How To Humanize Experience Using Technology and Customer Data?

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Harsha Khubwani

September 28, 2022

“One of the key challenges faced by businesses when trying to understand the customer experience is lack of data. Data is a key component of CX and helps us truly understand the experience. Technology can play a big part in supporting businesses to track the experience, however, ensuring the team using it can analyze it correctly and really decipher what it means is crucial” says Lauren Harding Head Of Customer Experience, Spring.

Technologies that are cutting edge and constantly changing are reshaping the human experience. However, building a pleasant experience still heavily relies on interpersonal communication and empathy. Thus, businesses must concentrate on developing a successful human experience strategy.

It's quite challenging for business leaders to find ways to differentiate themselves in the middle of this technology explosion. Luckily there is a solution - Using technology and data in smart ways. It helps to better anticipate customer needs and to offer “human” experiences at the right time.

3 Ways Data Enhances Human Experience

The IDC estimates that the total amount of digital data created worldwide will rise to 163 zettabytes by 2025.

The availability of data in a considerable quantity allows organizations to understand human requirements and perform accordingly to fulfill their needs. Below given are 3 types of data and the ways they influence the enhancements of the human experience.

1. Customer Data

Brands utilize data generated online every day to enhance the customer experience in real time. Personalized and individualized experiences are possible through creating customer personas via segmentation and analysis of customer data.

Customer data indirectly influences employee and partner experiences. Consumers' comments about the customer service or any relevant aspect of the company let it tweak strategies that upgrade employee performance. The measure taken to enhance employee productivity, such as organizing training sessions and empowering employee voice, enriches the employee experience. For fellow members, change in policies due to customer feedback can uplift the partner experiences, which also work towards the company's growth.

2. Employee Data

Apart from customer data, employee data gathered by the company through the Voice of the Employee (VoE) program or employee database is the best way to perform enhancements. Employee data aid a brand in enforcing employee-supporting operations, such as rolling out employee-friendly programs and perks that elevate the employee experience.

In addition, employee data backs human resource operations that motivate employees to give their best and bring desired results. It is a fact that not only customers, but the employees crave a better experience too. Brands must instate the importance of Human Experience Management (HXM) in the HR department to ensure the staff members acquire the most satisfactory employee experience.

3. Partner Data

Input from the board of members, investors, and other people linked to the brand decisions regarding the ideals, techniques, and processes provide in-depth knowledge of the objectives of the businesses. It becomes easy to set the standard values that contribute to and activates the human touch with every dealings with the brand.

Partner data bring great ideas with new inspirations that a company can beta test. The motive behind such operations must be to follow the path of people's success. The undertakings taken in favor of public interest and social cause with the help of partner data create a positive human experience, impacting individuals on a large scale. The combination of human experience and the data-driven method permits a brand to solve human problems with an empathetic mindset.

From customers to employees, the data collected from the people related to your organization helps to generate a seamless experience. Orientation of all three types of data with an aim to develop company goals that embrace humanity fetches long-term profit for the company and contributors and elevates the human experience.

3 Ways Technology Improves Human Experiences

With every passing day, new technology is up and running, ready to take care of a person's wants. From web applications that allow you to collaborate smoothly to online portals that provide loads of information, tools and more, technology plays a crucial role in simplifying your day-to-day routine.

A 2018 report states that 89% of organizations have adopted or have plans to adopt a digital-first strategy.

Organizations are tilting in the direction of technical-focused solutions. From the D2C cosmetics industry for CX analytics to the healthcare industry for controlling productivity, technology eases the conduction of the operation for humans.

Below are three best examples that showcase how technology impacts human lives and experiences -

1) AI for Hyper-Personalization

The world has already witnessed the work of techs such as Natural Language Processing (NPL) that interprets and understands human language. NPL is a part of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that has the power to perform sentiment analysis.

Sentiment analysis figures out the nature of the text it analyzes by recognizing the feelings or emotions. It divides the result into three polarities that are positive, negative, and neutral. AI makes it easy for brands to pinpoint customers’ problems.

To illustrate, Clootrack, a real-time customer experience analytics platform, collect the data and analyze it via its powerful AI-enabled engine. The platform provides CX reports with sentiment analysis mentioning the pain points of the customers through which brands recognize customer issues.

In this way, a brand identifies the pain points and hyper-personalizes the experiences. Further, with AI, brands can furnish relevant content, service, and product to customers. AI provides employees with customer insights to execute their daily customer-related tasks properly.

2) IoT for Supporting Operations

The Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled humans to create a network of connected devices that alleviates regular human functioning by collecting and sharing data with several devices and systems over the internet. From identifying and preventing machine failures to product design visualization, IoT helps to accomplish business objectives fast.

IoT is one of those technologies that have a strong impact on the human experience and comfort users in all possible ways. Tesla demonstrates the power of the IoT in its product. The company’s driverless cars leverage IoT to connect to a cloud system and collect a large amount of data about the road situation. The car’s computer system analyzes the collected data to make driving decisions on its own. Besides, the company uses that collected data to custom tailor customer service.

The IoT solutions are human-centered, providing a real deal to all the stakeholders. Different business types can use the versatility of this technology to drive their operational ambitions keeping in mind to facilitate humans with every feasible solution with smooth experience.

The best thing about the IoT is that the solutions that focus on routine tasks allow every person using the tech to work smartly. The comfort IoT provides stimulates participation in other critical activities, authorizing prompt refinements in procedures. Since the IoT already revolves around humans, it assures a top-notch human experience for people clasping the technology.

3) Cloud Computing for Experience Management (XM)

Cloud computing is the conveyance of computing services availed through the internet. It serves human experiences in an organization by managing them in more flexible ways. Cloud computing qualifies integration of automation in the business system. The number of manual processes decreases significantly, permitting staff members to work on more vital tasks.

The delivery of the solutions speeds up with which moving forward to the next endeavor helps a business to scale up in a shorter period of time that honors the contribution of all supporters, feeding them with monetary and experience advantages.

Furthermore, it empowers organizations to maintain the scalability of computational resources. It has helped companies like Netflix to scale and grow. The technology allowed Netflix to scale its resources on demand for its subscription service for movies and TV shows and increase its customer base.

With cloud computing, departmental alliance takes a new route that improves employee performance and serves customers with the best service and solution. It enriches the user experience and keeps up with digital trends. Moreover, it enhances the infrastructure by upgrading the overall organizational arrangements. Cloud computing ingrains centralized governance and agility that upholds the refinement of human experience.

How Technology Will Support Humans To Deliver A Great Experience

We have already learned above how data and technology boost human experiences in the corporate sector. But, with the rate humans are making progress in the tech field, the question frequently arises: Instead of augmenting, will technology replace the human element?

Here’s an example to show how technology will support humans to deliver a great experience.

Casper, a mattress company, attempted to use AI to enhance customer experience. Casper developed a free chatbot called Insomnobot3000 specifically for people who face problems in getting sleep (insomnias).

How did the Insomnobot3000 help insomniacs? The chatbot was available from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m, where customers can text Insomnobot3000 from a smartphone, and the program will launch. It might offer you some guidance or occasionally start a stimulating discussion.

According to Casper’s s head of communication, they wanted to make a bot “that made 3 a.m. less lonely”. Customers are most vulnerable at night, when everyone else is asleep, according to Casper, which gives them a great opportunity to design something special for them.

This is a great example of using AI and technology to understand the needs of the customers to deliver a better customer experience.

Final Thoughts

The human experience is all about retaining the human element while brands continue to perform their end-to-end operations. In a digitally-driven world, it is impossible to avoid technology and data. Being an entirely technical and data-driven organization may raise doubts if or not people associated with the brand are imparted with reasonable human values.

Technology and data aid the human experience if brands focus on serving humans and their requirements rather than only making profits. Controlling the efforts with the outlook to benefit stakeholders ensures that tech and data support human-centered principles and abilities. Ultimately, guaranteeing the assortment of tech and humanity brings out genuine human experiences from a business viewpoint.