A Catalyst for Change

Strategic guidance on how to maximize the customer experience within the Manufacturing and Resource Industry.

Article written by two of Microsoft Services India Digital Advisors team members: Abhrajit Ray, Architect Manager for Digital Advisory Services Consulting, and Guru Bharadwaj, Digital Advisory Services Architect.

Today's consumer is armed with more information than ever and can review multiple channels before making a decision. In order to secure long-term loyalty, the Manufacturing industry worldwide is going through a transformational shift to improve their customer engagement and the digital customer experience.

Consumers have more power than ever and pervasive technologies have enabled an improved digitally connected experience. In this changing atmosphere, organizations are looking to provide superior value offerings with lasting customer relationships anchored on innovation and excellence.

With more and more people having access to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets and more than 2 billion people being connected to the Internet, consumers are armed with an abundance of information. In this new world, a connected customer experience builds loyalty which can result in enhanced sales.

Manufacturing industry professionals should strategically consider the following aspects that greatly influence their customer’s experience in the modern marketplace:

• Digital Life:

  In this radically changing human-machine interactive experience, organizations must integrate the digital world (information/services) with the physical world (physical objects/environment) by making interfaces more responsive and proactive. Consumers are now behaving more as users, not owners. They look at the product as a conduit and frequently trade-in or trade-up. They want a deeper, richer and more personalized experience and a platform that provides a natural interface, which is also adaptive and customizable, connected at all times and intelligently ON.

• Immersive experience:

  Customers are looking for seamless integration between real life and the online experience. They want virtual and portable access to the full line with a natural interface where they can touch, feel and experience the product. In such a scenario, a multi-format retail model is key to unify experiences across formats. Kiosks become more relevant than large-format retail environments.

• Multi-channel

  Channels facilitate customer engagement and improve the customer’s journey by including the opportunity to complete transactions and to be served. Empirically, consumers use 12 channels to experience a product, including retail, online, mobile and apps. Channels create and consolidate a virtual marketplace. The trend of merging sales and service operations enables transactions via many connected channels and empowers customers to buy and service products from anywhere. However, loyalty in such a scenario would be to a consistent original equipment manufacturer (OEM) / brand experience and not necessarily to the channel.

• Connected services:

  Consumers appreciate when physical objects are seamlessly integrated into the information network and can become active participants in business processes. They want services available that allow interaction with these 'smart objects' over the Internet with the ability to query and change any information associated with them, while taking into account security and privacy issues. For proper customer engagement, these services to be portable, personalized, pervasive, and integrated within a connected experience.

Technologies (current and emerging) have enabled companies in the manufacturing industries and other sectors to address these four trends favorably with the ability to develop the experiences and outcomes that customers want. A connected experience is anchored on Device + Mobility, along with smart data analytics, and supplemented with a digital, social and cloud-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.

Enterprises have traditionally invested well with technologies and have built a goldmine of information and infrastructure to align with business needs. To ensure such investments provide impactful and connected experiences with longer term value, enterprises should integrate diverse enterprise assets and identify interfaces for a personalized and connected customer experience.

• Cross-Collaboration: Enable collaboration across boundaries, not just within the enterprise, but also extended to partners and customers through cloud and social listening. Co-creation is needed to clearly differentiate core capabilities, protect those differentiators and collaborate freely on common industry capabilities resulting in greater gain-share.

• Intentional Analytics: Mash up enterprise and social assets and implement self-service analytics. E.g., Effective sales forecasting depends on accurate analytics from customer behavior to properly gauge demand and forecast revenue. These analytics are often reported by distributors and resellers, risking the potential for inaccurate data and sandbagging.

• Customer Connection: Interact with customers through social and digital channels by acknowledging customer sentiments, responding to complaints and engaging in ongoing conversations. Customer engagement can be further augmented with personalized, interactive mobile experiences and technologies.

• Pilot Change: Before embarking on full-scale experience innovation, use immersive technologies and ubiquitous computing to selectively enable direct experiences through small formats such as kiosks.

• Metrics & Modeling: Leverage smart data collected from various IoT ecosystems with predictive analytics capabilities built over time. Such scenarios include usage patterns, smart metering of products and services and predictive notification of fault/repair/replacements, etc.

• Unique Experiences: Exploit the power of cloud computing and its pervasive connectedness with the ability to integrate and deliver distinctive experiences across various channels.

• Optimize Technology: Finally, adopt a lean and continuous business rationalization of processes and technology to move from massive technology renewals to more incremental updates.

In summary, technology is a key catalyst for driving change and connected customer experiences in the Manufacturing and Resources sector. Microsoft Services has a unique view on how to capitalize on today’s business and technology trends and extensive experience helping our customers deliver innovation, improve performance and grow the business. For more information regarding the potential of technology for your enterprise business contact Microsoft Services to get started.