Data is key in addressing challenges in customer experience, says Deloitte leader

Allen Wong observed that companies do not know their customers enough and do not make themselves stand out from competitors.

Deloitte Hong Kong Digital Leader Allen Wong believes that the business landscape has changed since the onset of the pandemic in terms of delivering an outstanding customer experience due to more channels to deal with customers, the need to understand customer data to drive targeted experience, as well as the increasing trend of loyalty programmes to engage customers.

He adds that businesses should explore innovative ways to improve online and offline interactions.

Wong, who is also Deloitte Southern China Consulting Leader, leads the company’s Digital Customer practice in the Asia Pacific region. He has extensive knowledge and experience of working with executives in the formation of digital transformation strategies with a customer-centric approach.

His expertise includes digital strategy, operating model design, large-scale project delivery of digital transformation and organisational change management. He also has over 22 years of experience in providing technology consultancy and implementation services across a wide array of clients in Hong Kong, China, APAC, Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Wong’s solid experience in the business landscape helps him interact with companies that are challenged in the area of customer experience. Amongst the issues that he deals with are companies not knowing their customers enough and not differentiating themselves enough to stand out from competitors.

The Deloitte leader believes that data is key in addressing these challenges. He said that both customer profile data, behavioural data, and social data should be combined and analysed in real-time to be leveraged for engagement.

Moreover, businesses that keep pace with the trends in customer experience also utilise digital technologies to ensure customers are satisfied. Wong noted that these businesses maximise the use of customer data platforms, and customer relationship management systems, and are exploring the Metaverse as a potential new channel.

Wong also mentioned that everyone in the business landscape should be involved in delivering great customer experiences and making them more unique and seamless. They should provide more end-to-end customer journeys, have more chief transformation officer roles to liaise across departments, and place great importance on change management.

Businesses should also build a strong foundation, be bold and creative, and be experimental to ensure growth and success in delivering successful customer experience, according to him.

The Deloitte leader is amongst the esteemed panel of judges for this year’s Asian Experience Awards. He hopes to see creativity, agility, and adoption in this year’s entries.