Due to digital disruption, the traditional approach to brand marketing is no longer effective and customers are now in control. In the digital landscape, businesses can no longer solely rely on price and product features to compete. Customer Experience (CX) has become the key factor in building brand loyalty, reducing churn, and increasing revenue. Exotel surveyed Indian marketers to determine the current state of CX adoption, organizational challenges in implementation, current and desired usage of omnichannel tools, and marketing priorities for 2023.
Without a doubt, customer experience is the new competitive battleground
A majority, 65% of marketers surveyed agree with the statement that customer experience is the new and next competitive battleground. In fact, 45% state that their brand will compete, either completely or nearly completely, on the basis of CX over the next two years.
It’s no surprise then that a focus to enhance customer experience emerges as the #1 priority, with 74% of marketers surveyed listing this as their #1 priority for 2023. Other priorities in order of importance are improving the omnichannel experience (70%), employer branding (69%), followed by a focus on sustainability initiatives (68%), and a strategy for immersive platforms such as Metaverse (67%).
Rather than acquisition, Marketers are focusing on customer retention
Given the concerns of an economic recession in 2023, brands are doubling down on engaging their existing customer base. With loyalty getting harder to come by because consumers have a lot more choices today, marketers are choosing to enhance and strengthen their customer engagement, working closely with the Customer Experience teams, to build lasting connections with customers. This is validated by the survey by Exotel. To drive business, 63% of marketers surveyed said they are looking at increasing adoption of existing products, or introducing newer products to existing customers.
WhatsApp is the most important CX channel
India is WhatsApp biggest market with 487.5 million WhatsApp users in 2022. It’s no surprise that 86% of marketers surveyed say that WhatsApp is the most important customer service channel. One out of every 2 marketers say that it is a part of their CX journey and 26% say its usage is critical to their business. 9% say they have recently integrated the channel as a part of their CX journey, and are already reaping the benefits..
Usage of other CX tools in order of deployment is SMS at 33%, Call center at 27% and chatbots at 26%, among the marketers surveyed.
Organizational and behavioral challenges to CX roll out
The desire to prioritize CX comes with real-world challenges. Marketers surveyed, 40% cite driving a customer-centric culture and understanding CX platform capabilities as the challenges that they face in designing an optimal CX journey. Other challenges include measuring CX effectiveness and impact and collaborating cross-functionally within the organization.
Adopting a customer-centric marketing approach is not an easy task, despite its importance in the scheme of things. While 51% of marketers surveyed say that keeping the customer at the center of every decision is a behavior that is challenging to drive within the organization, 34% of marketers cite the lack of involvement of senior leaders to demonstrate customer centricity top down to being an impediment in authentically driving customer centricity into the organizations DNA.
Udit Agarwal, VP & Global Head of Marketing, Exotel, said, “To stand out against the competition and deliver additional value to customers, organizations need to adopt a unified approach for conducting and tracking customer engagement. Building a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey and the data collected from all interactions will result in valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. Through investing in improvements towards the customer experience, one can ultimately reap a positive return on investment in a digital market. Exotel’s full-stack engagement platform assists organizations in building customer relationships, which is the most valuable currency in today’s business world.”
“Organizations will necessarily need to lead from a customer-centric position. With economic uncertainty persisting, 2023 looks set to be another challenging year for businesses. Organizations will need a comprehensive view of the full customer journey across all interaction data to yield deep insights about their customers and design optimal CX journeys to connect more closely with their customers and anticipate behaviors. Those organizations that invest in experience enhancements to solidify customer relationships will be poised to receive positive ROI in a digital world where customers are spoilt for choice. Customer relationships is the #1 currency that Exotel helps organizations accrue through its full stack engagement platform,” said Angira Agrawal, Global SVP, GTM and Strategy, Exotel.
