How to Future-Ready Your CX: Key Insights From IDC, Teradata and ActionIQ

Going back to the 1950’s or 1960’s, store owners knew all of their customers — very personally. They had their preferences in mind, knew what they may like next as a recommendation, and made them feel like their experience mattered every time they walked through their shop door.

Fast-forward 60 years — customer expectations for that custom, personalized experience haven’t changed. But now, the way for a brand to get close to their customers’ hearts (and wallets) is through their data.

In a conversation with Mark Swenson and Yann Ross from Teradata, Edouard Servan-Schreiber from ActionIQ and guest speaker David Wallace from IDC, moderated by technology journalist Kate Russell, they discussed the trends and tooling surrounding the customer experience, with insights on how to take control of all of that rich customer data and connect it to the customer in a completely personalized way — think of it as a virtual (maybe AI-generated) handshake.

The Core Characteristics of Success In CX

More and more customers will only commit to brands that provide them the personal touch they’re looking for — with 77% of customers going with companies that give them a seamless CX. So how do you remove friction from the customer experience?

Below, we’ll take a look at some advice from the experts about how to stand apart from crowd with seamless, personalized CX.

Your Competitive Differentiation is Your Data

Other brands can copy your style, your approach and your inspiration — but one thing they can never copy? Your data. To be future ready is to know your data. Enterprise brands should understand all of the different elements of their data that they are collecting, from clickstream data to distance to store or branch, to profitability metrics. By educating yourself, you may discover useful data that you aren’t taking advantage of.

Analyze and understand what your customers are asking for, and what trends or opportunities they’re attaching themselves to so you can adapt your strategy. If you let the customer guide your brand voice rather than a channel, you’ll serve up that experience customers are looking for.

Link Your Intent With What the Customer Expects — and Talk to Each Other

Designing the right customer experiences means marrying your intent with customer expectations — and it starts with your data. Your data will connect this picture together if your business team, IT team and data scientists and engineers are working together to adapt and adjust those communications to what customers may be expecting.

“It’s important to link your intent with what the customer expects to build a win-win relationship with them,” said Yann Ros, Senior Business Consultant at Teradata.

Always (Always) Go Back to Your Data — and Break Down Departmental Data Silos

Most enterprise organizations are separated into different departments, channel teams and more. But the only way to really deliver that complete experience to the customer is by understanding and having a visual of the full dataset of your customer — not just a narrow, siloed slice. With Teradata and ActionIQ, brands can access a full dataset that all different teams and departments can share across the organization.

How to Approach New CX and GenAI Tooling

Enterprise businesses are overwhelmed by choice in the market. With the amount of solutions and technology out there, particularly with the boom of GenAI, it’s important for businesses to take a measured approach to investing in new solutions. Below, take a look at what our experts identified as some key advice to keep in mind when evaluating new technologies.

Don’t Think About What You Want to Adopt — Think About What You Want to Achieve

When shiny new object syndrome catches your eye, take a step back and think about what your customers are asking for through their data, and what you need to fulfill your commitment to your customers to provide those custom, personalized experiences.

Early Leaders in CX Chose Customer Data Platforms — and Successful Businesses Will Follow

Personalization has become much bigger with customer data platforms (CDPs) as they provide real-time personalization capabilities. Contrast that with the trend towards composability which is associated with increased popularity of cloud data warehouses. Composability offers modularity to implement what’s needed.

The rise of real-time personalization will continue to increase, especially with generative AI. The latency between signals picked up and needs a customer has will continue to go down. Data needs to be closer to the source — especially in areas like retail, where signals come in from the edge. CDPs have a place to activate real-time personalization and that will continue.

Be Wary of the Shiny New AI Object — Get Practical in GenAI Application

When shiny new object syndrome catches your eye, take a step back and think about what your customers are asking for through their data, and what you need to fulfill your commitment to your customers to provide those custom, personalized experiences.

“There are so many choices coming up every day. Be careful about chasing every new widget and capability. Focus on the data you have and look in your business at where your center of data gravity is to focus on the assets you have and best leverage those,” advised Mark Swenson, Director of the Customer Experience Practice at Teradata.

Particularly with AI, every business has the urge to be ambitious in investing in new applications — but it’s best to start by solving a small problem, and solving it well. By providing the value you’re delivering in helping your team do their job practically, you can build trust and learn more to get to those big things.

“Fundamentally, we built ActionIQ to enable people who don’t speak SQL to leverage data for marketing, effectively and at scale,” shared Edouard Servan-Schreiber, Vice President of Architecture at ActionIQ. “AI will take that one step beyond… What a CDP has is an understanding of that data.”

Stop Thinking About Channel Performance — Start Thinking About Customer Performance

One of the most important things to remember when evaluating technologies that will support your customer experience strategy is not to get caught up in the weeds. Technology is complicated, and often the features and functions may pull you away from what you are trying to do.

The most successful brands are technically sophisticated with teams that are dedicated to that full picture thinking about who their customers are and what business objectives are leading their organizations.

Enable Future-Ready CX By Tapping Into Your Full Dataset at Scale

To be future-ready is to be data-ready. Understanding and owning your full dataset and unlocking those capabilities across the organization will bring your team together for a truly customer-centric experience that brings that personal feel to the digital world.

To learn more about how Teradata and ActionIQ team up to help enterprise brands deliver on the promise of personalization for customers, check out our Teradata solution sheet.