New Verint Report Unearths the Secret to Retail CX Success

Findings from the recently published CX Holiday Survival Guide 2023 unearth a key strategy that enables retailers to overcome many of the major challenges of the holiday season—and beyond.

While the guide is packed with insights and guidance on how to address the myriad issues that arise over the busy holiday period, there’s a common theme amongst retailers who are confidently delivering exceptional CX.

And that theme is data. Or to be more specific, unified customer data.

Why Unified Customer Data Is Key to CX Success

Before we get into why unified data is key to CX success, we need to explain a bit more about the report. For the CX Holiday Survival Guide 2023, we surveyed:

• 400 CX professionals
• C-suite, VPs and managers
• At medium (1,000 – 9,999 employees) and large (10,000+ employees) companies

The results of the 14 questions in the survey provided some interesting insights into the challenges facing retailers this holiday season. Hiring is extremely difficult, handling increased interaction volumes is a real worry, and delivering consistent experiences is top of mind for retailers.

However, when we started digging into the data a little more, we were able to find a real line in the sand when it came to which retailers were best placed to handle these challenges. One of the questions provided a “eureka” moment.

It asked respondents to state whether they connected data from none, some or all of their customer engagement channels. 64% said they connected all data, 31% said some, and just 5% said none.

We then went back through the survey results and compared the difference between the answers of respondents who connect all customer engagement data versus only some—and the results speak for themselves.

Unleashing Connected Data Across the Enterprise

We found that retailers that connect all customer interaction data are much more likely to provide their contact center and chatbots access to that data.

This highlights how businesses adopting a data-driven customer experience strategy, centered around unified customer data, are leveraging data throughout their organization to enhance the overall customer experience.

Almost a third of retailers that connect some customer data do not provide their contact center with access to customer interaction data. This means that when a customer calls about an issue they’ve previously raised via live chat, for example, the agent has no context to draw from. The customer has to repeat their issue, increasing average handle time and lowering customer satisfaction.

Enabling Better Chatbots Experiences

At a time where retailers are striving to do more with less, it’s great that 64% of those already connecting all customer data say that chatbots play a key part of their CX strategy.

Conversely, there’s cause for concern when it comes to retailers that only connect data from some channels. With 22% already using chatbots as a key part of their strategy, it may be a case of putting the cart before the horse. Chatbots operating in silos without access to rich customer data are unable to provide context-specific service that utilizes information such as previous purchases and prior interaction history. With 69% of consumers saying they have stopped doing business with a company due to a poor customer experience, retailers can ill-afford to provide substandard chatbot experiences.

Data Savvy Retailers React Best to Feedback

When it comes to proficiency in implementing customer feedback, there is also stark contrast between retailers that connect all customer data and those that only connect customer data across some engagement channels.

Retailers that connect all data are more than three times as likely to use insights very effectively from customer feedback to improve their experiences on digital channels and in-store.

Having a comprehensive view of the customer journey across a range of physical and digital touchpoints gives CX professionals much greater confidence when it comes to listening, analyzing and acting on insights to improve customer experience, both in-store and online.

How Verint Can Help to Unleash the Power of Customer Data

Whether it’s arming contact center agents to deliver seamless service, providing chatbots with contextual knowledge to answer questions quickly, or implementing a voice of the customer program that improves customer experience—the key is connected customer data.

But just like a dog isn’t just for the holidays, neither is connected customer data. It can be your secret weapon for CX success 365 days a year.

And while the proposition of connecting all customer data across an increasingly vast array of CX solutions may seem like a pipedream for some, Verint Open CCaaS makes it easy.

Our ‘open’ approach to contact center technology means that data from any source can be unified, cleaned and analyzed with the Verint Data Hub.

Consolidating this data in one place, from both customers and the contact center, unlocks a long list of benefits for your business including:

CX Analytics: Understand the customer journey across all touchpoints to gain insights that help to improve CX

Automation: Accelerate CX automation with bots training on unique customer data

Machine Learning: Enhance your AI initiatives by synchronizing customer data with your data lake 

Operational Analytics: Improve your business processes and become a data-driven operation 

Real-Time Insights: Improve agent performance in real time

Trend Analysis: Understand customer trends in real time to take immediate corrective action

Workforce Performance Analytics: Understand your workforce performance and drive improvements

The use of connected data to unleash an array of CX benefits is just one of many insights from the CX Holiday Survival Guide 2023. Download your free copy today and book a demo if you would like to learn more about how Verint Open CCaaS and Verint Data Hub can become the cornerstone of a modern CX strategy.