Top Ten Use Cases For CX In Manufacturing

The benefits of CX in manufacturing

4
Top Ten Use Cases For CX In Manufacturing
Loyalty ManagementInsights

Published: April 21, 2023

Rebekah Carter

Customer experience is officially the number one differentiator of any business landscape. Studies show that experience-driven businesses achieve more than 1.5 times higher year-over-year growth for customer retention, customer lifetime value, and repeat purchase rates.

At the same time, happier customers lead to improved brand reputation, a higher chance of word-of-mouth referrals, and a better chance of converting new customers. In the manufacturing industry, delivering exceptional customer experience can be complex because there are so many different types of consumers to consider.

Manufacturing brands frequently find themselves dealing with everyone from wholesale distributors to big-box retailers and end customers, and new go-to-market models are emerging all the time.

Fortunately, any manufacturing brand can generate incredible results by embedding CX solutions into their business strategy. Here are just some of the top use cases for CX tools in manufacturing for 2023.

1. Build Stronger Teams

Exceptional teams are the backbone of successful companies. If you want to ensure you’re delivering an amazing customer experience, you need to ensure your employees have all the tools they need to thrive in any landscape. Various CX solutions are available to help empower teams and drive improved performance today.

For instance, workforce optimization tools can help keep track of manufacturing engineers and specialists wherever they are, while CCaaS technology empowers these employees with the tools they need to reach out to customers and answer complex questions. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools can also help manufacturing teams to deliver a more personalised level of service to every type of customer in the manufacturing landscape.

A comprehensive set of CX tools, combined with the right training solutions, makes sure employees are engaged, well-supported, and ready to tackle any customer service challenge.

2. Provide More Personalised Experiences

Hyper personalisation is a crucial trend in every industry today – including the manufacturing sector. Around 91% of customers say they prefer to shop with companies that offer recommendations and offers relevant to their needs. To deliver this level of service, manufacturing companies need access to the right tools.

In a manufacturing landscape, where companies are usually dealing with valuable and lucrative long-term relationships with B2B brands, understanding the needs of each customer is crucial. A CRM environment where agents can track customer relationships over time will be crucial.

It’s also important to think about how your agents can personalise the experience for the customer by delivering service through their preferred channel (Such as video or chat). A CCaaS solution can help with this. The more information you collect about your target audience, the more you’ll be able to build a customized service and support strategies to suit their needs.

3. Explore New Sales Models

There are various ways for today’s manufacturing companies to take their products and services to market, from wholesale selling to direct-to-customer options. Around 40% of US consumers said they made Direct-to-Consumer purchases in 2020, and opportunities in this area are growing post-pandemic. There’s also the rise of concepts like manufacturing marketplaces to be aware of and the budding idea of “servitization” and maintenance as a service as an extra source of income.

All of these new revenue options can provide valuable opportunities for manufacturing brands to increase their profits and connect with new customers.

However, to properly leverage the potential of these new environments, companies will need to ensure they have the right customer service strategies in place. From workforce optimization tools implemented to align teams dealing with different segments of customers, to CCaaS solutions, rethinking a go-to-market model means also rethinking CX.

4. Discover the Potential of Omnichannel

Customers are increasingly demanding a wider range of channel options when it comes to communicating and interacting with all kinds of companies. While phone, email, and on-site support are still popular options in the manufacturing industry, there will be an ongoing demand for a broader range of new platforms in the years to come.

Implementing the right CX solutions now, like omnichannel CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service) systems, will allow companies to serve all of their customers on the channels they like most. There’s even the opportunity to streamline the CX space, improve customer service and take pressure off the service team with access to self-service channels and helpdesks.

Implementing the correct tools now could even mean customer service teams in manufacturing can take advantage of tools like Extended Reality to deliver contactless service and support from a distance in the post-pandemic world.

5. Pave the Way for Innovation

Speaking of self-service solutions and extended reality, CX solutions can help to set the foundations for innovative new technologies in the manufacturing space. According to the manufacturing section of the Salesforce “State of Service” report, around 24% of decision-makers use AI chatbots to support their clients today, and 33% plan to use them soon.

Many manufacturers are already making significant strides in successfully leveraging the potential of disruptive technology to delight customers. AI can help deliver self-service troubleshooting and assist manufacturers in providing long-term maintenance for customers.

At the same time, solutions like 5G and the Internet of Things are creating a future where companies can use their CX tools to solve problems for customers remotely and pre-emptively prevent issues. With the right tools, companies can improve customer satisfaction levels and reduce the amount of cash they spend sending engineers to various customer locations.

6.  Improved Access to Data

Finally, CX solutions can be extremely useful in providing manufacturing companies with the critical data they need to make agile and effective decisions in today’s competitive landscape. The data collected in a CCaaS and CRM environment can provide insights into which customers are the most valuable to a team, and which service requests need to be prioritized.

Information collected from workforce management tools can highlight issues with productivity and make it easier for companies to plan when additional members of staff might need to be available to deal with peaks in demand.

Analytical solutions combined with CX tools can help business leaders map virtually every part of the customer journey for each client segment. The result should be better customer lifetime value, improved retention, and increased revenue.

 

CCaaSManufacturing
Featured

Share This Post