Technology the great customer engagement enabler

Myth of faceless technology dispelled in new survey as small businesses say online retailers are best at creating customer relationships. 

Technology is now fundamental to helping create a personalised and engaging customer experience according to nine out of ten small businesses surveyed for Cisco’s annual Customer Kings research project, now in its second year. 

The Customer Kings 2010 report, which polled 1000 small business from across the UK on issues ranging from the state of the economy to their hopes and fears for the year ahead, also focused specifically on technology and its importance when it comes to customer service and brand building. The results point to the UK’s dominant business demographic seeing technology as a major differentiator in customer relations. 

Beyond linking technology to a better customer experience, the survey also found that increased use of technology is likely to boost both customer numbers and optimism for 2010. Those who see IT as “very important” to their business are more likely to be dealing with greater numbers of customers (39%) and be more optimistic about the year ahead (71%) than those who rated it as “quite” (29% and 56%) or “not at all” (just 27% and 58% respectively). 

Social media also featured heavily within respondent answers, with 40% stating that they used it and many citing it as a valuable source of customer interaction and lesson learning for building better relationships. 44% said that they found it to be a useful way of gaining customer insight, a finding counterbalanced by nearly half (46%) who said that it also increased customer service expectations. And, in an area in which the personal touch is often viewed as key, the 1,000 respondents also placed online retailers at the top of the list when it comes to quality customer service. 

Commenting on the findings, David Critchley, head of SME and commercial at Cisco UK and Ireland, said: “There’s often a sensation that technology can be a negative thing when it comes to creating good customer service, stripping the personality from a business and raising barriers.  Customer Kings provides us with a fascinating insight into how small businesses view technology, and paints a positive picture of SMEs not only using IT for the basics, but genuinely building better businesses on the back of it.” 

Duncan Baker, director of strategic marketing and communications at the Institute of Customer Service said the findings of the report chimed well with the Institute’s own UK Customer Satisfaction Index which shows smaller companies have an edge in terms of offering personalised service to customers. Baker said that technology when properly used for the benefit of customers rather than as a cost cutting tool is a “great enabler” for organisations to engage their customers and provide consistently high levels of service. 

In spite of a tougher economic climate, technology use has been on the rise within SMEs over the past twelve months, according to the report. Use of contact databases, email management, CRM systems and web analytics tools has all risen within the UK since the debut survey was conducted in January 2009. On average, small businesses spent 15% of their available budget on new technology during 2009 and, echoing other survey results, those who invested more than 20% of their budget on technology during the year were also more likely (37%) to have increased their customer base than those spending less (33%).

 The majority of the businesses surveyed also said that they were taking measures to counteract their environmental impact, with large numbers adopting specific tools to help them reduce their carbon footprint. While many are already taking basic actions such as recycling paper (90%) and driving down energy use (62%) a positive 28% have also implemented video or web conferencing in order to reduce travel. 

The research was commissioned alongside Cisco’s Customer Kings campaign, an annual search for the UK’s best customer focused firms which this year saw environmentally friendly utility company Green Energy crowned Winner of Winners.