By Mauro Carobene
In a digitally driven world, businesses today have more touchpoints with customers than ever, each offering an opportunity to make lasting impressions. As companies grow, ensuring consistent and personalised customer experiences becomes a real challenge.
This recent research from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, in association with Tata Communications highlights three key issues that businesses struggle with: lack of collaboration across teams, siloed customer data, and disparate digital tools.
In the research report, while 94% of respondents acknowledge that delivering positive customer interactions is crucial to their success, only 38% feel their organisation is very successful at achieving it.
This gap between recognition and execution reveals a fundamental challenge: many organisations still operate with an “inside-out” mindset, focusing on internal efficiencies and assuming these will naturally lead to customer satisfaction. However, this approach often results in fragmented and impersonal experiences that prioritise the business needs over those of the customers.
Moving from Inside Out to Outside In
To close this gap, businesses must shift to an “outside-in” approach, where every decision is made with the customer’s perspective in mind. This involves understanding the customer journey, identifying pain points, and continuously adapting to meet customer expectations.
For example, instead of focusing solely on reducing call handling time, a company should prioritise resolving the customer’s issue in the first contact, even if it means longer time investment from the customer service agent. This shift often requires breaking down internal silos and fostering cross-functional collaboration to ensure a cohesive and satisfying customer experience.
Customers today expect more than just a product or service—they expect a seamless, personalised experience that responds to their needs. Businesses that fail to adopt this perspective risk alienating customers, who have more choices than ever and will quickly take their business elsewhere.
In contrast, those who successfully shift their focus to the customer will likely see improved loyalty, advocacy, and ultimately, better business outcomes.
C for Contextual, D for Data, E for Effective?
Embracing a customer-centric philosophy naturally leads to a focus on data, a powerful tool for understanding and improving customer experience. While businesses are increasingly adept at collecting data from various touchpoints, the real challenge lies in integrating this data into a comprehensive, contextual, actionable view of the customer lifecycle.
The HBR Analytic Services research indicates that 53% of leaders plan to increase their customer data analytics over the next 12 months, yet few organisations excel at creating
a unified view of their customers.
However, data often exists in silos across different departments, making it difficult to gain a holistic understanding of the customer’s journey. This fragmentation can lead to disjointed, irrelevant interactions that erode trust and loyalty. For instance, a customer who recently had a service issue resolved might receive a generic
marketing email that ignores their recent experience. Hence, a comprehensive 360-degree view of customer data is vital to provide agents with a summarised context and overview of all interactions between the brand and the customer. This leads to intelligent, informed and relevant conversations between the customer and the agent, ultimately building long-term relationships with the brand.
In today’s competitive environment, timing and relevance are crucial. Businesses that can reach out to customers with the right message at the right moment stand a better chance of building lasting relationships and encouraging repeat business.
Sharing is Caring: The Data Dilemma
Our research shows that 64% of businesses are actively working to break down these silos by increasing cross-functional data sharing. However, this effort is not without risks. As data sharing increases, so does the potential for security breaches and privacy concerns.
The solution lies in implementing robust data governance frameworks, with clear protocols for data access and advanced security measures such as encryption and multi-factor authentication.
Businesses must also foster a culture of collaboration and transparency, where teams share data responsibly while maintaining high standards of privacy and security. Additionally, businesses should consider the ethical implications of data sharing.
Customers are increasingly aware of how their data is used and are more likely to trust companies that demonstrate a commitment to ethical data practices.
What’s Next: Futureproofing Your Business
By improving data flows and security, businesses can address today’s challenges, but what about tomorrow? Generative AI (GenAI) is emerging as a promising technology for enhancing customer interactions with tools like chatbots.
Our research shows 30% of organisations are exploring GenAI, which can deliver personalised, efficient interactions by leveraging its ability to generate dynamic, context-aware content and respond to individual inputs in real time. However, successful chatbot deployment depends on effective training and integration,
powered by seamless collaboration between humans and technology.
Maintaining a strong human touch, especially in moments that require empathy and nuanced judgment, is essential for delivering a truly exceptional customer experience. Hence, a satisfied customer experience is closely linked to the state of employee experience.
Happy, well-supported employees are not just beneficial—they are crucial to delivering high-quality customer interactions. The survey reveals that 45% of businesses are focussing on making customer interactions more seamless for agents/employees, significantly prioritising employee experience. By providing employees with the right tools companies can ensure staff can create positive, impactful interactions with customers.
Improving how your business interacts with customers is no longer an optional extra; it’s a necessity. To remain competitive in the ever-evolving global business landscape, businesses must enhance their customer interactions, leverage data effectively, and embrace new AI-led technologies. Those who fail to do so risk being left behind.
Mauro Carobene is the VP and Global Head – Customer Interactions Suite, Tata Communications.