How to build transformative connected customer experiences

By: Rakesh Thaploo and Bruce Steadman

The pace of technology advancement in the retail sector continues to raise customer expectations for their interactions with brands.

Innovations such as virtual styling, live video commerce and augmented reality shopping are becoming more prevalent, to the delight of customers. Yet, many retailers struggle to transform such episodic customer interactions into lasting relationships. While there’s no easy button for creating brilliant and connected customer experiences, there’s a framework that can help. We recommend nine steps to develop a better understanding of your customers, employees and data, and the relationships between them.

1. Evaluate the existing customer journey across channels

Start by analyzing the current state of the customer journey with an eye towards pain points, gaps and opportunities for improvement.

Benchmark your customer journey against best practices and industry standards and include customer satisfaction and loyalty metrics.

2. Design a new connected journey

Use design thinking and other human-centric approaches to design a future state of your customer journey that is seamless, personalized and engaging across all touchpoints, channels and devices.

Then validate this new design with customers and stakeholders. Prioritize new features and functions based on their anticipated customer value and business impact.

3. Evaluate the existing front-line employee journey

Because customer and employee experience are so tightly intertwined, it’s vital to analyze the current state of the front-line employee journey in much the same way as the customer journey.

Dig into the roles, responsibilities and expectations of front-line workers, and how they interact with customers and other parts of the organization at specific touchpoints.

4. Design an end-to-end connected employee journey

Just as you designed the future state of your customer journey, you’ll want to design a future state of the front-line employee journey.

The employee journey should be aligned with that of your customers and be geared toward enabling your front-line employees to deliver a superior customer experience. You’ll also need to make sure front-line employees have the tools, information and skills they need.

5. Design the data and information journey

Without timely access to relevant data, even the best plans for a connected experience will fall apart once they meet the real world.

The data and information journey should facilitate the flow of relevant, accurate and timely data and information between customers and front-line employees, and among front-line employees themselves.

This data includes product and inventory information as well as data related to customer behavior and preferences.

Take a close look at data quality, security and governance, and your ability to use that data to generate insights and actions.

6. Map and align the existing technology stack across channels

With new customer, employee and data journeys mapped, turn your attention to building a technology stack that can support them.

Map the existing technology stack across all your channels, with an eye to learning where it can enable these newly designed journeys and where it may be holding you back.

7. Identify gaps in the tech stack

Next, build a roadmap for complete technology enablement, filling the gaps in your existing technology stack that prevent you from delivering on your newly designed experiences.

At this stage, we often find that baseline channel technology infrastructure must be modernized and upgraded. Consider new AI-powered solutions, such as chatbots, virtual agents and other intelligent tools, which can help provide excellent customer service. They’re also able to remove high-friction moments in the customer journey and create new touchpoints through advanced personalization. Details are important: Include specific technology solutions, architectures, platforms and vendors.

8. Tackle your technical debt

To free up the resources necessary to build a more appropriate technology stack, you’ll need to decide which legacy systems, outdated applications and redundant functionalities can be optimized, modernized or retired.

Then you’ll need a plan to ensure the smooth transition and migration from the old stack to the new.

9. Build a program and project charter

The previous steps can help get your customer journey, employee journey, data and technology requirements all on the same page.

Before implementation, it’s helpful to create a program and project charter that defines the scope, objectives, deliverables, roles, responsibilities and governance of the new connected experience.

The change management component of this charter addresses the people, process and culture aspects of the transformation, and as well as a plan to rally stakeholder support, buy-in and adoption. You’ll also want to draw up a project execution plan — outcome-based, KPI-driven and agile — to make sure the connected experience is implemented on time and allows for continuous feedback and improvement.

Connected experiences foster growth

The creation of connected customer experiences requires diligent planning and analysis, as well as a willingness to fully involve your employees in new ways of working with customers. Thoughtfully designed and successfully implemented, these experiences result in stronger customer relationships — the force behind any growing, profitable retailer.

Rakesh Thaploo and Bruce Steadman are Kyndryl Consult partners.