Smoothing the Way to Customer Adoption of New Processes and Products

This IDC Perspective discusses ways to smooth the way toward customer adoption, along with technology that makes data analysis, testing, tracking, and measuring faster and more effective. When it comes to choosing where to spend their money, customers have plenty of choices. Typically, if customers are happy with the products and services they are receiving, they will become loyal, repeat customers. But today, the equation has changed slightly. The vast majority of actions between customers and the companies they frequent are digital, which requires companies to pay close attention to how easy or difficult those interactions are, how much time they take, how often they require support, and other metrics that gauge how well the interactions are going. It's challenging enough to keep tabs on how well customers are interacting with a company's digital assets, but changing those interactions in some way requires an elevated level of effort. Sometimes, companies must revise processes or add new processes to improve efficiency, save money, or remain competitive. Even if those new processes benefit customers in some way, getting them to adopt new processes or ways of doing things can be tricky. Nobody likes change, and customers always have the choice to defect. Getting customers to adopt new processes may be challenging, but it's definitely achievable. The first step is establishing a baseline. This requires knowing the processes your customers are currently using, how much they like those processes, and measuring the metrics. Technology that can help establish a baseline includes journey analytics, voice of the customer, and sentiment analytics. "Customers have more sway than ever with vendors, not only in terms of whether they will continue patronizing them but in how they reference those vendors via social media and other platforms," said Karen D. Schwartz, adjunct research analyst with IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP). "Walking that tightrope requires paying attention every step of the way, from matching customers' preferences and patterns to the most appropriate adoption tools to measuring and refining along the way."