Integrating multi-channel customer acquisitions has been voted a top challenge by over two thirds of organisations across EMEA, according to Experian, which has outlined new rules of customer engagement designed to enable financial services and comms firms across the region to meet greater customer expectations over the next five years.
Tom Blacksell, MD of Experian's Decision Analytics & Marketing Services, UK&I, said: "Across the financial services and telecoms industries, customer expectations are growing and vastly changing.
"They are seeking more from their providers than ever before, particularly when it comes to engaging across multiple channels.
"Access to price comparison sites, social media and customer reviews will continue to create a more empowered, informed and self-directed customer.
"This new type of customer will want to make contact through the channel of their choice, at a time and place that suits them. And they will want to be served quickly, with efficient application processes, pre-qualification for relevant products and services and instant credit decisions."
The research warns that in order for EMEA organisations to achieve the ultimate customer experience, they must refocus their priorities on five key areas:
Attain multiple and new sources of data
The survey revealed that 68 per cent of financial services and telecoms organisations in EMEA recognised the need to attain more data sources and planned to do so in the next five years. Organisations will need to ensure depth, breadth and quality of data, whilst respecting privacy, data policies and regulation on data security. This will require both structured and unstructured data, as well as the integration of internal and new external sources.
Achieve a holistic customer view
The research found that most organisations (90 per cent) were aware of the importance of a 360-degree view of customers and admitted they could be more customer centric. Internal silos were recognised as a barrier to achieving this by 42 per cent of organisations who plan to focus on eliminating data silos over the next five years, in order to bring together multiple data sources for a holistic view of customers and their circumstances.
Provide real-time, consistent and pre-qualified decisions
Delivering real-time, reliable decisions that meet increasing customer expectations was recognised by 82 per cent of organisations as a factor in improving the overall customer experience. Yet, just over half of those (43 per cent) rated their ability to provide real-time decisions as poor/significant room for improvement. The systems used for such decisioning will need to be easy to integrate into existing IT infrastructure. This will make decisions easy to push out to all channels and customer touch points.
Use multi-channel automation across all customer touch points
Integrating multi-channel applications was recognised as a top challenge by 69 per cent of organisations. Automated decisions should be applied across all channels and throughout the customer life cycle to enable positive customer experiences. These can be easily integrated with existing infrastructure and deployed across new and emerging technologies.
Embrace advanced analytics across the entire organisation
Advanced analytics provides a real opportunity for competitive advantage as recognised by 35 per cent of organisations who plan to outsource advanced analytics to a trusted partner in the next five years. Advanced analytics should be used across organisations and the customer life cycle to improve profitability, understand lifetime value and open up big data to drive good decision making.
Tom Blacksell, MD of Experian's Decision Analytics & Marketing Services, UK&I, added: "Our findings present a clear vision for data, analytics and decisioning in the next five years. We believe that organisations that focus their efforts on these five key areas will equip themselves to remain competitive and keep pace with the digital revolution and expanding data universe, while optimising the customer experience."