We are witnessing a sea change in customer behavior. Customers now have products at their fingertips, 24/7, with endless shopping options, product and price information across all touch-points. In future, this customer behavior is only going to blow up. If you are prepared for this situation, you are in the lead.

What is possible now with digital technology for better customer engagement was almost unthinkable in the last decade. It now enables organizations to reach out and engage their customers at warp speed.

For organizations, it has become an exciting playing field but equally challenging. When organizations pursue digital innovation, they face a number of uncertainties. First and foremost is how their digital initiatives can add up revenue in different ways. Second is keeping up-to-date with new digital technologies related to their business and identifying new opportunities for innovation.

So, what are the factors that can play a critical role in infusing digital innovation? It is data management and experience management. To outperform the competition, you got to be ready on both fronts.

Managing the Rising Tide of Data:

Single source of truth is key to digital innovation. How you manage your data company-wide and get insights out of it can make or break your digital vision. Every day, consumers access product information across different touch points and sources that influence their purchasing process. For companies, this means that the product content served in all aspects of interaction needs to be consistent and accurate.

This involves unique value proposition such as personalized segmentation, strategic positioning of the product portfolio, dynamic pricing of product units, and smartly negotiated discounts and offers in a streamlined and consistent way.

So, maintaining consistency between offline and online channels will instill trust, which is critical to building customer loyalty. It is not just the customers that want consistency. Ask any multichannel retailer, distributor, and manufacturer, they can tell you how inconsistent pricing between shelf tags, POS pricing, and digital platforms negatively impact their brand image and standards.

High quality, centralized and consolidated data is critical not just for customers, retailers other operational areas but also for:

• Developing unique new markets with the help of consolidated information
• Managing regional and global business expansion
• Easily diversifying and integrate the business into other channels
• Enhancing strategic relationships with customers, suppliers, distributors, and others
• Building new alliances faster at selected market niches
• Substantially reducing the cost of business operation

Creating Magical Customer Experience for Future Success:

What will it take to acquire customers in this Digital Darwinism age? What do you think is going to prove a pivotal driving force for future revenue?

A new technology... more flashy offerings... a distinctive business model... innovative and intuitive products...Or, anything else? I believe it all comes down to how well you comprehend your customers and what you want from your business.

The digital world has brought radical transparency. Everything is moving in a matter of minutes. If organizations do not address consumers’ expectations in real time, they will turn to the next readily available and better option. This may be of lesser or greater concern for you, but a harsh reality! Companies can no longer stay blind to this rising beast.

All digital innovations happening somewhere boil down to the next frontier of customer experience. Despite having different business models, all innovators have one thing in common – delivering a customer experience that competitors can’t match.

Customer experience— experiences filled with care— starts and ends with honest and true devotion for customers. It is an affirmation laced with authenticity. It is an invitation to experience things like never before. To offer something new…something amazing that customers remember for long, long time.

By the year 2020 customer experience (CX) will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Organizations that fail to transform their business as primarily digital invite challenges. Corporate giants consciously understand this fact and are working in this direction.

However, customer engagement is no rocket science. Great customer experience is forged and engineered. It is not a one-time process, but a consistent and multi-dimensional mapping journey. It is not accidental. It is purposefully designed.

Key factors that can help you turn around your digital experience strategy includes:

• Create a holistic roadmap
• Chart the customer journey and understand expectations
• Optimize omnichannel experience
• Make the right technology decisions
• Build a human connect

Best Practice:

To reduce uncertainty, organizations need a holistic view of data management and experience management when navigating the rapidly changing digital innovation landscape.

This is where a consolidated system can make easier to facilitate customers, suppliers, vendors, partners, products and help business tractions, applications, and decision-making. When successfully implemented, a consolidated platform enables firms to continuously adjust their operations in order to optimize digital innovation efforts.

The need of the hour in this continuing threat of digital disruption is to stay distinct and relevant. And, a lot rides on how smartly you plug the gap between your company’s offerings and potential prospects. That’s why we encourage organizations to focus on both data management and experience management strategies simultaneously to accelerate digital innovation.

The original post published on Pimcore Blog.