Customer Oriented Technology | Cyril Coste | Engati CX

Welcome to a new episode of Engati CX. Today we’re talking to digital transformation advisor and CXO, cyril coste on customer oriented tech. He shares his philosophy on digital transformation and why it’s key to put customers at the center.

Cyril is a CXO and Digital Transformation Advisor. He is an accomplished Digital and Product Director with a strong reputation as a digital expert and thought leader. His accolades include a #1 ranking on the UK’s Most Influential Independent Digital Transformation Experts Power List (2PS, 2017, and 2018) and being named in the Global Top 100 Digital Transformation Influencers (Onalytica. 2017/2018). He brings vast, cross-sector experience in digital transformation, digitalization strategy development, product development, digital innovation, customer experience, business analysis, and e-commerce. He is also a part of Huawei’s Key Opinion Leader program and Siemens Influencer Community.

Customer Oriented Tech

The following section contains a summary of our interview with Cyril Coste. But if you’d like to hear the full interview, we’ve left a link to the podcast below.

Why is transforming for digital transformation imperative for most organizations today?

According to Cyril, if you haven’t started your digital transformation journey yet, you’re in some trouble. Most organizations started their journey 5–6 years ago as it is imperative for most organizations today. The essence of the journey is to find ways to be better as organizations and individuals. We need to do things in a manner that is better, faster, cheaper. We also have to understand how people work, how customers and employees work. And by combining these two with tools, we produce better services. In fact, companies who invested early in digital transformation are already seeing a better return on investment.

The question is, what’s next?

In the past ten years, we’re reaching a kind of shift in cultures. Everyone is investing in training for employees, and we’re investing in new tools, like Microsoft and Zoom. There’s a new focus on being able to work remotely. So organizations are investing in tools that allow us to share information easily with our teams, clients, partners, wherever we are in the world. This has been enabled by Cloud technologies.

And finally, the new vision of this decade is to better understand our customers. This is enabled by emerging technologies like Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. We’re also seeing an explosion of new channels like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Cyril has seen some ambitious ideas around Augmented and Virtual Realities so he’s interested in seeing where that goes.

There’s also a rise in automation and robotics so mundance tasks can become well automated. E All of these combine to provide a comprehensive journey. As the consomer or customer, we have to have the ability to interact with digital tools and technologies unlike ten years ago. We’re reaching era of customer oriented technologies, so if you haven’t started yet, be quick!

What are the key steps a business should focus on in its journey of going digital?

The first step is to always start with the customer. You have to define the customer value, and you have to have an idea about the customer journey. You have to know, how they find your products, how they buy and consume them, are they gonna repeat their purchase, etc. From here, it’s all about optimizing and improving the operating process and decreasing the cost. But always keep the customer at the center. Deliver the product, but be open to feedback so you can understand the customer and see how to provide for them. That’s how you will grow and excel as an organization.

How will Retail business change and adapt? Will we see a steep rise in eCommerce?

There are two types of online retailers.

1. The pure digital players

These are the players who have never had to manage in-store. It’s always been easier for them because online retailers came with risk. They had to build tools and operative processes from scratch because this was something new.

2. Existing organizations

Think like a Walmart, or a Tesco’s. For them, e-commerce has always been an additional channel, and that’s their first mistake. For an established company, it’s easy to set up, but they’ve lost the seamless omnichannel experience.

Today, thanks to lots of investment in CRM, and marketing tools, the gap between in-store and online is disappearing. Offering and promotions that are available online are now applicable in-store and vice versa. And if products aren’t available online, you can easily purchase in-store and vice versa. A lot has been done in the first ten years but there’s still a lot left to do.

With groceries, Cyril is still shocked about how there are still products missing. For example, adding a Coca Cola to cart, and being delivered a Pepsi instead. Groceries need to work on stocking up and offering better substituions, instead of offering substitutions that aren’t substitutions.

For e-commerce in retail and fashion, this is the blood in terms of online activity. Cyril predicts that in the next ten years, things are going to be very different from today. Currently, about 15–20% of online purchases are returned. And the cost of managing returns is phenomenal for businesses. You have to receive the item, restock or resell on the second-hand market, and finally you have to process the refund. It costs an absolute fortune.

Solution

Most of the returns are due to issues in sizing. Sizing is everything for fashion retailers, so it’s key we get this right. Here’s a solution Cyril has been working on years ago. Essentially, what we need are scanners. Today, almost every smartphone can provide a 3D scan of a body to provide exact measurements. When we have that, we can adjust the size of the garment. And it can be done in the comfort of your own home, in summer or winter. It can be done on the go, and you can also adjust the sizing yourself.

Customer Oriented Tech — A Spotify Podcast with Cyril Coste

The rest of our interview with Cyril discusses the role Conversational Intelligence plays in changing the customer support scenario. How AI-powered chatbots provide additional support as well. Cyril also shares his insider thoughts on whether influencer marketing will be the next strategy for businesses. Listen to the full interview here:

Customers at the center

The new focus of many organizations is putting customers at the centre. Attend to all customer needs using an Engati chatbot.

Engati CX

We hope you learned a lot about customer-oriented tech. Engati CX will be back with a new expert in a new episode soon. Stay tuned.

More from Engati CX

Now that you’ve learned about digital transformations and customer oriented tech, it’s time to learn about creating micro-moments that matter. Check out our interview with Jeannie Walters on the power micro-moments hold and the way they add up to frame the overall customer experience.