When times are tight, exploiting the customer data at your fingertips can help your organisation do business more productively and efficiently, writes Prakash Durgani, Vice President of APAC & Japan, Twilio Segment.

Every day businesses gain more data about their interactions with customers, yet many continue to struggle to make use of it for personalisation and analytics.

Data may be stored in multiple locations and in different formats, making it difficult to combine to achieve a single view of each customer. As a result, customer experiences suffer and relationships erode.

Mastering the art of leaving customers with a personalised experience  is no longer merely a matter for the marketing department. It’s become a source of competitive advantage and a critical success factor for companies in Australia and abroad.

Rapid technology innovation has brought about a situation where digital disruption is the new normal. Once safe, stable, and secure traditional industries are beginning to fully acknowledge the scale, speed, breadth and depth of the impact of digital transformation.

As a result, internal silos are disintegrating as companies become flatter, more collaborative organisations. Tried and tested business models, responsible for decades of corporate growth, are now being reclassified as outdated, while cumbersome “set and forget” infrastructure gives way to new software-based technologies.

Have you heard that customer experience is the key to success but are not sure how to go about doing it better in your own business? You’re not alone.

Many Australian enterprises are not against the idea of improving the quality of their interactions with customers across the lifecycle of their commercial relationship but research suggests that between intention and outcome there lies a considerable gap.

The challenge has been clear for 30 years; it's past time to act!

It's been 30 years since Grudin's law/paradox/problem was created, yet it remains largely unresolved.

A collaborative software pioneer, Jonathan Grudin was interested in why enterprise applications that management thought had value failed to take root. 

Australia’s retail sector has encountered its fair share of challenges in recent years, courtesy of low wage growth, lacklustre consumer spending, digital disruption and the unstoppable rise of internet shopping – worth a cool $26.5 billion a year, according to NAB’s Online Retail Sales Index of June 2018.

It’s all about the customer. If you’re not a customer-focused business you won’t stay in business. Putting the customer front and centre of all we do… 

In recent years, there’s been no shortage of commentary adjuring companies to keep the customer satisfied and warning of the adverse consequences that can accrue to those which fail to do so.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will continue to be a hot topic of discussion in 2019. It’s getting attention from start-ups, enterprises, vendors, media, research firms and government institution to name a few. They are all trying to achieve and improve its bottom line using AI. The coming year is going to be a crucial year in the establishment of new AI applications and the growth of existing ones. Here’s a look at the top five trends in AI for 2019.

Australians love a bargain – and, increasingly, we’ve come to expect one. Once required to bide our time between bi-annual stocktake sales, bar the odd red light special, we can now shop for marked down merchandise almost every week of the year, in supermarkets and specialty stores of all stripes. 

Research released by Nielsen in August 2018 revealed Australian manufacturers and retailers were investing ‘an exceptional amount of time and money executing promotions on a regular basis’.