Customer and partner engagement in the technology, media, and telecom industry

The customer experience shift

We live in a mobile, social, and anywhere-anytime culture that persists across personal, business, and educational boundaries. This evolving culture is reinventing how companies interact with their customers and business partners. The customer and partner experience is now a key differentiator. In fact, Gartner reports that 89 percent of marketing leaders expect to compete primarily on the basis of experience compared to 36 percent four years ago. This evolution requires a new way of thinking, a new way of doing business. The pace of change is disruptive, and with disruption, value can be gained.

Capturing real value from customer experience requires integration across the business. Every customer touchpoint is an opportunity for value creation. Companies must stay connected and interact virtually to keep pace and engage customers. They have to change the way they do business, gaining efficiencies, and providing an omni-channel experience to customers.

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Customer and partner experience in technology, media, and telecom

Organizations across sectors are rethinking customer value creation.

Technology
Increasing commoditization of products is driving innovation and fueling a shift from selling products and services to selling holistic solutions focused on business outcomes. On the business-to-consumer side, high-tech companies should design customer experiences that focus on simplicity, automation, self-service, and personalization using real-time information across marketing, sales, and customer service. Companies are rethinking the customer value creation model: identifying the "who, what, and how" and then binding data, technology, and people in a coherent response to customer needs.

On the business-to-business side, the focus is on examining the role of business partners in the value chain and identifying leakage points across the partner ecosystem. This requires companies to re-align their route to market, design rules of engagement and channel economics to drive the right behaviors, and develop the supporting capabilities and infrastructure management systems to support the new sales motions and partner roles.

Media
The Media sector is experiencing a complete overhaul in business models, with priorities now on flexibility and dynamic personalization. The way customers consume media now occurs through a variety of channels and devices, and customers expect a seamless experience across these channels. Advertisers are undergoing a digital advertising revolution and are hyper-focused on targeting the right people at the right times in the right ways. Companies should focus on the always-evolving ways customers consume content to design and develop enhancements to their engagement models in an effort to stay ahead of the curve.

Telecommunications
In Telecom, the market is saturated, and very few differentiators remain. Major wireless carriers offer similar products, network quality, and price. But things are changing. The competitive advantage will increasingly revolve around an unparalleled customer experience, whether they occur in stores, through customer care, at indirect retailers, or through self-service and mobile channels. Companies should use the myriad customer data they have (network, social, cross-channel, and more) to their advantage, offering more personalized, relevant treatment. They must also develop strategies with partners, including device manufacturers and third-party retailers to deliver a consistent and positive brand experience.

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Addressing this shift in your organization

Most companies are organized with different marketing, sales, and customer service departments. Each have different priorities and incentives, but delivering a truly differentiated experience requires knocking down and silos and operating in a way that provides a seamless experience for the customer. Shifting to a customer-centric organization requires companies to consider and make decisions around the following:

• What type of organizational structure and operating model do we need to have to make this a reality?
• How do my sales motions need to change, and what roles will partners play in a solution- and service-based environment? 
• How do I enable partners across the sales lifecycle to grow profitably?
• How will we technically enable providing personalized, differentiated customer experiences that also result in bottom-line business benefits?
• How will we technically enable more efficient and effective exchanges with business partners across the value chain?
• What business processes will need to change?
• How can we make this transformation without disrupting operations?
• How will we need to revise priorities and incentives of our employees to operate in this customer-centric fashion?
  

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How we can help

Deloitte's transformative "Imagine, Deliver, Run" framework and agile methods connect data, technology, and people in a coherent response to customer needs, focusing on flexibility and effectiveness. From this real and meaningful customer insights emerge, which enable lasting customer loyalty and smarter strategic investments.

We are one of the only consultancies to offer end-to-end customer and partner engagement capabilities—from initial strategy and roadmapping, through iterative design and development, to managed operations.

As the #1 creative digital consultancy across CX transformation, with accolades from Kennedy, Forrester, IDC & Gartner, we bring industry depth and breadth and employ a global delivery model. Our CX methodology has been used on more than 500 engagements, and has been recently updated to incorporate new customer engagement models and emerging customer data in the digital era.

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