#25 | DCX - Perspectives and insights on digital customer experience
DCX Podcast #9 - Empathy in Action; Is the Digital Twin The Future Of Customer Experience?; Links to Industry news, ideas, insights, and the DCX Thought Leader Linkedin Profile of the week
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Empathy in Action
DCX Podcast #9
Welcome to the DCX podcast, where I interview leaders in the customer experience base about how digital is changing the landscape and how you can leverage these changes for success in your business.
Today I'm excited to be talking with Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, a senior advisor to the CEO at Genesys, Tony Bates, who is also her co-author of Empathy in Action, How to Deliver Great Customer Experiences at Scale.
Today we're going to talk about empathy, a huge topic that I'm very interested in, and technology and how you can bring them together in support of building great customer and employee experiences.
7 Key Takeaways:
Natalie has a Ph.D. in high energy particle physics - her first job made her realize how customer-centric she was (1:03)
She wrote Empathy in Action to present a different economic construct that is customer-focused (5:12)
We have entered what Natalie calls the 5th industrial revolution (9:22)
Stop choosing technology that doesn’t help the customer (13:14)
The three pillars of Empathy in Action (16:17)
Here’s what an orchestrated experience looks like (20:07)
Focus on the long term (22:35)
Thanks for a great discussion, Dr. Nat!
Is the Digital Twin The Future Of Customer Experience?
What is a digital twin?
A digital twin represents an actual physical system or object that can be used to improve the customer's experience. This representation can include everything from how the design looks to how it operates.
The digital twin works in unison with the physical object to create a complete understanding of the system or object. As a result, companies can gain valuable insight into how their customers interact with their products or services. This information can then be used to make data-driven decisions to help them grow their business and improve their overall customer experience.
Where did the idea for digital twins come from?
The concept and model of the digital twin were first publicly introduced in 2002 by Michael Grieves, now the Executive Director/Chief Scientist at the Digital Twin Institute. Then on faculty at the University of Michigan, Grieves is credited with first applying the concept of digital twins to manufacturing and formally announcing the digital twin software concept. Eventually, NASA's John Vickers introduced a new term — "digital twin"— in 2010.
An example of the technology has been practiced since the 1960s when NASA used basic twinning ideas for space programming. They created physically duplicated systems at ground level to match the designs in space. An example is when NASA developed a digital twin to assess and simulate conditions on Apollo 13. A solution that came in handy when issues arose on the spacecraft.
How do digital twins work?
With digital twins, we can simulate scenarios for testing new ideas, troubleshoot problems before they occur, predict when maintenance is needed, optimize operations and detect cyber security threats early on.
The digital twin mimics all of the data and behavior of the physical counterpart, providing insights into how it will perform and how to optimize its performance. This allows engineers and product developers to test different scenarios and make changes before the product or system is built.
What can you do with digital twins in CX?
In the case of customer experience, digital twins have enormous potential to improve service and deliver better experiences to your customers.
You can use them to understand how customers interact with your product or service, whether they're using it correctly, and what they like/don't like about it.
For example, if you have an online store and want to know if users are having trouble finding something on your website or if they're having trouble filling out forms — you could model each step of their visit in the virtual world and see where there might be problems.
You could even create a "customer" digital twin who represents an average user of your product or service — complete with all the data points about them — so you can test out various scenarios before rolling out changes to your actual customers.
They can also be used to:
Identify problems before they happen;
Collect data about usage patterns;
Provide predictive maintenance alerts;
Detect fraud and prevent cyberattacks; and
Analyze trends in your business to help you make better decisions about how you operate.
The first step is to create a digital twin model of your customer journey. Then, you can use it to identify bottlenecks, analyze behavior analytics and identify opportunities for improvement along the entire customer journey.
Monitor the performance of your product or service in real-time and understand how each interaction impacts your customers' experience.
Identify potential issues before they happen by analyzing data from customer touch points throughout your system (from initial contact until after-sales service).
A digital twin can also represent your customers' experiences as they interact with your business — from how they interact with your website and mobile app to how they shop in-store or call customer service—enabling you to uncover opportunities for improvement by looking at customer behaviors across different touchpoints and comparing them to industry benchmarks.
Digital twins are being used to improve customer experiences across industries.
While the concept has been around for a while, we're now seeing it used more frequently to improve customer experience. As a result, digital twins are being used for everything from airplanes to oil rigs.
In the automotive industry, digital twins have been used to simulate the design and performance of vehicles, allowing customers to virtually test drive and customize their car before purchasing it.
In the healthcare industry, digital twins have been used to create personalized treatment plans and to monitor patients remotely, improving their overall care and experience.
In the retail industry, digital twins have been used to create virtual storefronts and to simulate the shopping experience, allowing customers to browse and purchase products online without having to physically visit a store.
In the hospitality industry, digital twins have been used to create virtual tours of hotels and resorts, allowing customers to explore and book their accommodations in a more interactive and immersive way.
Takeaways
Digital twins are virtual representations of physical objects or systems. In the context of customer experience, a digital twin can be used to simulate how a product or service will behave in different scenarios, allowing businesses to test and optimize the customer experience before rolling it out in the real world. This can help companies to identify potential issues and make improvements before they harm the customer experience.
Digital twins can also be used to monitor and analyze customer interactions with a product or service, providing valuable insights that can be used to improve the customer experience continually. Overall, the use of digital twins can help businesses create more seamless, personalized, and compelling customer experiences.
The digital twin will be invaluable as we shift from analyzing processes and optimizing them to predicting failures before they happen. In addition, the future of digital twins will allow us to predict customer behavior, set up notifications related to customers' past behavior, and offer customized surprise-and-delight offers.
Of course, customer analysis is nothing new—we've been collecting data on user behavior for years. But with the digital twin, this data will be collected in a 3D environment, allowing us to double-check past decisions and optimize processes more efficiently. Exciting times and opportunities are ahead!
More on Digital Twins
The Mysterious History of Digital Twin Technology and Who Created It (challenge.org)
Digital twins: How to build the first twin | McKinsey
Operational Investments: 5 CPGs Predicting the Future With Digital Twins | Consumer Goods Technology
Digital Twins: A Marketer's Guide (destinationcrm.com)
Etc.
Links to Industry news, ideas, insights, and the DCX Thought Leader Linkedin Profile of the week
It’s that time of year when the predictions for the next year start coming out. So here are some 2023 CX Trend Predictions to consider and debate.
The Top 4 Customer Experience Trends In 2023 (forbes.com)
Immersive Experiences and the Metaverse
Personalization
Conscious Customer Experience
Authenticity
CX TRENDS FOR 2023: the rise of empowered CX, bright cx and more!
Top 5 Digital Customer Experience Trends for 2023 (techmahindra.com)
Opt for Mobile-first Approach
Growing Use of Subscription Models
Enhance Experience with Omnichannel Presence
Offer Self-Service Options to Your Customers
Personalized Advertising to Witness Downfall
This week’s DCX Newsletter is Supported by:
DCX Thought Leader Linkedin Profile of the week
Every week, I share a person's profile from Linkedin that I think will benefit your life and career.
This week, I’d like to introduce you to Shep Hyken, an icon of this industry, keynote and training speaker on Customer Experience and Service, and a Best-selling Business Author.
Shep works with companies and organizations that want to create exceptional customer service experiences for their customers and employees. His articles have been read in hundreds of publications. He is the author of Moments of Magic®, The Loyal Customer, The Cult of the Customer, The Amazement Revolution, Amaze Every Customer Every Time, Be Amazing or Go Home, The Convenience Revolution, and I'll Be Back. (Amazon Profile)
He is also the creator of The Customer Focus™, a customer service training program that helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset. (Now available as an online/web-based training program!)
Follow Shep for a wealth of customer-obsessed information and inspiration!
Start 2023 the right way!
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