6 Things Businesses Lose When They Can't See 100% of Customer Interactions Gaps in understanding customer journeys could cost companies revenue, brand loyalty and customer happiness.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Today's customer is more digitally savvy than ever before. To keep up, businesses must move quickly to adopt digital experiences to meet evolving consumer expectations and avoid costly missteps. The key to optimizing digital platforms is in understanding your customers: what delights them, how they're interacting with your channels, where they're struggling and what their end-to-end journey looks like.
To fully understand the customer journey and achieve accelerated growth, businesses need to prioritize visualization and analysis of 100% of digital interactions. Any missing portion of information or gap in visibility could mean a missed opportunity or an unaddressed issue that leads to millions in lost revenue.
Many digital businesses have some form of monitoring or analytics software such as web analytics, product analytics, compliance, fraud and A/B testing. Each of these offers a portion of a much larger picture. Experience Intelligence (EI) platforms put the pieces together by offering a holistic approach, providing businesses with the tools they need to reach 100% visibility and see what is truly happening across their digital ecosystem. EI is an extension of Digital Experience Analytics (DEA), moving technology forward through machine learning innovations.
6 costly risks of not analyzing 100% of customer interactions
1. Not seeing points of friction, technical glitches: Business leaders can't rely on customers to report issues for them. if you aren't tracking all parts of a customer journey, you risk missing trouble spots. Consumers expect a seamless experience and if they encounter an error, most buyers will leave the site outright, which could lead to millions in lost revenue. Almost seven out of ten shoppers will abandon their shopping cart before completing their online purchase. EI uses AI to analyze all customer interactions and identify where people are struggling or where there are technical anomalies, offering organizations actionable suggestions about what they should do to fix it before the issue escalates.
Related: How to Really Hear and Use Customer Feedback
2. The "what" without the "why": Commonly used monitoring tools can show businesses what might be happening on one of their platforms (i.e. abandoned carts), but they do not tell them the "why" (i.e. slow page load times, broken links). EI tools analyzing 100% of digital interactions offer valuable insight into the why and the what so that teams immediately understand the extent of the issue and what steps to take to resolve it.
For example, a telecommunications company may see a surge in visitors who are reaching an "HTTP 404 error" page. Through Google Analytics, business leaders can see this increase, but they have no insight as to where those visitors are trying to get to and the source of the error. Using EI, teams can quickly find and resolve the root cause. Without EI, identifying the source of the issue — the "why"— could take weeks and cost the company millions in potential revenue.
3. Missing growth opportunities: As much as neglected glitches can hinder business growth, so can a lack of understanding of what is working. 100% interaction visualization can help organizations identify what customers are responding positively to so they can implement those features more across the platforms and increase revenue.
For example, a bank can leverage EI data to see where customers are clicking when applying for a loan. They may realize that a significant number of customers are clicking the "arrow down" button, looking for loan amount options below the lowest amount listed on their site. This indicates a high demand for smaller loans. The bank can use this information to develop a successful new line of business — microloans — with the potential to substantially increase monthly revenue.
Related: 5 Ways to Build Killer Relationships With Customers
4. Misunderstanding your audience: The more you understand your audience through metrics like audience demographics, preferences and which channels they favor, the easier it is to create a platform that meets their needs and adjust your sales and marketing strategy to appeal to your specific audience. Gaps in data can cost you long-term, as you spend big on marketing campaigns that don't speak to your audience demographic or build out a web feature that your audience statistically will not use.
5. Weakened customer support: If you are not capturing all customer interactions, it is likely that you do not understand the most common support issues. This can put a strain on your customer support team. Proactively identifying and resolving issues saves businesses money on customer support, as customers will have less reason to contact support.
For example, an insurance company going through a digital transformation may notice that a notable portion of customers using their mobile self-service option is moving to their call center. They may also notice an increase in their support center's average handle time. Using EI, the customer support director can quickly identify an anomaly in the mobile form's field. Fixing that problem decreases average handle time, leading to significant savings.
6. Machine Learning Misses: For machine learning algorithms to be as accurate and as useful as possible, companies need to feed the algorithms with as much data as possible. Partial data input is not good enough if companies are seeking to avoid the above risks and continue business growth.
How to reach 100% visibility and avoid digital blind spots
Business leaders can avoid these risks by integrating EI into their current organizational systems, using superpowered DEA insights as the foundation of their business activity. They should work to identify their blind spots and make sure there are no gaps across all channels and platforms. Executives must energize all departments, focusing teams' attention on the digital experience; garnering cross-departmental buy-in by noting that EI platforms are not meant to replace all other analytics, monitoring, or testing software. Instead, EI is the hub that powers them all.
With the volume of digital customer interactions increasing rapidly, organizations are having to source and analyze more data than ever before, making AI-powered analytics tools a necessity. Executives will need the insights provided by EI platforms that help them visualize 100% of digital interactions to quickly identify trends, strategize next steps on how to optimize each customer's journey and grow their digital business.
Related: 5 Reasons to Fire a Customer — Plus 5 Steps to Take Before You Do
