The 2018 IDG Cloud Computing study revealed that 73% of organizations have at least one application or a portion of their computing infrastructure in the cloud. And when it comes to customer experience, 57% of survey respondents report that improving customer support or services is a top driver of investment in cloud solutions.
So how is cloud technology making a difference in CX? Here are 3 ways.
Accessibility anywhere
Cloud technologies have allowed for advances in the ways that employees deliver customer experiences through connected data sources. When systems aren’t cloud based, employees are often limited to specific locations where they’re able to retrieve data. This accessibility promotes a more efficient workforce.
In an interview for this article, Nancy Ham, CEO of WebPT, says, “Cloud storage systems remove limitations and increase productivity by making crucial data available anywhere, anytime.”
And it’s not just staff members who are best served by being accessing data from any location. When customers are able to log in to self-service applications at the time and place that’s convenient to them, they’re more likely to be pleased with their customer experience.
“Cloud is gaining momentum in the healthcare industry, not just for data storage and accessibility, but for improving the patient experience,” said Ham. She continues with an example, “Through cloud technology, rehab therapists are able to interact with their patients in near real time, answering care questions, getting and responding to feedback, and checking in on their patient’s recovery.”
Personalizing the customer experience
Knowing how your customers behave creates the opportunity to reach them easier and in a more individualized fashion. Through data stored in the cloud, customer behavior can be analyzed and segmented based on the interactions they have with a brand, whether in person or online.
According to SmarterHQ, “This allows the marketer to convert customers faster by automating personalized website and email experiences based on real-time interactions with campaigns such as cart and browse abandonment, welcome series, email collection lightbox, website geo-targeting and more.”
Team collaboration
Cloud functions allow for multiple team members to access the same information at once, as well as allow users in various locations and on varying devices to make updates in real time.
“Often times, a document is greatly benefited by the attention of more than one set of eyes,” says Nate Masterson, CMO for Maple Holistics, a health and beauty retailer, in an interview for this article. “Instead of having a document circulated over weeks and months with revisions and edits, everyone can work on it simultaneously via the cloud and see whose ideas belong to whom and hash out a final draft much more efficiently. If they had Google Docs when the Declaration of Independence was drawn, or when ratifying the Bill of Rights, they could have finished the final draft in a day.”
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