It’s no secret that “experience” is the new focus for many organizations – whether it is the experience of their customers or their own employees. Businesses now need to be conscious of experience more than ever.
Customers’ expectations evolve rapidly in today’s digital world, which only increases the pressure for businesses to meet them. So how do businesses provide a superior omnichannel experience for their customers now while remaining poised to adapt to the customer of the future? The answer is cloud. Investing in cloud solutions and technologies can help give businesses that competitive advantage they need.
As the margin of error for businesses slims and customers increasingly prefer digital channels for their shopping experience, businesses need to use this competitive advantage to connect with their customers on multiple levels. They need to demonstrate their value as a trusted supplier, relevant brand, and committed partner. Maintaining this reputation is no easy feat given the endless number of options customers have at their fingertips and how quickly a poor experience can send a customer running to a competitor.
To maintain the relationships with their customers, businesses need to understand them at a holistic level. They need to have deep insights into the behaviors and desired experiences of their customers to proactively create and engage opportunities and react quickly to challenges. For many SAP customers, cloud technology connects those customer data points and sets the foundation for more intelligent data capture, processing, and analysis. Before the pandemic, 46% of B2B companies were already planning to employ cloud-based technologies for 61% to 100% of their digital commerce solutions. And now, B2C businesses are following the same path to engage customers with restrictive in-person policies.
Taking the Customer Experience to the Cloud – with Confidence
When moving from an on-premise environment to a cloud landscape, most organizations quickly realize that the experience is unlike anything they’ve seen before. Challenges exist for both the business and IT teams. Organizations must adapt to a mindset of standardization over customization, more frequent releases containing new innovations designed to improve their business, and foundationally new products that they lack knowledge and experience administering.
The SAP Preferred Success offering can help organizations overcome those challenges to help ensure a successful transition to the cloud and adoption of optimal business processes, leading to better user experience. The offering orchestrates a success plan including a comprehensive portfolio of exclusive resources to optimize the consumption of cloud solutions and technology from SAP.
The underlying goal of SAP Preferred Success is to help customers leverage cloud solutions the right way for their business. We work with our customers to help ensure their cloud investments play an integral role in helping them reach their desired and expected business outcomes.
Through an extensive community of users, business peers, and product experts, customers receive guidance on the latest functions. A dedicated customer success manager (CSM) acts as the partner for success for customers. The CSM helps ensure milestones and goals are being met through close collaboration with customer teams and by orchestrating the necessary resources for success.
Each phase and milestone – such as an implementation or a new release – is supported by SAP Preferred Success. Customers’ goals and key initiatives are integrated into the approach to help ensure the delivery of the expected outcomes and the overall digital transformation strategy.
Driving Continuous Value that Resonates
Without question, today’s competitive landscape is full of challenges primarily centered around the experience of customers. But don’t forget that a slew of new opportunities is emerging and quickly becoming a point of differentiation in a rapidly evolving digital marketplace.
It’s a juggling act to handle all this change. Beyond just implementing new technology, businesses need to commit to a fundamental and permanent shift in their digital strategies, processes, and mindsets to serve customers better. And with SAP Preferred Success by their side, they have the insight-driven, prescriptive, and personalized support they need to build the right customer experience.
Get more real-life insights on SAP Preferred Success through the series, Heading to the Cloud with SAP Preferred Success, and learn how your entire company can accelerate cloud adoption and business outcomes with insight-driven, prescriptive, and personalized guidance and support.
Timothy Curcio is Global Director of SAP Customer Experience solutions for SAP Preferred Success, Customer Engagement and Experience, at SAP.
This article first appeared on the SAP Global News Center