Engaging with customers on digital whilst ensuring compliance

Companies that access sensitive customer data must ensure they invite innovation and collaboration, but also retain rigour in compliance.

Accessing and growing customer experience is the new frontier in driving growth for most companies. Understanding who your customer and end-user are is key to driving that superlative experience and generating a return on investment.

For many organisations, there is the b2b customer and there is the b2c customer. Traditionally, the b2c or ‘retail’ customer was considered in the digital platform target market, and those digital platforms were seen as a lower cost channel almost writing their own business case.

Today, the b2b customer is as nuanced in expectation and requires the same if not a greater level of CX consideration and can generate an even greater return when utilised effectively. So how can highly regulated industries ensure they are keeping pace with customer expectations and ultimately drive success?

Digital is the enabler

For most forward-looking organisations digital is all pervasive, and digital platforms enable organisations to share, collaborate and engage with a myriad of audiences.

The number of collaborative tools has increased in tandem with the exponential rise in customer access points such as social, websites, aggregators, fora and closed communities.

But companies that access sensitive customer data must ensure they invite innovation and collaboration, but also retain rigorous and flexible compliance to ensure superior customer experience.

For example:

• An account manager may need to understand what level of stock exists in a variety of pharmacies she supplies.
• The pharmacist may want to monitor stock via patient fulfilment overlaid with the duration of the prescription.
• And the patient themselves may want to understand the drug interaction based on their own medical history and profile.

All these elements can be addressed via digital platforms and elements of integration – but without a rationale for information access and an understanding of what constraints apply in each circumstance it’s challenging for any organisation to truly drive customer-centricity.

Is rigorous agility the answer?

As new technologies, software applications and regulations change, we embrace the opportunity by managing their complexity and building the capability to take advantage.

It’s equally critical that builders and users of these platforms understand and adhere to the compliance and regulatory restrictions that apply to their industry.

This tension often leads to organisations taking a conservative view, and implementing barriers to customer usability when pragmatism is required.

This results in fragmented customer journeys that inhibit success and prevent organisations from engaging in a value-based exchange – ultimately, harming the customer experience of both the digital platform and brand.

6 success factors for superior CX in regulated environments

• Be brave, and pragmatic!
• Invite your compliance officer into the conversation at an early design stage
• Drive a culture of collaboration and innovation
• Ensure an understanding of the regulation that applies to your industry, and the real, not imagined restrictions, that follow
• Decide what, and how, you will measure success
• Challenge the status quo – first movers have to be first!

Nothing about CX and digital is static

Baking CX throughout design, implementation and optimisation ensures compliance whilst driving better customer experiences.

When we lose sight of how the customer interacts with us from their perspective, we begin creating the gaps that foster failure points in their journey.

Through the logical, enterprise-wide application of customer strategy, we understand the why and what of surfacing customer data in secure environments.

We can then take the most appropriate stance on levels of privacy, security and protection as needed.

Putting your customer at the heart of your service blueprint and tying this design to business objectives enables you to drive optimal customer experience.

Conclusion

EY-Seren takes a unique approach to designing customer experiences that are focused on insight-led action.

A range of sophisticated research tools use extensive data sets, both qualitative and quantitative, to create differential experiences.

EY-Seren is the perfect solution to deliver differentiated customer experiences but balance this with the need to be a ‘responsible’ organisation that understands and protects the rights of customers, the markets and sectors your organisation operates in.