Many apps and organizations deliver a very disjointed customer experience. It’s a common point of contention among the best and the second-best of any software or app. The user experience and customer experience matter more than ever today. If something is fluid, integrated and hassle-free it scores more points. If a competing software with just as many options has a disjointed and chaotic customer experience, it loses out.

SAP can help in this regard. The software has a lot of options that can help companies improve their software experience. This can include the integration of services, support on different operating systems, etc.

SAP Survey on Customer Experience

This survey was part of a market report. It surveyed 150 SAP customers and interviewed some of the respondents. The survey included the input of industry experts and SAP experts as well. The survey examined all the benefits and strategies and technologies which the organizations were using for the improvement of CX.

The experts involved in the survey said that companies needed to take steps to improve the CX. However, the survey found that just 26% of the companies were investing in CX. The reason for this was low investment due to competing priorities and ignorance. It also was due to a lack of satisfaction with the current software available.

On the flip side, the customers also believe that the customer experience is lacking. 80% of the CEOs responding believe that their company is doing enough for customer experience. However, only 8% of the customers would call the experience great.

 Combining Customer Experience Data with Ops Data

Organizations need to make sure they focus on combining experience data with Ops data. This way, the operational data will be fed back into the experience data, and they will complement each other. It will make the app experience more fluid and integrate. It’s too often that the experience data is placed at a higher priority than the operations data. This way, only the aesthetics are taken care of and the operations can remain subpar.

Hence, the recommendation is to allow businesses to collect user experience and operations data at every point. These can include touchpoints, lags, and issues. This will help all inefficiencies to be unmasked and improved upon. It will also allow the entire organization to be activated to improve the experience. With every touchpoint exposed, there is a greater chance of the bottlenecks and inefficiencies to be traced back to their source. This will prevent precious manhours wasted on cosmetic solutions instead of core fundamental changes.

A great challenge for customer experience is the lack of a sudden response. There is no immediate impact that can translate into material or financial gains. However, the long term benefits are anything but invisible. Sales rise, engagement increases, and improvements keep bolstering the reputation of the company. Customers realize that the company cares about their experience and are more willing to trust it with their investment.

The reason that this rarely happens is that the company is more focused on making the majority shareholders happy. They want immediate results and don’t much care about the long-term benefits that their investments allow. Hence, the metrics that are focused on don’t reflect actual meaningful progress. The result is a disjointed customer experience.

Great customer experience only comes through continuous, arduous improvement over months and years. It’s not readily noticeable. It’s downright unobtrusive at times. However, with the ease of use and fluidity of the UI improving through time, customers keep adopting. That’s the reason that investing in Customer Experience is so fruitful.

SAP carries some of the best tools t improve it in that regard.

CX Initiatives That Need to Be Tackled

The CX initiatives that need to be tackled f need to be decided beforehand. The things that need to be considered include the technology that is to be replaced. It is invariably the technology that is to be obsolete soon. However, if an organization is running technology that is relatively new but incompatible, then the choice is much harder. If a company relies on SAP CRM to run a customer service center without problems, then why should it replace the system? While it will have some incremental benefits, the cost-benefit ratio would be very high. CX technology also may have very little that a company wants today. Hence, their prioritization is a bigger bone of contention.

Another point to think of is the number of projects which can be overwhelming. For instance, a company may be planning to make a shift to a different system. If they realize that the entire plan will require too many man-hours it may be scrapped altogether. Hence the consideration should be built on whether to start with customer-facing initiatives or back-office projects.

Hence, the customer experience can be improved through incremental improvements than a huge overhaul. It’s not necessary to shift to SAP S/4HANA to do it. They can continue with SAP Customer Experience. They can begin with a field service management solution in the beginning. This is already integrated with SAP ECC. Once the SAP S/4HANA migration is completed, they will simply have to change the connectors to SAP S/4HANA. This is what a lot of customers are realizing, and more need to realize.

Project cost also comes into play, of course. It determines which steps can be taken first and which can be incorporated later on. Hence, the projects which need to be undertaken usually place the migrations into either two camps. The long-term projects that include replacing market solutions and introducing new services are considered much harder. The shorter initiatives which can include installing a single new program or updating software are much easier. However, having a roadmap for either can be extremely effective.

Whatever the CX goal is, there can be no significant progress without knowing which aspects to improve.