinpoint areas where change can deliver instant results whether it is infrastructure, site architecture, third-party integration strategies, web browser advancements, ISP stability or increase/decrease in site visitor volume. Implementing changes in one or many areas will lead to high availability and reliability of applications. Bridging the Gap between the Digital and Industrial Worlds There is clearly a sign of polarization between a highly digitized world and a more orthodox industrial world. Customer experience management, when viewed through the digital lens, is a means to achieve minimal disruptions in critical processes so that business transactions can be completed in real time. However, in a highly industrialized digital world, SLA management is a key ingredient in achieving better customer satisfaction by focusing on elements such as downtimes, breakdowns, and recovery time objectives (RTOs).

4 End-customer satisfaction and operational efficiency brew up the perfect business case for looking at monitoring tools as the best alternative available the proverbial bridge between user expectations and ability of IT to deliver. That is where single-pane monitoring environments come into play to mitigate gaps with a unified view that encompasses customer context, business transactions, application services, and infrastructure components. This shift will also require prioritizing automation, establishing baselines and shifting from mere 24X7 infrastructure teams to a team that understands business impact of the services. If Experience has Many Dimensions, Integrated Monitoring Strings Them All Together Organizations have multiple tool stacks managing IT infrastructure, applications, business transactions and customer experience leading to multiple versions of incidents and difficulties in resolving them. Since modern applications have a number of connection points between the end-user and the data center, performance issues can arise anywhere along the application delivery chain. In addition, ecosystem components use their set of proprietary, open source tools of preferred partners, adding more complexity to the overall transaction. Varied tools and techniques rarely meet the objectives of embracing true customer-centricity. The key is to provide an integrated monitoring architecture. One that spans customer channels, automates key business processes, and factors the applications and infrastructure serving the transaction to deliver a single version of the truth. That is the holy grail of customer experience management, where monitoring touch points, transactions, and technology is a singular, seamless activity, which reduces resolution time and increases customer value.

5 The NIIT Technologies Thought Board: Integrated Monitoring in Customer Experience Management (CEM) What is Getting in the Way of Seamless Customer Experience? Lack of focus on Disparate IT systems Legacy processes Diverse channels customer engagement What are the Shifts in Perspective Required for Successful CEM? View customer experience as larger than customer service it is not just about resolution, it is about the time taken to execute an end-to-end transaction Acknowledge that experience cannot be viewed in isolation. It is influenced by a combination of the customer, the touch point, the immediate transaction, and the underlying technology Bridge the divide between digital and industrial worlds by going from mere 24X7 infrastructure teams to setting up a team with diverse skill sets that understands business impact of the services What Techniques can Improve CEM? SOA Services SOA brings flexibility to business processes enabling systems and solutions to communicate dynamically and drive faster transactions Benchmarking This can help prioritize areas where enhancing performance is imperative from infrastructure to ISP stability Application Performance Management Monitor the end-user experience, business transactions, application services, and infrastructure components How can Experience be Managed Holistically? Focus on the 3Ts with an integrated monitoring tool that delivers a unified view of factors that impact customer experience. Touch Points End-user experience in real time Transactions Critical business transactions and services Technology The entire IT stack, including applications

6 Accelerating the Path to Unified Customer Experience Management At NIIT Technologies, we see businesses across industries grappling with complexity in the application delivery chain. Providing a seamless and satisfying end-customer experience is becoming more and more challenging. With increased dependencies on IT to meet business objectives, there is a constant need for real-time visibility into business transactions which defines the ability to deliver exceptional business services to both internal and external customers. When our clients turn to us for enhancing their customer experience management, our endeavor has been to deliver new ideas and more value. We focus on areas where end-consumer experience is critical, which depends on the application performance within the IT landscape. This has led to the creation of an application performance monitoring (APM) solution that helps manage: The entire IT stack, including applications Critical business transactions and services End-user experience in real time Our solution reduces the number of incidents, speeds up mean time to resolution, increases IT productivity, and ultimately, delivers the experience customers expect. For the CEM and APM stack, we have partnered with top companies that are recognized by independent, third-party analyst organizations globally. This positions us to synergize performance across touch points, transactions, and technology for our clients, enabling us to be at the heart of great experiences.

7 For more information, contact 2016 NIIT Technologies. All rights reserved. NIIT Technologies is a leading global IT solutions organization, differentiated on the strength of domain expertise; it services clients in travel and transportation, banking and financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and media verticals. Leading with its service vision New Ideas, More Value, NIIT Technologies is committed to delivering new ideas combined with operational excellence to provide exceptional value to its clients. The Company is focused on helping businesses design sustainable, optimizable and winning digital operating models, enabling them to become agile, scalable, and flexible. Visit us at D_150_ Stay connected: