Today at the base of business success there is the customer experience. This means satisfying the customer and his needs, but to succeed we need to know him well, and make sure that we can establish a strong and effective relationship. The products and services offered, although necessary, are not enough: is very important how they are experienced by users before, during and after the purchase. Technology has a fundamental role to create the basis for a constant and satisfying relationship.

Customer experience: technology and competence

We are all customers. From our personal experience we can evaluate what we want when we make a decision that leads us to choose a product or request a service. We are competent customers; we use more tools and channels to learn about and compare prices and services. When we are in a shop, we would like to be followed or in any case to have information available or a person who can help or advise us. This is what moves the market: it is necessary to consider the customer experience as a sum of factors that include emotions, memories, experiences that the customer has developed with a particular company. The ease in finding information, the possibility of equating one product with another, understanding the way it was produced and which uses are most suitable, are all elements that help to guide the choice in the purchase.

Once the purchase is done, the experience does not stop there: it is also in post-sales that the strength of the brand is felt, that is, when a subsequent comparison is required.

In all this, technology is fundamental. Retailers have understood this, for example: according to what emerged from the survey conducted this year by the Digital Innovation Observatory at the Politecnico di Milano, 85% of retailers want to strengthen their investment in digital innovations: interest ranges from CRM solutions (34% of the sample) to the adoption of product tracking systems through RFID and ERP systems (27%) and 25% is oriented towards in-store customer monitoring systems and business solutions intelligence analytics. Compared to the past, curiosity and awareness of the opportunities that the digital transformation can offer in terms of growth also increases in Italy. And it is precisely in this passage towards digital transformation that a company, of any sector, plays an important part of the future.

The value of data for the customer experience

In the field of customer experience, the value of data can be considered as the "traces" left by the customer and which must be collected, analyzed, decoded and used to provide answers and solutions. This is where IoT, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and even Cyber security come into play.

The Internet of Things using various sensors (wifi, beacon, bluetooth, video cameras, RFID, NFC, Robotics) is able to collect a large amount of data (even unstructured) that can be processed thanks to the support of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning: for example, through specific AI algorithms it is possible to predict the future behavior of consumers to ideally orient the purchase proposals. Or, in the supply chain, it is possible to organize the distribution and sales processes in the best possible way, preventing requests and any shortcomings in the warehouse.

The huge amount of data, however, must be protected and made safe: here the use of solutions that guarantee cyber security comes into play. Managing data means having sufficient elements in order to trace the client's portrait and fully develop the customer experience: in this way it is possible to enrich and maximize his engagement and his purchasing experience.

All these phases can be coordinated through specific technologies, for this reason it is important to find the right solution, but also those who are able to guarantee the right know-how and experience in the field suitable for understanding the needs of the company and translating them into effective answers