Connected Experiences Are Personalized Experiences

Connected Experiences
are Personalized
Experiences
A D I S C U S S I O N O F O R I G I N A L R E S E A R C H
Brendan Witcher, VP and Principal Analyst, Forrester
Will Hayes, CEO, Lucidworks

Speakers
W I L L H AY E S
C E O
B R E N D A N W I T C H E R
V P, P R I N C I PA L A N A LY S T

3© 2019 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Who is this person?

© 2019 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 6
Today’s digitally-savvy consumers expect
brands to understand them

10
What is the
value of getting
an experience
right?

11© 2019 FORRESTER. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.
“I’m unlikely to return to a website that
does not provide a satisfactory
customer experience.”
61%

Customer
Experience

In a world where consumers are channel agnostic but expect
digital to serve at all points on path to purchase, companies
struggle to stay in lockstep with customers due to:
Channel disconnects
Missed opportunities
Inefficient technology solutions

Capturing dialogues
enables companies to gain
a comprehensive
understanding of the
individual, as well as
execute the iterative cycle
that’s required to serve
that person with real-time,
relevant, value-added, and
seamless experiences.

What data are
companies using
today to better
understand
interactions?

2015 Strategy
“We need to be
customer-obsessed…

Convenient Simple Easy
We want to make it…
…to buy from us.

“We want…”
is a very different statement than
“Our customers want…”

“Without data, you’re just another
person with an opinion.”
– W. Edwards Deming

Think for a moment: how many
parts of your business are being
run by opinions?

Companies rarely design digital
touchpoints in ways that enable them
to understand an individual’s needs,
preferences, and pain points –
creating a form of “digital blindness”
that inhibits their ability to properly
design experiences.

“We need to be
customer-obsessed…
2021 Strategy
…which requires us
to be data-led.”

Data-driven: We use data to support
strategic decisions we’ve already made.
Data-averse
Data-aware
Data-driven
Maturity
Use of data in strategic decision making

Data-led: We avoid preconceived notions
and use data to drive strategic decisions.
Data-averse
Data-aware
Data-driven
Maturity
Use of data in strategic decision making
Data-led

28© 2020 Forrester. Reproduction Prohibited.
Respondent Demographics
No of Employees
US: 33%
UK: 17%
DE: 16%
Industry
Channels of Customer
Engagement
Title
Single/Multibrand
JP: 17%
AU: 10%
NZ: 7%
17%
43%
23%
17%
500 to 999
1,000 to 4,999
5,000 to 19,999
20,000 or more
14%
14%
16%
17%
19%
20%
Tech, software, &/or tech services
Telecom services
Automotive
Insurance
Retail
Financial services
27%
32%
25%
17%
ManagerDirectorVPC-level
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Lucidworks, October 2020
Base: 355 global business decision makers responsible for data and search
31%
69%
Online only A mix of online and offline
38%
62%
Single brand Multibrand
4%
15%
22%
26%
32%
Digital
Customer service
Marketing/advertising
Data
E-commerce
Department

29© 2020 Forrester. Reproduction Prohibited. 29
Key Finding:
#1: Companies struggle to stay in
lockstep with their customers

Only 35% have a comprehensive customer strategy
across all touchpoints or brands
“Overall, I feel my company has a comprehensive and integrated strategy for serving external customers across
all digital touchpoints and all brands.”
(Completely agree)
Base: Variable global business decision makers responsible for data and search
All
touchpoints
All brands
35%35%

Less than half say personalization across channels is
a strong point for their organization
(Strongly agree)
Our company provides personalized experiences
across channels on the customer’s path to purchase
44%

Base: 260 global business decision makers responsible for customer data and search
55% of respondents cannot execute real-time
personalization based on search intent
Which of these statements best defines how you use customer search to personalize experiences
for customers in other channels?
10%
45%
45%
We are not able to capture real-time intent from customer search and browse, but we can
personalize experiences using historical consumer behavioral data.
We are able to capture real-time intent from customer search and browse, but we are not
able to personalize an experience in real time using that data.
We are able to understand real-time intent from customer search and browse to personalize
an experience within that moment of engagement.

Omnichannel Personalization

Key Finding:
#2: Employees do not have the data and
insights they need to serve customers

For most, search does not empower employees with
a complete picture of customer intent
(Completely agree)
Our customer search and browse solutions are able to
translate unstructured customer inputs into customer
intent that customer-facing employees can utilize.
Our search solutions (both customer and employee)
help us identify gaps between how external customers
think and talk about our products and services versus
how internal employees do
37%
34%

Less than half of respondents say they can use data
from VoC channels for strategic decision making
What data functions can you perform across the following voice of the customer (VOC) touchpoints for the
purpose of strategic decision making? (Use)
37%
37%
37%
37%
37%
38%
40%
41%
45%
Onsite customer surveys
Live chat
Social media
Website behavior
Online reviews
Contact center
Website search
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Email

Great
Experiences

The ability to
effectively and
efficiently
operationalize
Data
Great
Experiences

Key Finding:
#3: Using data to create relevancy does
not have not be a luxury for just leaders

Less than half say personalization across channels is
a strong point for their organization
(Strongly agree)
Our company provides relevant and connected
experiences across channels on the customer’s path to
purchase
33%

41
When it comes to
personalization
through search, there
is still a ways to go
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of
Lucidworks, October 2020
How much do you agree or disagree with the
following statements?
42%
We can accomplish personalization for
customers using only data collected from
external search.
Strongly agree

Where companies stand today…
DATA-LED: We avoid preconceived notions about the customer and our business and
executives usually use data to guide strategic decisions before making them.
DATA-DRIVEN: We use data for tactical decision making, and often to support
strategic decisions that executives have already made.
DATA-AWARE: We use data for tactical decision making but are just getting started
at the executive level using data to support our strategic decision making.
DATA-AVERSE: Although we use data at tactical levels, executives generally rely on
experience, intuition, and opinions - more than data - for strategic decision making.
11%
48%
40%
2%

Key Finding:
#4: Technology is able to bridge many of
the barriers that companies face in trying
to achieve their goals

A majority say there could be better connection
between customer and employees based on search
To what degree do your search and browse capabilities connect your employees and
customers in a shared experience?
9%
46%
45%
The capabilities do not provide a connection between employees and
customers.
The capabilities provide some connection between employees and
customers, but it could be better.
The capabilities provide an extremely connected experience between
employees and customers.

A significant portion of companies feel that their
level of ML Tech is too low
What levels of computer processing does your current customer search solution possess?
23%
32%
44%
Rules: Internal teams set up manual, “if-then” programming to determine
which results are most relevant.
Machine Learning (ML): Artificial Intelligence and algorithms determine which
results are most relevant.
We use both rules and machine learning.
40% of respondents said a lack to ML technology and/or skills
is a barrier to understanding intent and delivering personalized
experiences to customers.

Next-Gen Personalization: Individualization

Key Finding:
#5: Alignment with channel-agnostic
consumers is how to use experiences as
competitive weapons

You lose customers when you can’t understand their
intent or minimize their pain points
Based on the definitions above, please rank these four categories of customer experience attributes
by order of your level of customer understanding. (Rank 1 to 4 where 1 = Best understood)
16%
21%
30%
33%
23%
20%
32%
26%
27%
28%
23%
22%
35%
31%
15%
19%
Customer pain points
Customer intent
Customer needs
Customer preferences
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4

There are numerous benefits to be found by having
a connected search and browse experience
35%
34%
38%
48%
42%
43%
50%
57%
Reduce costs
Improve innovation
Improved operational
efficiency
Improved customer experience
Extremely connected Other
37%
35%
51%
44%
Grow revenue
Differentiate from competition
Extremely connected Other
Customer search
(Major quantifiable benefits)
Employee search*
(Major quantifiable benefits)
*Base:173 global business decision makers responsible for employee data and search
+9 pp
+12 pp
+9 pp
+7 pp
+11 pp
+14 pp

Your ability to do these enables you to serve your
customers with relevant and personalized content
How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
30%
31%
30%
35%
34%
35%
37%
34%
64%
66%
67%
69%
Our customer search and browse tools enable predictive modeling
Our customer search and browse tools enable real-time analytics
We are able to translate a customer's activities with search and
browse into actions the company should take for that specific
customer.
We are able to use data captured by customer search and browse
to engage customers in other digital channels
Completely agree Strongly agree
Engage customers across digital channels
Translate into actions personalized to
the customer
Enable real-time analytics
Enable predictive modeling
SOLUTION

Business complexity means predictive and
even prescriptive tools are needed
Data — here is what happened.
Insights — here is what it means.
Predictive — here is what you could do.
Prescriptive — here is what you should do.

Recommendations

Recommendations
› Identify where you are confusing customer-obsession with
company-obsession and use data to make the shift.

Remember: A customer’s satisfaction with each
path to purchase is completely situational.

Recommendations
› Plan and execute a data strategy for search that is
purposeful and proactive to supporting business goals.

Recommendations
› Take off departmental blinders – think enterprise-wide to
optimize the full value of your new customer insights.

Call Center App eCommerce Stores

Recommendations
› Use data and insights to personalize experiences – create
value and relevancy - for your customers and employees.

You cannot create great experiences for
customers you do not understand.

Recommendations
› Use data and insights to personalize experiences – create
value and relevancy - for your customers and employees.
› Don’t try to surprise and delight anyone – address needs,
deliver on preferences, and solve pain points!

65
Thank You.
Brendan Witcher
bwitcher@forrester.com
@BrendanWitcher

67
Customers Want Us to Know Them
Personalize my
content
Know my
preferences
Offer me
optionsProtect my
time

68
Getting to Know Customers is Hard
Insight
silos
Multiple
channels
Separate
systems
Disjointed
experiences

69
Acting Consistently is Harder

70
Acting Consistently is Expensive
1:1 relationships aren’t possible !
Frustrated customers leave your site !
Employees spend too much time gathering info !
Outdated systems don’t share insights !
Big investments required for small improvements !

71
cxcConnected
Experience
Cloud
Introducing the Connected Experience Cloud
Capture
insight from
every action
Empower
everyone
individually
Apply
insights to
the next
action
Break down
insight silos
everywhere

73
Signals Contain Insights
Search query

74
Search query
Click stream

75
Search query
Click stream
Add to cart

76
Search query
Click stream
Add to cart
Purchase

77
Search query
Click stream
Add to cart
Purchase
Like

78
Even When You Know Your Customer…

…Understanding Their Intent is Hard
cooler

cooler
CXC is Purpose-Built for This

Signals Contain Employee Insights
Search history
Doc downloads
Helpdesk tickets
Research published
Calendar events

82
Turning Insights into Action
Capture Understand Apply

5 Requirements for a CXC
Capturing
Signals
Applying Machine
Learning
Understanding
Intent
Real-time
Personalization
Omnichannel
Delivery

Employee
Experience
Connected experiences drive
key business objectives:
 Revenue growth
 Customer experience
 Operational efficiency
 Innovation
 Competitive differentiation
Customer
Experience
CX and EX are Better Together

85
M A R C D E S O R M E A U
S R . M A N A G E R , S I T E S E A R C H
L E N O V O . C O M
“You might think you know what customers
want, but until you actually start exposing your
customers to the experience or the product,
you don’t really understand what it is they’re
trying to accomplish.”

Capturing
Signals
Applying ML
Understanding
Intent
Real-time
Personalization
Omnichannel
Delivery
 Started with simple search
 Product results vs. keywords
 Segment, store & geography info
 Type-ahead recommendations
 Real-time adaptation to COVID-19
 Regional behaviors change differently
 Detects differences in local trends
 ML lets Lenovo keep pace
 eCommerce patterns changed with
pandemic
 Some consumers buy business products
 Search activity informs supply chain
 Segment-based recommendations
 Dynamic navigation
 Catalog personalization
 Differentiated mobile experiences
 CXC connects insights across Lenovo
 37 languages, 1400 stores,
86 countries
 B2C & B2B
 Consumer, SMB, Enterprise
Lenovo’s
CXC
Journey
Capturing
Signals
Applying
ML
Understanding
Intent
Real-time
Personalization
Omnichannel
Delivery
Conversion Rates up 35%
CSAT rate up 34%
Search revenue 23%
better than Browse
Clickthrough rate up 93%
Search revenue
contribution up 175%

87
People are Separated by Silos & Systems
Insight
silos
Multiple
channels
Separate
systems
Disjointed
experiences

88
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Connected Experiences Are Personalized Experiences

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