MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Abdallah Saqqa, Head of Customer Experience, SAP Middle East North speaks about the primacy of enhancing customer experience

Abdallah Saqqa Customer Experience Head, SAP, MEN

How is the outlook for CX software in the era of digital transformation as a priority investment?

Customer experience is a top GCC business priority in 2020, agreed upon by 96 percent of the region’s IT decision-makers, according to a recent YouGov survey.

As the UAE embraces the Experience Economy, organizations can no longer deliver only products and solutions – they need to deliver enhanced experiences. By combining the customer “x-data” with operational “o-data,” organizations can better listen, understand, and act on customer beliefs, emotions, and intentions. business visibility, focus, and agility – and focus on transforming citizen, customer, and employee experiences.

What are the critical touchpoints for CX typically in organizations? What are the backend components of CX?

In the GCC, the YouGov survey shows that there are four main customer experience touchpoints – with 52% using Direct Comms, 51% using Social Media, 46% using Surveys, 44% using Ratings/Reviews, and 4% using Other.

Organizations that want to become customer experience leaders need to start listening and collect experience data from customers at every meaningful touchpoint. They need to enhance their understanding by Analyzing operational and experience data to accurately identify trends and issues. They must need to act by closing experience gaps, taking the right action at the right moment to create engaging experiences

How is AI/ML revolutionizing the customer service space to offer real time experience?

Conversational AI and the use of text and voice-based messaging apps to automate communications between businesses and their customers. As consumers continue to make greater use of these channels, GCC organizations can seize the opportunity to integrate conversational AI technologies. • Smart chatbots. Powered by AI, smart chatbots are designed to automatically mimic a human response. These chatbots can message back and forth with customers throughout their commerce journey while also gathering data and generating a more personalized experience. • Voice technology. Many end-users are already using voice technology in their homes, such as smart speakers. Using smart speakers, consumers are increasingly making online purchases. This is especially for consumers who prefer the convenience of shopping from home, who live far from retail shopping centers, or who have physical disabilities.

Are SaaS model CX deployments seeing rising traction?

Yes, we are seeing strong GCC demand for CX deployments on an SaaS model in order to free up organizations’ IT budgets by shifting their business models to an opex-based cloud model. Our C4C (Sales Cloud and Service Cloud) and Marketing Cloud solutions are fully hosted on our cloud data centers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We have many customer go-lives on these solutions in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. In line with our current strategy, we are planning to launch Commerce Cloud in the UAE later in 2020.

Briefly explain your CX platform.

The SAP C/4HANA customer experience suite brings together customer data, experiential and operational data, and the power of intelligent technologies across sales, marketing, commerce, and service to deliver engaging and trusted experiences in the moments that matter most to your customers.

With our recent acquisition of Qualtrics and the introduction of Experience Management solutions from SAP, businesses can now embed the opinion and voice of the customer (X-data) throughout the entire business process (O-data) to infuse empathy into the customer’s journey and engage on a deeper level.