Posted by on Apr 30, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments

The converging forces of cloud, social media, mobile and big data have fundamentally altered the enterprise software sales process, finds PwC US in a new report titled “Experience Radar 2013: Lessons from the U.S. Software Industry”. The study, which is one in a series of customer-centric reports, measures the experiences of about 6,000 U.S. consumers across multiple industries.

In today’s empowered customer world, enterprise software vendors must rethink their value propositions and the experience they deliver. Looking at five core enterprise software customer experience attributes–quality, support, convenience, presentation and community–the Experience Radar study reveals the hidden sources of value to help software companies drive exceptional, differentiated customer experience.

“Responses to our survey suggest that the days of large-scale sales and implementations are behind us and as a result, software vendors in this demand-driven environment are no longer able to mandate terms,” said Patrick Pugh, PwC’s U.S. software and Internet leader. “Today’s software customers have options and expect next-generation sales to be uniquely tailored to their needs and able to move at the pace with which they do business. To stay in the game, leading software vendors need to deepen relationships with customers and offer what they value most.”

Experience Radar defines the five behaviors that software vendors can adopt to potentially enhance customer experience and create value:

  • Deliver What Matters Most: Look across the product lifecycle to ensure customers receive a consistently strong experience.
  • Infuse the Human Touch: While new technologies give customers a multitude of channels, human communication is still critical to delivering top-notch experiences.
  • Promote Agility: With 78 percent of companies now embracing a ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) policy, companies are creating agile, streamlined environments, which require software to support the flexible workplace.
  • Own the Issues: While issues will inevitably arise, 24 hours is the window in which most customers want issue resolution.  Take ownership with swift action to resolve issues quickly.
  • Turn Advocacy Into Action: Customers are more likely to purchase from highly regarded companies and 84 percent will recommend a vendor after a great experience according to the survey findings.  Software vendors should identify key influencers to serve as brand advocates and build communities among customers.

 

CLO Inside Track: Robust competition in the cloud services space – particularly from non-traditional players – is putting customers in the driver’s seat.  And that’s good news for potential cloud buyers of all sizes because it sparks the development of new online business models and lower margins. Because customization, adaptability and multi-channel access are top of mind considerations for today’s software end-user, expect more providers to be under the gun not only to enhance functionality in this regard, but to provide an ever-improving array of user interfaces for mobile devices.

 

(For more information visit www.pwc.com/structure).