Turning customer-centricity into a catalyst for innovation and growth

Companies that use technology to harness the power of data and automation can build a richer customer experience—and fuel growth.

Customer relationships are a foundational part of building any business, and today, the case for continuously improving how customers interact with a company is strong: According to a 2021 report from Boston Consulting Group, in comparison to those with average customer satisfaction scores, organizations with the highest scores have generated twice as much shareholder value over the past decade.

The rate at which customer interactions are turning digital-first is accelerating. Data cited by McKinsey & Company suggests up to 80% of customer interactions will turn digital in the future, and IDG Research Services estimates that 87% of companies have accelerated their digital transformations post-pandemic, with improved customer experience cited as a top motivator. To stay competitive, businesses across industries are undertaking massive digital transformations that will ultimately help them unleash human creativity, enabling these companies to innovate more quickly and create new products, services, and business value. 

“The ongoing convergence of people, technologies, data, devices, and ever-expanding networks are creating immense opportunities for companies that embrace a digital-first strategy,” says Ram Chakravarti, chief technology officer at digital technology leader BMC. “By adopting a digital-first perspective, established organizations can bring their financial stability, market shares, and brand recognition to the forefront while harnessing the innovation and agility of a startup. This transformation is at the heart of evolving into an Autonomous Digital Enterprise [ADE].”

Companies that have already done just that—those that use technology to create actionable insights, business agility, and customer-centricity—embrace tools like artificial intelligence (A.I.) and make use of sophisticated data analytics. These organizations identify as digital-first and make a priority of developing their websites, mobile apps, video conferencing capabilities, virtual assistants, automated chats, and other emerging channels. These technologies provide more flexibility for both customers and service teams across every stage of a customer’s journey, freeing up resources for deeper engagements, says Eduarda Camacho, senior vice president and chief customer officer at BMC. “Engaging more deeply with customers while using technology to better understand their end-to-end experiences can help companies better understand and meet their customers’ needs."

Digital-first companies also foster an environment where employees can use data intuitively and seamlessly to support their work, making the whole enterprise more efficient. “‘Digital-first’ is ultimately about doing things faster and more proficiently through automation, harnessing the power of data, and getting higher-order insights to improve decision-making,” Chakravarti says. “This, in turn, results in being able to spend more time with customers.”

In addition to radical efficiency, digital-first organizations use data-driven insights to gain a comprehensive understanding of their clients and how those clients can best be served. “By tapping into rich sources of data,” Camacho says, “it becomes easier to quickly create new services that help customers engage with your organization on their terms. It also becomes easier for your company to glean valuable insights along the way that can inform future product design or inspire entirely new services.” When thinking about new customer service technologies that can deliver actionable insights, Chakravarti points to tools like conversational A.I. services, which can make customer engagements smoother and more personalized while capitalizing on the opportunity to gather data from the conversation. “You’re looking to capture data from interactions and determine all the underlying connections,” he says. “This can help companies predict demand for services and help guide decision-making to better address what customers are looking for.”

For ADEs, customer-centricity is a critical component of innovation. It’s a virtuous cycle: The more frequently and meaningfully a company can engage with its customers, the more it can learn about ways to potentially deepen and strengthen those relationships. It’s important that companies constantly evolve their customer experiences, striving to personalize interactions and optimize the value of each relationship by collecting data seamlessly from all possible touchpoints. “Fostering a culture of continuous innovation to deliver on evolving customer expectations is critical to building success,” says Camacho. “It’s very easy to get stuck in a ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ mindset. But you can never stand still.” 

Companies that embrace the digital-first approach of an ADE are seeing consistent wins in efficiency and service. For example, retailer Carrefour, which manages 13,000 stores in 30 countries, uses BMC technology to understand and predict which products customers will purchase. As a result, the company can better balance supply and improve communications among locations. Also, chocolate manufacturer The Hershey Company deploys BMC’s software to automate supply chain applications, enabling the company to better anticipate disruptions and pivot before business is affected. And Carfax has been able to bring together more than 100,000 data sources to provide vehicle information services faster. As the leading source of vehicle history information for used cars, providing fast and accurate data has been the company’s hallmark since 1981.

As technologies evolve, Camacho emphasizes the importance of collaboration and shared knowledge. “Supporting co-innovation and knowledge sharing among customers, partners, and platforms like BMC will continue to have a positive impact on the end-user experience,” she says. “We believe the whole concept of digitizing, with the ADE to focus on innovations both from an employee experience point of view and a customer experience point of view, is fundamental for customer-centric innovation that leads to customer growth.”

To learn more or to start your own ADE journey, visit BMC.com/ADE.