Be the future of customer engagement: using data to stay one step ahead of the competition

By Sarah Tierney, Digital Storyteller, Microsoft UK

30/05/2018

With a total number of 5.7 million private sector businesses at the start of 2017, there’s no shortage of choice for the consumer. And this number keeps increasing-the difference between 2016 and 2017 is almost 200,000 more businesses.

This means more competition for organisations and more choice for the consumer. While you may think this creates a fickle customer base of people who switch whenever the wind changes, it’s actually a great opportunity to harness customer data and focus on what really matters– their experience.

A whopping 96 percent of people responding to our 2017 Global Customer Service Report say customer service is important in their choice of loyalty to a brand.

That percentage is too huge a number to ignore. But how can you keep this 96 percent happy?

Customers want their experience to be fast, simple, and friendly. They want to be remembered, and they love giving feedback and seeing their feedback put in place. Most importantly, they want a seamless experience from start to end across all channels.

Capitalise on powerful customer insights using data, making it easy to engage and retain customers and empower employees to use this data efficiently across channels. With Dynamics 365, you can personalise customer experiences, predict needs, and increase sales, keeping that 96 percent on your side, and even gain more customers.

Craig Donaldson, Metro Bank CEO agrees. “Technology should be used to engage people and that’s what we do at Metro Bank. It’s all about our colleagues and our customers. It’s all about creating fans. It’s really that simple.”

Luckily, Dynamics 365 makes it easy to engage with customers on any channel, delivering great service and support on a modern and adaptable platform while reducing workload and time, allowing staff to spend more time focussing on customer leads and satisfaction, all while helping your organisation stay secure and GDPR compliant.

Metro Bank use Dynamics 365 to provide employees with immediate access to information at their fingertips including fast solution pathways empowering them to solve the customers’ needs. Because Dynamics can be cloud-based, employees can access powerful insights no matter where they are.

“When a customer walks in, we can open their accounts for them there and then. Cheques and debit cards are printed in minutes and given to the customer on site – done,” says Donaldson. “We use modern communication tools to connect people with customer service instantly – no appointment required.”

They also use Dynamics 365 to provide customer solutions on the best channel for them, providing the right information customers need at exactly the right time. Says Donaldson, “When we launched our mobile app, we got live updates on mobile banking data and as customers requested the activation code, if we saw customers go past five activation attempts we called them to help them through it, which earned us great feedback.”

Ed Hutt, Group CIO at Fitness First also found the speed amazing. “For a member, the first thing they will notice is when they want to buy a membership, it will take less time,” he says. “They will find it a better buying experience and in club, they will find it a better membership experience.”

The immediate response from customers and staff from both organisations is positive.

“What I’ve absolutely loved is the positive feedback that has come from the clubs,” says Fitness First Programme Manager Brett Lloyd Payne. “Everyone has said it enables them to talk to the guests or the members with the right background knowledge and right information to increase sales or to add to their existing sales package.”

The speed of Dynamics 365 means both Fitness First and Metro Bank are gaining and retaining more customers as well as saving time, money, and boosting staff motivation. Fitness First, for example, saw an immediate saving per year of £1.9 million from the efficiencies the integration has bought, and Metro Bank saw immediate wins with the customer.

“By getting people to sign on Surface tablets, we took two minutes off the time it takes to open an account with the customer, and 10 minutes off the back-office work. Also, we instantly saved maybe three-quarters of a million pounds in paper, and we now have 15 percent more time to spend with the customer,” says Donaldson. “We can have people across the organisation, all looking at the same credit paper, discussing it together over Skype for Business. We think that’s taken about two days out of reviewing a large credit underwriting. Which for our business, is massive. There’s no other organisation that can turn a credit request like we can.”