Concept of customer engagement across smartphones and tablets
The customer engagement can embellish the business activities as well as the sales activities of any company. The companies are now focused on developing smartphone apps that can engage more and more customers.
The report will focus on the various aspects which can be followed to engage more and more customers. The areport will showcase the cloud technology concepts that can be helpful for customer engagement. Oracle Live Experience Cloud will be discussed in the report. The virtual reality devices will be detailed in the report as well.
The literature review shows the mobile engagement and the and the mobile usage. The mobile subscribers are increasing day by day. With the advent of network connectivity, and with the advent of 4G technology the customers remain engaged to the smartphone devices and tablets all the time. According to Moreno-Munoz et al. (2016), the customers have become tech-savvy nowadays. They use the apps on their phone to purchase the products and order the products online. The customers also stay connected to the social media thus stay attached to each other. The digital technology can assist companies in eliminating all the boundaries. The companies can enhance their sales, can reach to each and every customer. That is why the companies should not act in an unprofessional manner instead they should act in a more responsible way, should respond to customers’ queries all the time, should connect to the customers all throughout day and night. In this way, the customers can remain engaged in the enterprise all the time and this can, in turn, the productivity of the companies.
The digital engagement has enhanced a lot due to the advent of smartphone and internet technology. Zhang et al. (2017) have stated the virtual devices are also enhancing the customer engagement as well. The customers always stay connected to the smartphone. The companies by developing certain apps can attract the customers and can fulfil their demands, in this way they can stay connected with the customers.
The customer preference is changing every day and that is why the contact centre is reshaping according to the customers’ demands. The customers are not preferring voice but they are preferring smartphone and smartphone applications. The customers remain engaged with the smartphone for entertainment, for ride-sharing and for online shopping. The customers prefer to stay in touch with the companies 24×7 and want to know the details of their products and to get further assistance on how to use the services. According to King, Sparks and Wang (2016), the companies seeing this trend must take initiatives. They must prepare separate individual channels so that both the customers and the company themselves can communicate with each other in efficient and effective manner via those channels. This approach can be suitable for the companies to enhance their products’ sales. In this way, the rising demand for the customers’ digital engagement can be met.
Rising consumer demand for digital engagement
The business who are looking to move forward and want to prosper i0n future much give importance to the customer engagement to the company, that is the reason the communication over the digital media must be enhanced, the business must incorporate the contextual multimedia communications to the existing mobile apps. De Vries and Carlson (2014) have discussed that the contextual mobile communications can satisfy each and every demand of the customers. The sales of the company, as well as the productivity of the company, can get boost up due to this approach.
The traditional contact centres or the conventional contact centres are not the suitable choices for the modern mobile generation. The customer demand is increasing so, the contact centres have now initiated the web chat, however, all the contact centres are not adopting the multichannel communication facility. The contact centres are not also adopting the enhanced collaboration features like the remote control features for tablets and smartphones, the video capture and the screen-sharing features. Dinner et al. (2015) have showcased that the contact centres do not rake up the CRM systems in their premises, other than the CRM systems the contact centres do not have any back-office applications installed. The contact centres are creating efficiencies across the customer journey due to various kinds of efficiencies. The contact centres are only dependable on the voice calls; this voice call facility creates a lot of problems for the customers. Zhang, Kandampully and Bilgihan (2015) have showcased that the customers repeat the order number, account number as well as the security numbers numerous times and the errors still exist, the representatives of the contact centre often copy those numbers wrong. Also, as the contact centres are not technically equipped with advanced tools, the representatives of the contact centres face problems while communicating with the customers it takes a lot of time to understand and recognize the problems sometimes.
The customers face problems to understand what the representatives are actually speaking about. As a result, the companies sometimes loose customers base and this results in loss of the company. Thus it can be concluded that the legacy contact centres deliver poor customer service and the customers often remain dissatisfied. The impersonal interactions between the customers and the representatives of the contact centres and the repetitive exchanges between the two can delay the business operations. Wanqiang (2016) has detailed that the customers get frustrated and dissatisfied at times. Thus to enrich the customer engagement and the customer interactions the contact centres must get modernized and must enhance the sales opportunities.
Legacy contact centres cannot meet the evolving customer demands
The cloud technology helps in enriching the customer engagement via various cloud applications. The Oracle Live Experience Cloud is one such technology which helps in enhancing the customer engagement. The customer loyalty can be obtained by the cloud services that Oracle offers. The Oracle Solution thus provides the deeper insights into the customer engagement. The Oracle Solution provides multiple solutions for better customer engagement. The Oracle Solution encourages collaborative service; this collaborative service includes the associates and the higher team officials. Carlson et al. (2017) have highlighted that the associates solve the minor issues, whereas the higher team officials handle the large complicated issues. The Oracle Solution provides numerous multimedia services like screen sharing, voice, video and annotation via smartphones and the tablets; all these services can make the customers happy and satisfied and they can communicate with the agents of the contact centre. According to the Oracle Solution, the customers can be given further assistance. As suggested by Wang, Malthouse and Krishnamurthi (2016), the search history of the customers can reveal the customers’ demands, the customers’ wish list, the nature of the customers, the agents knowing all the details can communicate accordingly with the customers. In this way, via Oracle Cloud Solution the customers can carry out their communication with the agents over smartphone devices.
The customers also prefer mobile banking, they make all the transactions online via their smartphone and the tablets. The customers open accounts in their bank of choice via smartphone and tablets. The customers use to capture video to provide the identification procedure. The video must correspond to the satisfaction of the government policies. The Oracle Solution can save time and effort of the company, this approach can help to enhance the customer appeal and this can enhance the growth of the new account.
The banking industry is cautious about the customer security measures and customers’ privacy. As per Blasco et al. (2017), the customers can transact money online in safe and secure manner, thus the online banking assists in customer engagement. The customers can shop, can conduct online courses, can remain engaged to various websites via online banking. The Oracle Cloud Solution help to provide solutions so that it can meet the EU compliance needs. The Oracle Solution provides enhanced security and privacy.
The enterprises must adopt the technology that can enhance the customer engagement
- Deliver better customer experience:The younger generation wants agile and effective Internet technology and thus they want lucrative mobile experience. The smartphonetechnology provides variant real-time communications. The technology includes the voice call, video call and the screen sharing. Kim, Kim and Wachter (2013) showcase that the video call prevents the repetitions and the retelling stories. The customers can present their queries in a well-presented manner. Again, in turn, the agents of the enterprise can understand the queries of the customers well.
- Streamline product support and training:The customers can be provided withthe enhanced collaboration features such as video recording, enhanced troubleshooting by means of video streaming and live annotations. The historical data, as well as the contextual data, can assist in solving issues and queries online.
- Driving business results:The contact centrerepresentatives must be converted to the trusted specialists. Also, the service call of the customers must be converted to sales calls. Since the customers are all connected digitally via smartphone and tablets, the live “in-app experience” must be provided.
- Providing more meaningful relationships:Venkatesan Petersen and Guissoni (2018) have highlighted that the cloud technology can be helpful to establish a moremeaningful relationship between the customers and the agents. The smartphone, the Internet technology can open doors for interactive customer engagements.
- Enhance conversion rates and revenues:The contextual business logic to the smartphonesand mobile websites can be useful for conducting the sales and enhancing the customer service and experience. Dube and Helkkula (2015) have highlighted that certain enterprises send notifications about their products, send pop-ups and alerts about their products to the customers, the customers watching the products visit their app, thus they get engaged. The enterprises also avail discounts that can help them to maximize their productivity.
- The improvement of contact centreas well as the agent productivity:The advent of technology can help in conducting the customer service more efficiently. The better interactions can significantly reduce the lower waiting times. Derks et al. (2015) have elaborated that the lowering of the waiting times can lessen the frustration of the computers. This approach can help the agents in acquiring more and more information from the customers.
- Maintaining tight control over the interactions:Palmatier, Kumar and Harmeling (2017) have proposed that the customers have the opportunity to choose between the voice call and the video call. Therefore, they can have the control to interact with the agents. In this way,they can ensure their privacy. The privacy, as well as the advanced technologies both, can be achieved with the advent of the Internet technology.
Consumer Electronics is the electronics manufacturer has taken a significant approach to enhance the customer engagement. The enterprise uses one-way video and remote control to cater the best customer service. Sharma, Huang and Krishnan (2016) have proposed that Consumer Solution following the approach solves the customers’ queries and can give assistance in the best way possible. Thus, it can be concluded that one-way video and remote control in smartphone and tablets can prove to be an effective tool for customer engagement.
- Huge benefits can be achieved as a result of the Internet technology. The technology enhances the deployment and the execution of the applications. Ooi and Yazdanifard (2015) have proposed that the upfront investment can be lessened with the advent of the Internet technology and cloud computing and smartphone.
- The expenses for the ongoing business operations can get enhanced with the aid of smartphonesand the Internet technology.
- The business operations can get enhanced incorporating the new technologies in the cloud.
- The IT staff must be focused on the strategic tasks and must deploy and execute the solutions.
The Oracle Live Experience Cloud
Zero Touch is a European Insurance company centralizes insurance claims. The policyholders of the company use a phone app to conduct the business activities. They use the app to share data with the claims agents. Palmatier, Kumar and Harmeling (2017) have stated that the mobile app has enhanced the claims; the phone app has significantly reduced the processing expenses of the company. Thus it can The smartphone app has helped to gain the satisfaction as well as Zero Touch.
Cheung et al (2015) have proposed that the Internet technology and the cloud computing has embellished the customer engagement; it also helps in strengthening the brand loyalty of any company. Therefore, it can be stated that the smartphone app and tablets and the Internet innovation has been successful in fulfilling the needs of the customers.
- The Internet technology and the cloud computing has improved the customer experience.
- The smartphone apps help to engage the customers by several means, by several modes, it helps to provide a detailed overview ofall the interaction modes.
- The smartphone and the tablets connected to the Internet helps in enhancing the digital transformation. The digital transaction assists in creating an environment so that the customers can connect through the rightchannel at the right time.
The virtual product design can be the best solution to cut down the heavy costing of the products and it can enhance the productivity and efficiency as well. Venkatesan (2017) have elaborated that the customers can have the opportunity to test the application beforehand. The customers can test drive the application from a 360 perspective.
The customer service can get embellished, the agents can communicate with the customers can showcase the visual diagrams of the products. Parise, Guinan and Kafka (2016) have shown that the agents can provide step by step instructions and can give them suggestions on how the product will work and how the customers will use the product. Thus virtual reality can enhance the customer engagement. Likewise, the virtual reality device can enhance the customer engagement as well. The customers can get entertained by the virtual reality devices found in the market.
Samsung’s Oculus is one such reality device that can give the customers the real-time entertainment. The Oculus virtual reality device, Gear VR has been brought into the market by tech giant Samsung in collaboration with Oculus VR. The Samsung Galaxy phones are compatible with the device. The Gear VR has multiple features so the customers can play games and watch movies. The entertainment device also let the customers view the 3D movies. The device has the capability to view reality tours of locations and the locations can be both imaginary or real. Huang et al. (2016) have highlighted that the device has some attractive features like the proximity sensor, the accelerometer and the gyro sensors. The accelerometer sensor will let the customers know every kind of tilting motion as well as the orientation of the device. The proximity sensor is still there on the Gear VR device and the sensor is capable to detect the human ear.
Mobile Banking
The Samsung Gear VR devices can be used for the enhancement of the business activities as well. The enterprises are using the VR devices of Samsung for their business. Sotheby’s International Realty is one such enterprise has adopted the Samsung Gear VR to showcase their luxurious homes located in Los Angeles, Hamptons and New York City. According to Islam and Rahman (2017), the agents of Sotheby’s International Realty have decided to film a 360-degree video of the home by a stationary camera. The 3D scans of the luxurious homes will help the customers to walk through the house. The customers all over the world can view and feel those homes with the help of Gear VR device. The customers can view those homes and can purchase those luxury homes instantly.
Like Sotheby’s International Realty, other enterprises are adopting the Gear VR device for their benefits, they are using the device to showcase the products on their website, the customers can choose their product, they can view the product online in 3D mode, thus the customers can buy the products instantly. The companies thus can provide better customer satisfaction. The companies can attract those customers who prefer physical stores rather than online retailing. Thus the advent of Gear VR can be a serious challenge for the physical stores. Thus the online retail industry can get benefits, can increase their productivity and sales with the help of Samsung Gear VR. There are certain benefits associated with the VR devices and the benefits are emotional resonance, information accessibility and hypothetical experiences. The emotional resonance helps in building intimacy with the objects. According to Scholz and Smith (2016), the information accessibility gives a detailed overview of the particular object or the product so the customers can know the size, colour and texture of the product. Again, the hypothetical experiences help the customers to experience different scenarios of the same product, thus the customers can get the real-time experience of the product and they will not have to make ambiguous judgements. VR devices can be used as a flexible e-learning tool. The VR devices have the capability to provide realistic sales training. The companies can use the VR devices and the VR technology to enhance customer engagement, thus enhancing their business activities and sales activities.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the above discourse the customer engagement can significantly enhance the business activities and the sales activities of the companies. The Internet connectivity and the smartphone has a larger impact on the customers’ lives. The companies thus focus on developing applications that can use the smartphone and tablet platform to enrich their business activities. The report has highlighted the concept of customer engagement across smartphones and tablets, the customer demand rising for the digital engagement has been showcased in the report. The report has also detailed that the legacy contact centres do not have the requisites to meet the evolving customer demands and thus the report has recommended what measures the contact centres should adopt to engage more and more customers. The Cloud Solutions from Oracle Live Experience Cloud has been elaborated in the report. Also, the impact of Samsung’s Oculus and Samsung Gear VR has been discussed. The VR device’s benefits that can be used for customer engagement has been discussed as well in the report.
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