[{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/06\/switching-economy-customer-engagement\/#Article","articleBody":"One of the most significant trends in business today is the shift of power from the suppliers of goods and services to the consumers who are making the purchasing decision.\nConsumers are\u00a0better educated, have more choices, and can switch suppliers more easily. Suppliers must respond to rising consumer expectations and declining loyalty with more effective customer engagement methodologies and customer lifecycle management technologies that utilize more powerful analytic capabilities.\u00a0As consumers have become more tech-savvy, they have also become more discerning regarding the products and services they acquire.\nAnd, with the barriers to entry in almost every industry disappearing because of globalization or e-commerce, a buyer\u2019s market has emerged, making\u00a0customer loyalty a thing of the past.\nIn fact, an Accenture study\u00a0has found:\n84% of consumers are frustrated by companies that promise one thing but deliver another.\n81% of prospective buyers are frustrated because the company doesn\u2019t make it easy to do business with them.\n34% percent would be open to offers from nontraditional players.\nThe web has made it easier for customers switch product and service providers if they are dissatisfied or simply interested in trying other alternatives. As a consequence Accenture believes the \u201cswitching economy\u201d represents a $6.2 trillion revenue opportunity for providers, a 26% increase from $4.9 trillion in 2010.\nThe web and mobile technology have fundamentally changed the nature of the supplier\/consumer relationship.\n \nIn order to respond to more demanding and fickle consumers, suppliers must utilize the latest social, mobile and Cloud-based technologies, along with an increasingly robust set of analytic tools, to better understand the consumers\u2019 requirements and more effectively meet their needs.\nWhile the customer journey may appear to be very different than in the past, the key stages of the customer acquisition process are relatively unchanged. John Dewey first introduced the five stages in 1910:\nProblem\/Need Recognition\nInformation Search\nEvaluation of Alternatives\nPurchase Decision\nPost-Purchase Behavior\nHowever, the tactics and technologies for winning new customers and retaining them has changed dramatically.\nNearly a quarter of the respondents to the Accenture survey (24%) want more digital interactions than currently offered by providers. Not surprisingly, millennials are impacted to an even greater extent by digital interaction. According to NewsCred, 62% of millennials feel that online content drives their loyalty to a brand.\nThis form of interaction is not only more engaging for the consumer, it can also provide the supplier with richer insights into the buyer preferences and behavior. Therefore, suppliers must use a new set of technologies to become more in tune with their customers so they can better understand and meet their needs in an increasingly competitive marketplace.\nThe process has always begun with an education phase consisting of discovery and awareness. The web has enabled consumers to become more knowledgeable about their options, and allowed them to even make many purchase decisions before they interact with a real salesperson.\nSuppliers can use a new generation of cloud-based content management and marketing automation solutions to \u2018push\u2019 the right information to prospective customers and \u2018pull\u2019 in customers that show an interest in particular offerings.\nThe beauty of this new generation of marketing technologies and applications is they permit suppliers to track the response to specific offerings and marketing content to better measure their effectiveness.\nUsing a growing assortment of marketing techniques, like \u2018A\/B\u2019 testing, enables suppliers to clearly understand what kinds of offerings and content appeals most to their prospective customers. As a result, marketing is no longer a subjective art. Instead, it has become a very precise science.\nThese same virtues can also be found in the new technologies \u2013 both Cloud and on-premise \u2013 associated with each of the subsequent stages of the customer journey. And, if the supplier capitalizes on an integrated suite of customer engagement lifecycle solutions, or a \u2018platform\u2019, the software can enable the supplier to manage the customer relationship more successfully and cost-effectively.\nUnderpinning each of the elements is the need to gather relevant information regarding the consumer\u2019s interests, needs, preferences and purchase patterns that can be properly applied at each stage of the customer journey. This means having the right analytic capabilities embedded into each of the applications involved in the customer engagement process.\nIf architected properly, the customer engagement process will appear to be personalized to meet the particular needs of each individual customer. This creates a greater sense of customer intimacy which can result in higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/06\/switching-economy-customer-engagement\/#Article_Person","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/06\/switching-economy-customer-engagement\/#Article_Person_ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/jeffrey-kaplan-thumb-150x150.jpg"},"name":"Jeffrey Kaplan","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/jeffrey-kaplan\/"},"dateModified":"2021-12-03T05:28:01+00:00","datePublished":"2015-10-06T14:18:43+00:00","description":"The web and mobile technology have fundamentally changed the nature of the supplier\/consumer relationship.","headline":"Modern customer engagement: It's a numbers game","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/06\/switching-economy-customer-engagement\/#Article_ImageObject","height":"630","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/FOC_2015-09-30_HERO-1200x630.jpg","width":"1200"},"mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/06\/switching-economy-customer-engagement\/","name":"Modern customer engagement: It's a numbers game","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/","additionalType":"https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/wiki\/Q1193236","description":"Relevant, timely information & analysis on commerce trends, both consumer-facing and B2B.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/themes\/hybris_foc\/assets\/images\/layout\/logo-new-2x.png?_=1","height":"96","url":"https:\/\/23x6xj3o92m9361dbu2ij362-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/themes\/hybris_foc\/assets\/images\/layout\/logo-new-2x.png?_=1","width":"500"},"name":"The Future of Customer Engagement and Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/a-call-for-a-better-experience\/id1479742201","https:\/\/twitter.com\/FutureOfCEC","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/4844282","https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/feed\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/"},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/06\/switching-economy-customer-engagement\/#Article"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2015","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/\/10\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"06","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/\/10\/\/06\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Modern customer engagement: It’s a numbers game","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2015\/10\/06\/switching-economy-customer-engagement\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]