Customer engagement has entered a new era. With technological advancements and rising customer expectations, organisations are rethinking how they connect with customers. Low-code technology is one of the driving forces behind this evolution, which empowers organisations to streamline processes, deliver personalised experiences, and enhance digital customer experiences. Platforms like the Microsoft Power Platform allow organisations to revolutionise their digital customer experience strategy while maintaining cost efficiency, flexibility, and scalability.
In this article, Crimson’s Chief Technology Officer, Oliver Sinclair, explores the transformative power of low-code platforms to enhance customer engagement. He examines real-world examples, industry best practices, and how organisations successfully use them to create personalised customer journeys.
Let’s get started by reminding ourselves just how important that customer journey is.
Understanding the Customer Journey
Plotting the customer journey is a critical aspect of digital customer experience, encompassing every interaction with a brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. Understanding this journey is essential for businesses aiming to deliver a seamless, personalised experience that meets customer expectations. By mapping out the entire customer journey, businesses can identify key touchpoints and opportunities to enhance the digital customer experience, ensuring that each interaction is meaningful and contributes to overall customer satisfaction.
Importance of Mapping the Customer Journey for Effective Engagement
Mapping the customer journey is crucial for businesses to understand the customer’s perspective and identify areas for improvement. By visualising the entire customer journey, businesses can:
- Identify Pain Points: Recognise and address friction points in the customer experience, ensuring a smoother journey.
- Develop Targeted Campaigns: Create marketing strategies that cater to specific stages of the customer journey, addressing unique needs and preferences.
- Improve Satisfaction and Loyalty: Enhance customer satisfaction by delivering personalised engagement at each touchpoint, fostering long-term loyalty.
- Drive Growth: A well-mapped customer journey leads to a better digital customer experience, ultimately driving increased revenue and business growth.
The 7 Stages of the Customer Journey
The customer journey can be broken down into seven distinct stages, each representing a critical phase in the customer’s relationship with a brand:
- Awareness: At this stage, the customer becomes aware of a brand or product through various digital channels, such as social media, search engines, or online advertising. Effective marketing strategies are crucial here to capture attention and generate interest.
- Consideration: During the consideration phase, the customer evaluates different options, researching and comparing products or services. They assess the brand’s reputation, read customer reviews, and weigh the pros and cons of each option.
- Evaluation: In this stage, the customer delves deeper into the specifics, considering factors such as price, quality, and customer support. They may seek additional information or consult with others before making a decision.
- Purchase: The purchase stage is where the customer commits to buying a product or service. This interaction often occurs through digital channels like e-commerce websites or mobile apps, making it essential for businesses to provide a smooth and secure transaction process.
- Post-purchase: After the purchase, the customer may require support and service, including returns, refunds, and product maintenance. Providing excellent post-purchase support is vital for maintaining customer satisfaction and fostering loyalty.
- Retention: Retention involves keeping the customer engaged and encouraging repeat purchases. Brands can achieve this through personalised marketing, loyalty programs, and ongoing customer engagement efforts.
- Advocacy: In the final stage, satisfied customers become brand advocates, sharing their positive experiences with others and providing valuable feedback and recommendations. This word-of-mouth promotion can significantly enhance a brand’s reputation and attract new customers.
Low-code technology enhances customer experience and helps shape the customer journey. Let's explore how.
What is low-code technology and why is it shaping the future of customer engagement?
Low-code platforms, such as Microsoft Power Platform, are software development environments that require minimal manual coding. Equipped with drag-and-drop interfaces, pre-built templates, and intuitive workflows, these platforms simplify application development. They enable IT professionals and non-technical users alike to design and iterate on business applications quickly, facilitating seamless digital interactions.
Why is this a game-changer for customer engagement? In today’s world, providing exceptional, tailored experiences requires agility and the ability to respond instantly to customer needs. Low-code platforms make this possible without extensive time or resource investments.
Research consistently highlights personalisation as a key differentiator in customer satisfaction. Customers expect brands to know their preferences, anticipate their needs, and provide tailored solutions. Low-code technology facilitates this by enabling organisations to harness real-time and historical customer data to bring hyper-personalisation to life.
A compelling statistic emphasises this point—86% of companies reported a measurable uptick in business results thanks to hyper-personalisation. This demonstrates the critical role personalised interactions play in enhancing customer relationships.
With low-code tech, organisations can:
- Access meaningful customer insights faster through integrated customer data
- Automate routine tasks to free up time for personalised interactions
- Create dynamic solutions tailored to individual customer journeys
The result? More meaningful connections and higher customer loyalty.
At Crimson, we see Power Platform as one of the most powerful low-code technologies, explore it for yourself and see if you agree.
Key Benefits of Power Platform for Customer Engagement
1. Rapid Deployment
Traditional development cycles are often long and expensive. Power Platform cuts development time, allowing organisations to deploy solutions swiftly. Customer-facing applications, automated workflows, and new service features can be launched in weeks, not months.
2. Flexibility and Scalability
Organisations face constant shifts in market trends and customer expectations. Power Platform enables organisations to adapt on the fly. Organisations can update their applications without overhauling entire systems, ensuring they align with audience needs. Need a new app, customer portal, AI-enabled chatbot, automated workflow or software tool to manage a sudden customer demand? All of this is easily possible by leveraging Microsoft Power Platform.
3. Cost Efficiency
Developing bespoke applications typically requires experienced developers and significant budgets. Microsoft’s Power Platform lowers these barriers, enabling teams to build effective solutions with reduced costs. Resources can then be reallocated to enhance the overall customer experience.
4. Enhanced Collaboration
Microsoft’s Power Platform tools democratise application-building by enabling cross-functional teams to collaborate. Customer-facing teams can contribute directly to the development of workflows, ensuring technical solutions align with real-world customer needs.
5. AI and Automation
Power Platform unlocks powerful capabilities such as predictive analytics and intelligent automation through AI and machine learning integration. These features enable organisations to address customer challenges and offer smarter solutions proactively.
6. Improved Data Insights
Data is at the heart of modern customer engagement strategies. Power Platform eliminates silos by connecting disparate data points, offering companies a holistic view of their customers. This improved visibility enhances decision-making and drives successful engagement initiatives.
Real-World Success
Newcastle University collaborated with Crimson to redefine its admissions process through the Microsoft Power Platform. Historically, the university's applicants encountered inconsistent journeys depending on their application type. Recognising the need for a more cohesive approach, Newcastle University and Crimson consolidated these pathways into a centralised, user-friendly admissions portal.
By implementing this solution, the university achieved several impactful outcomes:
- Enhanced Visibility: Applicants gained a seamless experience, managing their entire application end-to-end in one unified platform.
- Automated Processes: Manual workflows were minimised, allowing university team members to dedicate more time to high-value activities and complex challenges.
- Improved Reporting: The university harnessed real-time data insights by integrating Power BI to make informed, strategic decisions.
This transformation streamlined Newcastle University’s operations and elevated the applicant experience. Prospective students now benefit from a personalised, supportive process throughout one of the most significant decisions of their lives, reinforcing the university’s commitment to excellence and care in every interaction.
Crimson and Newcastle University - Read the Case Study
Beyond leveraging the right technology, prioritising the customer at the core of your customer experience strategy is essential.
The Role of Customer Feedback in Shaping the Customer Experience
Customer feedback is critical to the customer experience, providing valuable insights into customer needs, preferences, and pain points. By actively collecting and acting on customer feedback, businesses can significantly improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, enhancing the overall digital customer experience.
Collecting and Acting on Customer Feedback
Collecting customer feedback can be done through various channels, including:
- Surveys and Questionnaires: Directly ask customers about their experiences and gather detailed insights.
- Social media and Online Reviews: Monitor social media platforms and review sites to understand customer sentiments and identify areas for improvement.
- Customer Support Interactions: Use interactions with customer support teams to gather feedback on common issues and areas needing attention.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS) Surveys: These surveys measure customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking customers how likely they are to recommend the brand to others.
Acting on customer feedback requires a structured approach, including:
- Analysing and Categorising Feedback: Organise feedback into categories to identify common themes and trends.
- Identifying Patterns: Look for recurring issues or suggestions that can inform strategic decisions.
- Developing Action Plans: Create specific plans to address customer concerns and implement improvements.
- Implementing Changes: Make necessary changes to products, services, or processes based on feedback.
- Measuring Impact: Continuously evaluate the impact of changes on the customer experience to ensure ongoing improvement.
By effectively collecting and acting on customer feedback, businesses can create a more responsive and customer-centric approach, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty and, ultimately, a more successful digital customer experience journey.
Low-code enables customer-focused experiences while seamlessly integrating feedback mechanisms.
The Importance of Customer Feedback in Low-Code Solutions
Unlocking Hyper-Personalisation with Power Platform AI Capabilities
Hyper-personalisation takes traditional personalisation to the next level by leveraging real-time data, AI, and machine learning to enhance digital customer experiences and create customer-specific solutions. With low-code platforms, organisations can:
- Predict customer needs using AI-powered analytics
- Cater to accessibility preferences, including preferred communication channels or formats
- Integrate cultural or language preferences, ensuring inclusivity
- Enable self-service options, like AI-powered chatbots or mobile dashboards
- Offer predictive maintenance, preventing service disruptions before they occur.
The Future of Customer Engagement with Low-Code
The future of customer engagement is deeply intertwined with advancements in low-code technology. As AI and machine learning capabilities are further integrated, enterprises will see even greater potential for hyper-personalisation at scale. Additionally, the inclusivity of low-code platforms ensures a diverse range of team members can contribute to innovative solutions.
A seamless digital customer experience strategy is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity. Forward-thinking organisations that invest in Microsoft Power Platform are gaining a competitive edge by delivering exceptional customer experiences.
Transform Your Customer Engagement Today
Customer engagement isn’t just about responding to needs, it’s about anticipating them. With low-code technology, like Microsoft’s Power Platform, organisations can deliver hyper-personalised experiences that drive loyalty, satisfaction, and long-term success. By leveraging these tools, organisations can create an exceptional digital customer experience, utilising data-driven insights and analytics to enhance user interactions across digital platforms.
Are you ready to redefine your digital customer experience strategy? Crimson can help. Our expertise in delivering tailored low-code solutions ensures your organisation is positioned for the future. Get in touch today for a consultation and discover how Crimson can help empower your team and transform the customer experience.
Book your FREE Discovery Call today with a Crimson transformation expert.
