Customer Experience (CX) remained an ignored arena as companies were paying little to no attention to their customer experience strategy. However, the increased competition in the market has changed the scenario. The consumer’s experience management market is growing at around 17% every year, a trend that will continue in the future as well. Companies are used to toning products to match customer’s preferences. And they have now realized that CX is as much part of the product/service itself, leading to a changed CX strategy.

How CX affects revenue growth

Over time, businesses have understood that improving customer experience is not a marketing gimmick. It also has the potential to bring monetary benefits with increased revenue growth for the business. According to a study by Forrester, companies paying attention to customer experience outperform their peers by as much as 80%. It is an expected result as a better customer experience creates loyal customers. Higher brand loyalty eventually leads to increased engagement and willingness to spend more.

“If you’re customer-first and do it in a smart way, then it can help the company.”

– Augie Ray (VP Analyst, Gartner Research & Advisory)

People trust word-of-mouth more than any other form of marketing. Loyal customers can be the most reliable brand ambassadors for any business. However, it is only with a strong orientation towards CX that organizations can provide them with experiences they would like to share with others. And there is no reason to put it off the table when even one point improvement can lead to more than a billion dollars in additional revenue.

How to Improve CX

Customer experience is not about selling great products but is about building great relationships. And to build a healthy relationship, businesses need to establish trust with their customers. Here are a few strategies that have helped companies to connect better their customers:

a) Data collection: One reason for the inability of the businesses to provide exceptional CX in the past is that they lacked quality customer data. However, with increased digitalization, enough customer data is available, giving insights into customer behavior and preferences. Holistic data enables businesses to make informed decisions. As per Gartner, 80% of companies showing positive growth collect survey data than 58% of the no revenue growth organizations.

b) Leveraging Technology: Innovations like real-time analytics and Artificial Intelligence enable businesses to gather data and create a deeper understanding of customer behavior. It leads to a more personalized experience for the customer, increasing revenue through up-selling and cross-selling.

c) Customer care availability: Customers prefer businesses that are available 24*7, not only to sell but also to handle customer queries. Another aspect of availability is switching to multichannel reality, with presence across email, voice, web, chat, and social media. 24*7 availability of help through various channels helps resolve customer queries faster, accelerating the sales cycle.

d) Automation: Automation has proved helpful in streamlining many processes behind the scene. It has even addressed the 24*7 service availability expectation of the customer through bots. Businesses are increasingly using bots in customer-facing tasks where they have proved successful due to enhanced NLP technologies. It has resulted in increased lead generation and conversion, driving revenue growth through increased sales.

e) Consistency across communication channels: Switching from one communication channel, like the web, to another, such as mobile, shouldn’t affect customer’s experience. All of their data, along with services provided, should be equally accessible across all the channels. People use multiple devices these days. It becomes frustrating to enter the same information repeatedly as they switch channels. They would instead switch to your competition.

f) Agent Experience: Businesses need to take proper care of their employees first. Discontent employees become rude customer care executives that lead to unsavory customer experiences. Organizations should train them to be empathetic to respond efficiently in all situations.

Conclusion

The competition out there is unrelenting. It has already outgrown the quality space and is entering the field of customer experience. Net Promoter Score shows a difference of 10-70% in revenue growth with changed CX experiences; CEOs around the world agree. It demonstrates that the only way for a business to survive in today’s time is to shift from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach.

  Sources: Grand View Research, Qualtrics, Gartner, Forrester, Bain & Company

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Technology and contact tracing

Countries as per their capabilities and data regulations are using different types of technology for contact tracing. While some techniques are contact management software based, others are app based. Contact management software based tracing, which is mostly being adopted by US and Europe regions, allows for registration of cases and their contacts for data collection analysis and report generation. Based on the characteristics of cases, the software will generate contact follow-up lists and will facilitate the visualization of chains of transmission. The process is lengthy and requires many resources, as once a person or case has been identified as infected, they need to follow a series of activities which include:

1. Interviewing the case
2. Creating a list of contacts and classifying them into high and low-risk exposure
3. Interviewing the contacts
4. Testing of contacts
5. Follow-up of contacts

Different states in the US are following this method; the state of Massachusetts has partnered with public and private institutions and launched a “Community tracing collaborative” where program contact investigators have tested residents and further identified more than 1000 close contacts, which means someone they spent more than 15 minutes within six feet of during the three days before testing positive. Similar efforts are being expanded now to other cities too. This test is not just about numbers, but also quality, which is why the US needs about 1, 00,000 tracers which would cost them about $3.6 billion. For now authorities and health workers are looking to hire and train people who lost their jobs due to the virus itself to support the limited number of staff. The contact management tracing software is time consuming and requires a large number of skilled and trained resources, not to mention the funds and costs that it requires. Having said that, the process of direct communication over the phone has been considered valuable and effective by countries using it.

Countries in East Asia are relying on Bluetooth and GPS based apps for contact tracing; these apps come with their own set of problems like; willingness to download the app, privacy concerns, technically challenged elderly people or people who don’t own a smartphone etc. While the use of technology in this region is raising questions regarding privacy, the digital infrastructure that has been enabled by these countries have a seamless data sharing regulation between the government and the individuals. India has its own contact tracing app, ‘Aarogya Setu’, the installation of the app has been made a mandate by the Govt. However, not all East Asian countries have made the installation of the tracing apps mandatory.

Let’s have a look at a few in detail:

Singapore – A country praised early in the pandemic for curbing the spread of the virus, came up with a Bluetooth technology app called TraceTogether to do contact tracing. How the app works is that it first attaches a random ID to your mobile number, it then uses Bluetooth to detect other users who come within 2 to 5 meters of you and records their IDs internally. In case someone tests positive for COVID-19, the health ministry will contact the person through a code requesting their app logs. Once they receive the app logs, they will be able to decrypt the random IDs to determine the mobile numbers of the close contacts. The authorities have integrated multiple measures to protect user’s privacy and personal data. For starters, the usage of the app is not mandatory, secondly and most important, the app only collects your mobile number. Furthermore, the health ministry is the only authority that will be able to decrypt the data. With this the authorities will be able to contact you quicker if one has been in close contact with an infected person. This helps minimize the spread of the virus and makes work easier for contact tracers.

Taiwan – Taiwan has one of the lowest confirmed cases and tapping into big data has played a crucial role for them. Although many people were put in quarantine, the government is using techniques such as geofencing, which helps them track their phone signals and alerts the police in case someone is breaking or interrupting the isolation period. They are also using a mass rationing system which helps people purchase their weekly ration of 3 masks at a pharmacy to ensure there is no shortage. People have to present their health insurance card, which once entered into the system, will show your last purchase and your travel history and any recent medical record. Using big data to track possible infected cases. A person’s health insurance card will alert the doctor if they’re a high risk COVID-19 patient. While Taiwan might not be a part of the WHO, its handling of the global pandemic has become a case reference for many countries.

South Korea – South Korea’s steps towards flattening the curve was taken up by private developers. The app, Corona 100m, collects data from public government sources and alerts users of any suspected or diagnosed COVID-19 patient within a 100 meter radius. People are required to download an app to report any symptoms to health authorities, in which case they will be closely monitored. Once it is confirmed that someone has coronavirus, their cell phone and credit card data is used to chart where the person has recently been and the people they have come in contact with. The contacts of the people that the suspect came in touch with can be traced instantly, giving a much better idea of who requires immediate testing. South Korea uses big data and AI to analyze their whereabouts, which means within 10 minutes, all information can be gathered automatically due to which the contact tracing time has been drastically reduced. People also receive alerts of contacts with infected patients in the neighborhood. If there is a COVID-19 patient in their vicinity then they get an alert. Although it seems like there is a breach of privacy, there is no private information shared with anyone that allows people to identify whose information they are receiving, as only gender and age is mentioned.

India – With over 9 crore users at current, India’s Aarogya Setu app has scored positive on the timely deletion of user data and collection of only useful data criteria, however, it failed to score on voluntary use, limitations of data usage, and transparency criteria. It is designed to keep track of other app users the person came in contact with, it then alerts users if any of the contacts test positive. The app uses the phone’s Bluetooth and GPS capabilities and keeps a record of all other Aarogya Setu users that it detected nearby using Bluetooth. It will also use a GPS log of all the places the device has been at 15 min intervals. These records are stored on the phone till a user tests positive or declares symptoms of COVID-19 through self-assessment. These records are uploaded to the servers. Available in 11 languages, the app uses your location and the government database to determine if you are within six feet of an infected person or in an area designated as the COVID-19 hotspot. In case you test positive, your data including details of everyone you came in contact with over the past 30 days is shared to cloud which is accessed by the government.

While these are great examples of countries in the East Asia region that are using digital contact tracing by relying on people’s phones to map their physical interactions, countries in Europe, the United States, Australia etc. are struggling with contact tracing and their legislation specifics on data collection.

United States – While some of the states have launched their own apps, for e.g. South Dakota residents can install the voluntary Care19 app that works on location tracking ability, President Donald Trump’s administration is looking at the upcoming joint initiative by tech giants Google and Apple, which is expected to introduce an app based Bluetooth technology to help the United States contact-trace past cases. Apple and Google are creating a system where an effective contact tracing app can be created for iPhone and Android users. The system requires Bluetooth data for contact tracing, and the generation of a dynamic user ID which would be refreshed every 15 minutes, the good part is that data will not be stored centrally and the app will not be allowed to collect GPS location data either.

Europe – For countries in Europe, the reaction to the rise in infection rates led to targeted lockdowns. One of the reasons for this was the lack of adequate information. Now that they have some hold of the situation, if not completely, there are numerous obstacles before a contact tracking app is pushed out. While some issues are technology related, one of the most likely issue is the privacy of citizens. Europe is split over the approach to take for a contact tracing app. While many countries including France, Italy, Norway, Switzerland etc. have backed US tech giants’ initiative while praising its stronger guarantee of anonymity, this challenge requires a multidisciplinary approach as they need to follow telecom and privacy guidelines. Questions arise in citizen’s minds about elements such as the kind of data that is being collected, who is developing the app, who has access to the data, exact use and purpose of the application and for how long and where will this collected data be stored. These countries have to think about the situation post pandemic and what will happen in the days after we all survive the novel coronavirus. Some even fear the late acknowledgement of the idea of unbraiding privacy in healthcare.

United Kingdom-The UK’s health department rolled out the first trial version of the NHS tracking app on May 4th. It works on Bluetooth handshake and randomized ID generation and can pinpoint exactly who needs to be in quarantine and who does not. Users can voluntarily opt-in and record details of their symptoms which the app will analyze using artificial intelligence. If a user is suspected to be positive they will be directed to the nearest NHS (National Health Services) health swab test. If the person tests positive, an alert will be sent to those who have been in close contact in the last 28 days. The app stores data on a centralized server for 28 days.

Australia- The COVIDSafe app in Australia works on Bluetooth handshake and records physical contacts of the past 21 days, similar to how the UK’s NHS tracking app works. The data is locally stored on the users’ device unless they test positive, in which case it is sent to a centralized server. The data collected by the app includes the users’ name, age, phone numbers and postcodes. The installation is voluntary but the Prime Minister has urged citizens to install it. Although for the tool to be effective, millions more installations would be required.

COVID-19 has brought many lessons and we learn something new as more days pass. Maybe coronavirus is a learning of how prepared we are for the future. Different countries are making choices as per their legislations on how to respond to the next pandemic. Western democracies have a different take from the eastern ones. The question is: To tradeoff between personal privacy and public safety in a pandemic? Or to accelerate technology innovation and development of laws and policies that can preserve both? Countries showing success with their tracing apps have unique legislation with regards to pandemic and collection of data. Most companies face policy challenges, and it’s time we accepted that this is the new normal. These tracing apps are not here for a short term, they will stay until a vaccine arrives and who knows maybe even after, so we are better prepared for another pandemic.

Author:

Gurmeet Oberoi is a researcher and writer of change tactics and technologies in travel and other verticals, she frequently posts across the digital ecosystem. With 9-yrs of experience in communications and marketing, Gurmeet has a passion for travel and reading among other things. She can be reached at gurmeet.oberoi@igtsolutions.azurewebsites.net

The post How is technology playing a vital role to fight the battle against COVID-19? appeared first on IGT Solutions.

How does it work?

Video analytics is a technology that has achieved a milestone in the computer vision sector. Just like we see the world with our eyes, computers do so through cameras. Although the cameras can see, the ability to process and understand the data takes place through the technique of video processing. Video processing is a combination of small tasks where a video or image is analyzed frame by frame. For this analysis, processing libraries have been created that consist of algorithms that help in object detection, recognition and tracking etc., which helps build fast and accurate solutions.

Essentially, video analytics uses a mathematical algorithm that classifies objects based on pixels or frames. The technology can help improve security and the effort towards proactive security. Let’s look at some of the use cases of applying video analytics to a business:

• Incident prevention – Assists in perimeter breach and alerts security personnel to respond to the threat.
• Remote video surveillance – Helps detect perimeter intrusion as a service, this eliminates the need for on-site guards.
• Cost savings – Video analytics helps find evidence without having to manually sift through videos. This saves time and any legal and insurance costs.
• Reduces stress – Reduces staff stress, especially for the ones watching potentially disturbing video scenes.
• Night vision enabled – Efficiently supports operational systems with the use of motion detection which does not require full brightness or lighting.

Intelligent Video Analytics: The new eyes for Work at Home employees:

Video analytics is primarily used for two security functions; detection and alert of real-time events and post-events investigation. Video analytics technology can be deployed in several sectors including transportation, residences, industries, travel, and hospitality. With most of the world working from home, one of the challenges faced by companies is enabling a secure work at home set up, especially in a call center environment where security is paramount and adhering to service levels is a key factor.

So how are call centers able to carry out operations without impacting the safety of the employees and the equipment provided to them? The answer: smart surveillance systems that are robust in response.

IGT’s Intelligent Video Analytics (IVA) technology is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered video stream that helps monitor agents in real time to increase efficiency and security of work at home solutions. The software is equipped to recognize people, set rules, patterns, objects and situations automatically to generate alerts and notifications by applying IGT’s proprietary machine learning algorithms.

Key Capabilities:

IGT’s IVA technology capabilities help in keeping work at home as operational as in-office.

• Monitoring

Our live work force command center feed monitors live agents and checks for any recording and communication devices, writing instruments & unauthorized personnel. It also includes facial identification of agents and idle agent monitoring.

• Alerts & Notifications

Our IVA technology is equipped to send alerts for all suspicious activities or improper camera placements. With the ability to send customized agent notifications in real-time, team leads can also manage an agent’s break time.

• Recording

This feature helps record any suspicious activity and periodically records samples to ensure work at home security is not impacted.

• Analytics

Our customized dashboards help gain insights on agent productivity, shift schedule adherence, habitual defaulters etc. Features like suspect resolution analysis helps our team leaders resolve matters in real-time.

• Security Control

Work at home can bring challenges such as connectivity issues, with the help of the security control ability, our IVA technology can auto sync post lost connectivity, send proactive alerts for off the grid systems, assist in gaining remote system access control, encrypt both data at rest & data in motion while ensuring zero data storage at agent’s end.

• Technology

Our command center administrative features enable remote installation, automated upgrades & deployments along with automatic restart capability. It is also equipped with public cloud hosting & on premise options.

Security and compliance is our top most priority; video analytics not only helps increase the success rate of work at home, but also empowers our teams to adhere to compliances & policies and enhance employee productivity. If deployed appropriately, video analytics can be an effective technology. With the use of sophisticated algorithms, and pixel and frame analysis, the smallest of details can be highlighted. IVA technology is intelligently tailored to meet the security needs of organizations and its functionality only continues to grow. In the current work at home scenario, video analytics solutions are proving to be invaluable in helping us meet our daily tasks.

Author:

Gurmeet Oberoi is a researcher and writer of change tactics and technologies in travel and other verticals, she frequently posts across the digital ecosystem. With 9-yrs of experience in communications and marketing, Gurmeet has a passion for travel and reading among other things. She can be reached at gurmeet.oberoi@igtsolutions.azurewebsites.net

The post Video Analytics made intelligent appeared first on IGT Solutions.