Experience matters in brand loyalty and SAP has the tools to help businesses, writes Izwan Ismail
HAVE you ever wondered why you keep going back to the same coffee chain for a cuppa compared to other brands? Besides serving your favourite caramel latte macchiato or ice-blended mocha, the ambience, the courteous staff and the facilities (such as free WiFi or the furniture) may affect your experience and make you want to go back.
The coffee outlet wins your heart not just by providing a good product or service but the overall experience.
The term for this is “experience economy” which is defined as an economy in which goods or services are sold by emphasising the effect they can have on people’s lives.
Today, many companies are realising that the more immersive and memorable their product or service, the more it influences their customers.
Technology is making it easier than ever for companies to manage the experiences of their customers, employees, products, and brand.
ADDRESSING CUSTOMERS’ NEEDS
At the recent SAP Experience: An Intelligent Enterprise Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, the company discussed how consumers’ behaviours have changed and how businesses can cater to their needs.
Scott Russell, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan president, said businesses need to do more than innovate new products to win in the “experience economy”.
“Before, you only had to have great products, and even if customers’ experience wasn’t so good, you were still able to succeed. We believe that in the ‘experience economy’, this is no longer good enough. The market is already saying that to succeed, experience is what counts,” he said during his keynote address.
At the conference, SAP key executives and leading business leaders from Southeast Asia shared their thoughts on how they are investing in technology and taking the lead in their respective industries towards becoming intelligent enterprises to succeed in the “experience economy”.
Russel used Starbucks as a case study.
“No matter where you are, the experience you get in Starbucks is consistent. You know what you’re going to get in terms of the coffee and the environment,” he said.
“You also know that even after you have finished your coffee, you will not be kicked out. The Starbucks experience is what differentiates them. That is the essence of the ‘experience economy’, of businesses going forward. In business, it’s all about creating a consistent, delightful experience no matter where you are and who are your customers,” said Russel.
Unfortunately, there is an “experience gap” in this space.
A study has shown that 80 per cent of CEOs thought they were delivering a superior experience to their customers. However, only eight per cent of those customers agree.
“Experience is not just about customer experience. The experience of your employees are also important. Are they inspired or challenged? Are they motivated? In an ‘experience economy’, employee moments such as their first day at work, or their first promotion, or their first performance review should be great ones,” said Russel, adding that the “experience economy” is all-encompassing.
“Think of the great brands of the world. What was the brand experience like? What was the product and service like? How can you improve upon it? When you have a superior experience, not only of your products and services but also of your employees, you will have a great customer experience as well,” he said.
According to Russell, businesses which succeed are the ones that bridge the experience gap and over achieve.
He also said that the “experience economy” will be huge in the Asia-Pacific region.
“This region is at the epicentre of the ‘experience economy’. By 2030, the economic strength will be here as 50 per cent of Internet users and youth are in Asia Pacific. These are the users that will drive the ‘experience economy’,” he added.
In the “experience economy”, 641 million consumers in Southeast Asia are in the driver’s seat like never before. Certain studies show that 76 per cent of Southeast Asian customers switch brands after just one bad customer experience.
THE ‘EXPERIENCE’ TOOLS
SAP’s answer to bridging the “experience gap” is dealing with both the “X” and “O” factors — that is, “O”perational data and e”X”periential data.
In explaining how the X and O factors work, Russel said, “We have a business platform that helps you understand what happened, where it happened, how it happened. We can even predict for you what will happen potentially, so we can scenario-build as well. But what we can’t tell you is why it happened.
“And that’s where the X data is so important, because you need to understand why. If you’re only doing the O, that’s great, you will be operationally superb. But in the ‘experience economy’, keeping customers happy is not enough. If you don’t understand what that experience is and why they want it that way, be they customers, employees, brands, or products, then you’re not able to fulfil the best version of yourself,” he said.
SAP Southeast Asia president and managing director Claus Andresen said: “We have been able to create fantastic solutions across the entire supply chain, across every industry’s value chain. This puts us in a position to capture all the operational data that any company may have, be it from the customer or the supplier.
“SAP is uniquely positioned to help businesses deliver winning experiences with the best-in-class business software. We are pleased to work closely with customers to transform businesses in Southeast Asia into intelligent enterprises to drive economic growth and master the experience economy. These customers are front-runners in their respective industries and understand how having a better and unified experience for customers, employees, and decision makers is crucial for long-term sustainable growth,” he added.
The key to success in the “experience economy” is an intelligent suite for core applications, experience management solutions, and a secure digital platform that unites experience (X) and operational (O) data and processes.
For this, SAP is offering Qualtrics, which it acquired earlier this year. It’s the pioneer of the experience management (XM) software category that enables organisations to thrive in today’s experience economy.
The combination accelerates the new XM category by combining Qualtrics’ experience data with operational data from SAP software to power the economy.
“So now, consider taking all the operational data across our 400,000 customers across the entire value chain, and combining that with all the 1.9 trillion sentiment data points captured within the Qualtrics platform.
“With all of these insights and data, we have the opportunity to translate that into actions that result in better customer experience, driving a more effective organisation and streamline processes, and creating a more engaged workforce,” said Andresen.
SAP’s Digital Transformation Office vice president, Rudy Abrahams, said investing in experience economy tools will move companies toward becoming intelligent enterprises.
He said the Qualtics mechanism dashboard is able to analyse the customer experience as it can be measured through the use of artificial intelligence to analyse a person’s facial expression, for example, as they enter or try a product at a store.
He said essentially companies will leverage on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet-of-things and analytics that will give them an edge over their competitors.
“SAP is not just a business intelligence company but we are here to make companies intelligent,” he added.
ENTER THE INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE
SAP’s solution is in its ‘intelligent suite’, which enables companies to effectively execute their processes “end to end” from the front end to the core of the business.
“Obviously, this becomes really powerful if you can link this seamlessly to the back of your supply chain, then you really have visibility end-to-end,” Andresen said. “Our vision is to make every company in the world an intelligent enterprise.”
In Malaysia, Sarawak Energy has already begun embarking on its digital transformation journey towards becoming a fully-fledged intelligent enterprise.
At the event, its Senior Manager (Applications Portfolio) Zaliha Mohd Ali said that the company’s “power to grow” mission embodies its commitment to providing clean and reliable power for the growth and prosperity of Sarawak and the region.
“Sarawak Energy is committed to providing affordable electricity for all Sarawakians through a modern and reliable power system. We are also harnessing Sarawak’s abundant natural resources to catalyse the State’s economic progress and development via Score (Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy),” she said.
“The future is digital and Sarawak Energy is embracing technology in the way we do our business and manage our people to further transform Sarawak Energy into a digital utility powerhouse,” she added.
Among others, Sarawak Energy has embraced SAP Concur in an effort to gain more visibility into its travel and expense (T&E) spend, while also providing employees with user-friendly experiences through an integrated T&E management solution.
SAP Concur is renowned for its completely connected spend management solution encompassing travel, expense, invoice, compliance and risk.
Meanwhile, Ananda Development (Ananda), Thailand’s leading real estate developer, has selected Qualtrics EmployeeXM to design and deliver a better experience for its 1,300-strong workforce in the country.
Implementing Qualtrics EmployeeXM is a key milestone in Ananda’s mission to consistently bring urban living innovations and partnerships to the market in Thailand. The insights will be used to help fuel the company’s rapid growth, and strengthen its position as a leading employer of choice.
Ananda uses the Qualtrics platform to capture and measure employee experience data (X-data) — the opinions, beliefs, and sentiments of employees — more frequently across the entire employee lifecycle.
Business leaders and human resource managers are given access to X-data through personalised dashboards, allowing them to view feedback in one place and create engagement plans aligning with the company’s innovation objectives.
“Ananda Development is committed to developing and empowering our workforce on a continual basis as they are a key part of the company’s success. We recognise a superior employee experience is the foundation for great customer experience, and using Qualtrics EmployeeXM and SAP SuccessFactors, we are able to unlock the data we need to deliver this,” said the company’s chief people officer, Vanee Bijayendrayodhin.
“The intelligent insights captured will enable us to equip our workforce with the skills, tools, and environment required to consistently bring new and relevant innovations to the market, while the expertise of the Qualtrics team and the scalability of the platform supports our growth,” she said.
Besides that, several business customers at the event also shared their intelligent enterprise journey.
Troo, a life insurance joint venture between Belgium’s largest insurer Ageas and East West Bank, one of the Philippines’ largest banks, aims to offer simple and flexible insurance options customised for today’s needs and lifestyles.
Meanwhile, JustCo, Asia’s leading co-working company, headquartered in Singapore, embarked on a journey to empower a dynamic workforce with SAP SuccessFactors and Qualtrics for employee experience management, and the National University of Singapore has digitally transformed its human resource processes with SAP Success Factors to provide better employee experiences.