Empowering your Business with Customer Intelligence

EMPOWERING YOUR BUSINESS WITH CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE: An Eptica Customer Intelligence Survey in Association With Engage Business Media

www.ebm.media NOVEMBER 2018

1

The overarching aim of this survey conducted by Engage Business Media on behalf of Eptica is to reinforce the vital importance of the customer experience to commercial success, while at the same time investigating the current state of play of existing Voice of the Customer strategies and solutions used within organisations.

2

INTRODUCTION

3

Introduction We live in a world of constantly rising customer expectations and never has it been more important for us to listen to our customers and use the insight we receive from their feedback and our interactions with them to drive continued improvement.

Two in three customers (65%) are asking more detailed questions than five years ago and more than nine in ten (94%) say that a high quality response from the organisations they are interacting with makes them more loyal, according to Eptica consumer research.1 Using customer intelligence to build satisfaction and loyalty is therefore a critical business imperative. However, our research with UK brands shows that current Voice of The Customer (VoC) solutions are often failing to provide the platform that businesses require. Key findings include: • While 78% of brands are measuring customer satisfaction, over 8 in 10 (81%) are doing this through basic metrics such as NPS, CSAT and CES. • These don’t go far enough – for example, 24% of respondents admit that NPS doesn’t provide the full VoC. • Brands want to analyse customer interactions to get a deeper insight. They want to know Why customers do things, rather than just What they do.

• However, respondents feel that current systems don’t give them real value when it comes to analysing customer interactions. For example, 83% analyse email, but just 12% feel they get value from this exercise.

These headline survey results demonstrate a need for a change of approach. Brands need new ways of measuring VoC to create effective customer intelligence that then drives real competitive advantage.

1 Source: Eptica 2018 Knowledge Study (https://www.eptica.com/p18kmEptica 2018

1 2 3

4

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT IS NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH

BRANDS WANT TO MEASURE METRICS THAT DIRECTLY IMPACT ON BUSINESS SUCCESS

EXISTING VOC SYSTEMS ARE NOT DELIVERING TO MEET THE NEEDS OF BRANDS

5

CONTENTS

4 5

CUSTOMER INSIGHT NEEDS TO POWER THE ENTIRE BUSINESS

ABOUT VECKO BY EPTICA

NUMBER ONE

Customer Satisfaction Measurement is Not Going Far Enough

7

1

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT IS NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH

8

KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS

Over three quarters (78%) of brands measure customer satisfaction - yet the majority do so using basic metrics such as NPS. They get the what, not the why.

Brands realise that current VoC feedback only provides a partial picture and that they need to go beyond surveys and NPS to dig deeper so that they receive fuller, deeper insight.

The vast majority of respondents analyse customer interactions on channels such as email, Facebook, Twitter and consumer reviews.

Do you analyse these?

Does it provide value?

Email

83%

12%

Chat

49%

14%

Facebook

52%

11%

Twitter

58%

9%

Instagram

31%

14%

Speech to Text

19%

12%

Consumer reviews or comments

75%

11%

Analysing these interactions provides a vital source of data - Eptica research estimates that brands have 463.5 million monthly contacts with consumers across multiple channels1. However, brands don’t currently get value from doing this – for example, just 12% say they get useful information from analysing email. It is little wonder then that while 36% of companies surveyed have a VoC solution, another 50% are looking to invest in one.

1 Source: Eptica Customer Experience Automation Study (https://www.eptica.com/prau)

NUMBER ONE

QUOTE FROM RESPONDENT

“We’re looking to gain actionable insight understanding what moves the needle”

9

NUMBER TWO

Brands Want to Measure Metrics That Directly Impact on Business Success

11

2

BRANDS WANT TO MEASURE METRICS THAT DIRECTLY IMPACT ON BUSINESS SUCCESS

12

62%

Ability to identify pain points

53% Measure emotions

53%

Identify detractors and explain why

47%

Identify customer churn risk

44%

Identify promoters and explain why

Brands want to move beyond NPS to actionable insights that impact on their business and revenues. While NPS has its place as a key metric it does not provide the business with the insight needed in our brave new customer-led world where consumers hold the power, which they are increasingly prepared to use in their interactions with brands.

As customers continue to become more demanding, more savvy and more sophisticated, brands need effective metrics and mechanisms in place to harness the intelligence they gather to listen, understand, act and gain competitive advantage.

The top five capabilities survey respondents want from a VoC system are: • • • • •

to identify pain points (62%) to measure emotions (53%) to identify detractors and explain why (53%) to identify customer churn risk (47%) to identify promoters and explain why (44%)

NUMBER TWO

13

QUOTE FROM RESPONDENT

“Yes, we currently measure CX on a transactional level, but not on a strategic level”

NUMBER THREE

15

Existing VoC Systems Are Not Delivering to Meet The Needs of Brands

3 Automatic analysis

Making insight faster and therefore more real-time

More actionable insights

Deeper, greater insight across the business

Improved ease of use

Easier to use for nonspecialists across the organisation

88% 87% 83%

Better dashboards

Clearer reporting that helps make better business decisions

EXISTING VOC SYSTEMS ARE NOT DELIVERING TO MEET THE NEEDS OF BRANDS

Brands that have a VoC system clearly see plenty of room for improvement. The majority say they feel underserved by the functionality their existing VoC system provides. Many feel their current software is simply not fit for purpose in today’s customercentric world. There is a long wish list from the majority of brands on what they say they need for VoC solutions to effectively deliver.

This includes:

80%

More reliable results

Confidence that results are based on the fullest possible sets of data, not just surveys or NPS Ability to set up alerts

Real-time alerting to take faster action

16

72% 72%

NUMBER THREE

“The majority of brands (87%) are looking for "deeper, more actionable insight across the business”.

17

NUMBER FOUR

Customer Insight Needs to Power The Entire Business

19

4

CUSTOMER INSIGHT NEEDS TO POWER THE ENTIRE BUSINESS

20

To create a truly customer-focused organisation the insights from customer interactions have to be available to, and shared by, all parts of the business. Currently this just is not the case with too many organisations ‘protecting’ the customer data they have, with limited sharing.

This silo mentality approach to customer information holds back efforts to improve.

Current data/insight is shared primarily with these 4 departments:

Customer service

Marketing

82%

79%

Sales

Operations

74%

71%

21

NUMBER FOUR

This disconnect means that over a quarter (26%) don’t share with sales, for example. Only 38% provide data to e-commerce teams and just 21% pass it to shops/concessions. Brands are effectively missing out on the ability to make vital changes to improve the CX. What organisations need to do is to ‘democratise’ customer intelligence and insight and provide the flexibility for it to be quickly shared with the right department when required. An effective VoC system will help facilitate this approach.

Marketing

Customer service

Sales

79%

82%

74%

Operations

Ecommerce

HR

71%

38%

32%

IT/infrastructure

Finance

Shops/franchises

32%

24%

21%

Which departments do you share customer insight/data with?

NUMBER FIVE

About vecko

by Eptica

23

5

ABOUT VECKO BY EPTICA

24

vecko by Eptica helps companies create happier and loyal customers, grow faster, reduce costs and become more customer centric. vecko captures customer conversations in real time and enhances them, using artiďŹ cial intelligence speciďŹ cally adapted to digital conversations. It provides a holistic view – it covers customer conversations across every digital channel (including email, social media, chat and speech to text), as well as indirect feedback, such as through mentions on Twitter and Facebook, and feedback collected through surveys.

With vecko, brands have a solution which will both manage and continually improve their customer experience. vecko democratises customer intelligence, empowering organisations and their employees to embed this insight into their daily decisions.

25 35

NUMBER FIVE

Why

?

The gap between collecting customer feedback and actually using it can be vast.

Voice of the Customer programmes in many organisations therefore simply revolve around metrics such as NPS or CSAT, tracking how these rise or fall.

While this tells you how happy your customers are and how likely they are to recommend you, it doesn’t give a deeper understanding into the reasons behind the numbers.

Looking at the Why? by analysing what your clients say, both directly and indirectly, when in conversation with your brand provides a deeper intelligence that is actionable. By using this intelligence you can make key changes that improve your operations and consequently retention, sales and service levels.

Collecting and acting on customer intelligence is a key goal of brands. But existing technologies and solutions have held them back – just 42% of companies interviewed by Forrester1 said they used software to support their VoC programme.

1 Source: Forrester Wave Customer Feedback Management Platforms

(https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Forrester+Wave+Customer+Feedback+Management+Platforms+Q2+2017/-/E-RES125806)

5

ABOUT VECKO BY EPTICA

26

Built on AI experience vecko is the result of Eptica’s 15+ year investment in artificial intelligence, using the best technologies available such as Natural Language Processing, Text Analytics and machine learning to bring brands new opportunities of growth and development through customer insight.

Eptica’s AI is able to automate the analysis of vast amounts of information, both structured and unstructured, and go beyond text to provide insight into customer emotion and sentiment.

The vecko approach focuses on delivering fast ROI across your organisation. Quick to install and simple to use, through role-based intuitive dashboards, it democratises feedback by sharing intelligence with all departments. This breaks down silos, provides a holistic view of what your customers really think, their psychology and what they expect from you, enabling you to make better business decisions.

SaaS-based, vecko has been created to easily integrate with your existing solutions, such as CRM systems. All technical components have open APIs, making it simple to connect them, combine information and deliver a complete picture.

NUMBER FIVE

“vecko is the result of Eptica’s 15+ year investment in artificial intelligence”

27

CONCLUSION

Conclusion The world is changing and the pace of that change is accelerating, driven by ever more demanding, more connected customers.

Today a perfect storm of disruptive, often technology driven, business models, greater all round competition, and rising consumer expectations is combining to make it imperative for brands to focus on the customer experience in order to differentiate from their competitors.

Organisations need to really listen to their customers, and their people, and move beyond traditional metrics such as NPS to drive the continual improvements they need to make if they are to empower their businesses using customer intelligence.

Brands clearly understand what they have to do, but are often held back by the solutions available to them. They need to rethink their approach and adopt platforms that analyse all interactions, beyond surveys to create deeper customer insights that are then shared across the organisation.

28

30

ABOUT EPTICA

About Eptica is a leading European technology company specialising in intelligent platforms for digital customer experience. Eptica provides conversational and collaborative solutions powered by AI. Specialising in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Eptica makes the best use of AI and cognitive technologies for CX, enabling brands to improve:

Customer Satisfaction, loyalty, and sales

Competitiveness: equipping organisations with bots that automate simple tasks and provide decision support tools to enhance agents, generating greater productivity and allowing agents to focus on more complex conversations and enabling sales

Customer Intelligence: turning VoC data into actionable insight and sharing it throughout the company to continuously improve the customer experience and to guide brands and their operations.

1 2 3

Founded 17 years ago by Olivier Njamfa, Eptica supports brands to make digital CX the key link in the value chain, ensuring their customer service delivers value to consumers and across their business.

Globally, more than 450 organisations across all industries rely on our solutions on all digital channels, including Self Service & knowledge base, email, chat and social media.

We enable millions of individuals to engage in meaningful conversations with brands improving daily lives for everyone. Customers include AXA, L’Occitane Group, Dixons Carphone, CrÊdit Agricole, Co-operative Energy, Domestic & General, Ageas Insurance Solutions, Hastings Direct, TUI, Debenhams, Capita, RSPCA and Birmingham City Council.

Eptica has ofďŹ ces in Paris, Reading, Boston, and Singapore.

Follow us on Twitter: @eptica Discover our news and opinions on the market in our blog

ABOUT THE RESEARCH

About the research To better understand the current usage of Voice of the Customer solutions, Engage Business Media surveyed a range of UK businesses via online research in Q4 2018. 154 respondents from organisations of all sizes took part in the survey.

31

ABOUT US

Engage Business Media (EBM) is a global media company designed to help its community of 80,000-plus leaders in the customer and employee engagement space to devise and implement sustainable, winning business strategies.

Our mantra is that organisations need to cut across their own internal silos, take a more holistic view of their customers, both internal and external, and deliver a consistent and appropriate customer and employee experience.

In support of this EBM runs a series of highly respected, CPDaccredited, Worldclass thought leadership events for its community throughout the year—including our annual agship Customer Engagement and Employee Engagement Summits and our Engage Awards.

All of these face-to-face activities are underpinned by our websites, as well as weekly newsletter alerts, webinars, and ground-breaking research reports.

Visit www.ebm.media for more information.

33

NOTES

34

www.ebm.media Nicholson House I 41 Thames Street I Weybridge I Surrey I KT13 8JG Company Registration No. 8636460