A reset in consumer expectations has taken place over the last year and a half or so, with customers demanding new digital channels to interact with preferred brands. To support this change, successful companies have embraced digital-first technologies, such as marketing automation, but is there a danger that the human element of delightful customer experiences is being lost along the way?
That’s precisely the subject of a new report for the UK from CRM platform HubSpot, Hybrid Customer Experience in a Post Pandemic World: Where do we stand on the Human Touch?. Among the findings was a sharp disconnect. While 83% of CX professionals reported that bringing in more digital channels to serve customers has positively impacted business performance, 52% of consumers say they would prefer to deal with a human being when interacting with a brand.
The Importance of the Human Touch
“The disruption caused by the pandemic has shown the extraordinary value that digital plays in great CX. Ironically, it has also highlighted the importance of the human touch,” says Crevan O’Malley, HubSpot’s UK Country Manager and Senior Sales Director. Most companies do at least seem to have an understanding of this trend, with 72% saying they are investing to deliver more human-centric engagements. Investments supporting this goal include ensuring people have easier access to customer-facing teams, such as sales executives and customer service agents, while actively encouraging longer customer talk-time periods.
“While 22% of consumers would rather stay making purchases and interacting with brands online, a significant 52% would prefer to deal directly with a person again,” says O’Malley. “58% of those who interacted with a person are more likely to shop with that brand again, both in B2B and B2C. Finding the right balance between digital and human will be different for each company and each sector, but the reward for optimising this service level will provide a platform for growth into the future.”
However, there are some differences in how B2B and B2C customers respond to the human touch. “In general, the importance of the human touch becomes more prominent before the purchase for B2C consumers and post-sale for B2B customers,” says O’Malley. That’s because B2B customers are more likely to exit a potential purchase if they cannot get hold of a person when needed. “What’s clear is that we all still crave access to helpful, friendly professionals when we have a query or an issue around a purchase. While businesses have had to lean into digital-first as a result of the pandemic, our data shows that being digital-only, with no access to human contact when required, is a real risk factor.”
A CRM platform is crucial to achieving that level of relationship with customers and prospects, with 31% of businesses feeling they need to invest in a new CRM platform to meet business objectives. “Buyers are now far more informed and demanding – and will certainly switch services if the experience isn’t up to expectations,” says O’Malley. “A truly great customer experience is now an even bigger differentiator than the actual product itself.”
The imperative to adopt a holistic CRM platform has only grown in the face of the pandemic. “Many companies’ reaction to Covid was a quick implementation of technology to support remote teams and the new almost-all-digital customer paradigm – it has been a survival mindset,” says O’Malley. “This has meant that their tech stack has become a patchwork of applications from different tech providers: a CRM to manage customer data, a content management system (CMS) to build and manage their website, a marketing automation tool to scale and personalise their communications effort and a service desk application to manage customer problems.” The difficulty with such an approach is that vital customer data gets fragmented and rarely reconnects to give a 360 view of that customer’s behaviour. “To scale without adding complexity in 2022 and beyond, today’s businesses need a powerful yet easy-to-use CRM platform that enables them to create this ‘single view of a customer’s behaviour’ that all customer-facing teams can feed into and leverage to provide great experiences.”
Fully Understanding Consumers
O’Malley is clear that the differentiator for great customer experiences going forward will be in fully understanding a customer’s data, in order to connect in the manner and time they most desire. “Having the right data and CRM platform that acts as this ‘single view’ is where the real opportunity lies. Regardless of the customer touchpoint, if customer-facing teams can draw from a central data source where this data is activated in a way to deliver real value, they can make the customer feel known, understood and valued.“ In this new landscape, success will be achieved by putting the customer at the centre. “Businesses need to recognise that the way we have traditionally understood the customer journey has changed radically,” says O’Malley. “From marketing messages through to sales engagements and all post-sale customer service moments, consumers expect to be fully understood and delighted at every stage. This develops more brand loyalty than any single product feature or price discount.”
It’s abundantly clear that digital technologies have been invaluable in maintaining and improving the customer experience in the face of unprecedented strain. Still, HubSpot’s research also shows that customers haven’t wavered in their desire to interact with people when it’s necessary. Thriving in this new normal will require companies to successfully balance digital and human interactions to provide the levels of customer experience consumers demand.
To find out more about HubSpot’s CRM offering, go here.
