As-a-Service (aaS) delivery models – where organizations can access resources without having to own or directly manage them – do more than create internal efficiencies. They can revolutionize the way organizations approach their customer experience (CX), retention and loyalty by bringing in complementary services that improve the overall customer journey.

We’ll explore how aaS models improve the CX and boost retention, and how organizations can build these goals into their business cases.

Building a better customer experience

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, it quickly became evident that customers were no longer willing to seek out different institutions to provide their financial products. Instead, they expect organizations to make those products available to them at their point of need.

We saw this in the retail and e-commerce sector, with giants like Amazon embedding a range of services for a fast, simple purchasing experience. In healthcare, telehealth made services more accessible and consolidated. Customers aren’t asking for this kind of all-in-one experience; they’re demanding it.

Organizations are leaning into aaS to add value to their end-customers without adding any complexity to their internal infrastructure. AaS models allow businesses to identify customers’ needs and bring in external services that meet those needs, delivering a more seamless CX and building a sticky relationship.

Aiming for long-term loyalty

Customer retention and loyalty are key to any business’s growth. The loyalty business is seeing significant expansion right now, and many industries and brands are clamoring to get into that space.

But blindly running toward a vague goal of “loyalty” isn’t the way to go. Organizations first need to define what they’re trying to accomplish and how they can make buying from them as fast, simple and smart as possible. The goal should be to become best of breed for customers.

Businesses can get a leg up by focusing on data to generate customer insights and learning how to market to customers based on their point of need and how they’re utilizing their financials. Organizations are evolving to better analyze and apply the data they collect to personalize their CX, making them relevant and timely.

Service delivery is also an important component of customer retention; businesses should be able to clearly communicate how the aaS model can assist them in providing a better service delivery, thus driving customer trust, satisfaction and loyalty in the future.

A proactive approach

How can organizations build these goals into their business case or business model in advance so they’re being proactive instead of reactive? First, they need to clearly define their objectives. What are they trying to accomplish with their end-customers? What is their goal?

Then, they need to be prescriptive on their business case. How are they going to provide customer loyalty? Once they have all that information, they can use the data that’s being provided in the aaS model and the resulting customer insights to bring to market specifically according to their end-customers’ needs. They can also keep an eye on competitors in their space to understand what aaS benefits other organizations are including in their purchasing experience.

Over time, businesses will be able to add additional services as needed based on their strategies and what the data is saying. AaS models allow organizations to be more efficient by analyzing data, building out and then shifting quickly as needed.

By adopting aaS models to add value to customers and encourage loyalty, enterprises can transform the CX landscape and bolster retention.