Future Enterprise

How will your Relationship with your Customers Evolve in the Future?

Today’s brands will win the battle for customer loyalty through frictionless customer engagement and empathy at scale.
Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

IDC’s Future Enterprise Podcast

Future Enterprise brings you thought-provoking and in-depth conversations on the leading edge of technology. Expert-led discussions are focused on market research and how data and technology are reshaping the workplace, applied technology and software. They involve envisioning what the future of remote working will be like, or how organizations need to reshape their industries with digitally-enhanced products and services, or leveraging data for competitive advantages. Our podcast is for business and technology executives and offers applied examples from the field, showing technology trends in action.

Speakers in this Episode

Joseph Puccarelli

Joseph Pucciarelli, Group Vice President & IT Executive Advisor, IDC

Host of Future Enterprise Podcast

“These days the stakes are higher, because if customers don’t walk away from their experience fully satisfied, they have more ways than ever to voice their displeasure.”

IDC Alan Webber

Alan Webber, Program Vice President, Digital Strategy and Customer Experience, IDC

“Such an amazing story about how it is when we know what’s important to us and when we know who our customers are, how we can remove those barriers and those boundaries to bring what it is they need to the place they need it at.”

Devon Valencia, Chief Information Officer at CareSource

“Innovation isn’t just about trying cool stuff with technology, it’s about innovation of ideas and challenging each other to do amazing things.”

What is the Future of Customers and Consumers Podcast Episode About?

The future of customers and consumers is an extremely important subject for our economic recovery. Post-pandemic, both companies and customers are going through changes, and finding and retaining customers is becoming an even greater challenge. Coupled with this post-pandemic recovery, the threat of new competitive landscapes has intensified, making superior customer experiences vital for customer engagement. For these reasons, the future relationship between customers and businesses will be built on empathy, requiring business leaders to develop strategies that focus on a frictionless customer experience, improved journeys, trust, and satisfaction.

Technology change has accelerated during the pandemic to allow for faster, and more convenient interaction between businesses and their customers. The healthcare industry, specifically, has seen a rapid and intense amount of change.

On this episode of Future Enterprise, proudly presented by IDC, host Joe Pucciarelli, Group Vice President and IT Executive Advisor, sits down with IDC’s Program Vice President, Digital Strategy and Customer Experience, Alan Webber, to discuss the Future of Customers and Consumers. They are joined by Devon Valencia, the Chief Information Officer at CareSource, an industry leader in providing member-centric healthcare coverage, and the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care plans. Devon divulges how the acceleration of telemedicine, and the ability to connect with doctors, has been extremely beneficial to customers, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. A lot of companies had to act fast during the lockdowns. This was especially true for healthcare providers.

In many industries, but especially that of healthcare, there exists a digital gap. Many customers do not have access to Wi-Fi. To serve the demands of their customers, companies need to meet with them wherever they are, to make it easier for these customers to get the care and services that they need.

While people often talk of “going back”, human interaction, post-pandemic, is likely to continue to move forward, in the way of individually driven convenience. Employing technology and leveraging data intelligence can create frictionless customer engagement and lead to active learning and superior personalized customer experiences. Organizations must embrace empathy at scale and ask themselves how they make it easier for their customers to use their services or purchase their product.

IDC believes the best friction reduction tool is technology. However, we must bring together the human factor. Customers must be able to see themselves in the companies they engage with. When it comes to customer experience, a lot can be uncovered with data intelligence. This will enable organizations to identify the important issues to their customers and develop solutions before delayed action becomes catastrophic. This podcast episode, on the future of customers and consumers, discusses a strategically imperative question: what is the most important thing for organizations to think about, as they look at managing the evolving relationship with their customers in the years ahead?  

Listen to the Future of Customers and Consumers podcast episode and subscribe to Future Enterprise to stay up to date with our new episodes.

Listen Now

Interested in hosting an IDC Analyst on your own podcast, to talk about the most current research and trends in your industry? Email today.

Alan leads IDC's Customer Experience research program as well as supporting IDC's Chief Marketing Officer research efforts. Specific areas of research interest for Alan are the impact that technology changes have on how business and customers engage and interact, the digital transformation of the customer experience, and the impact of algorithms and analytics. Alan has more than 25 years of analyst, management, and technology experience working with private sector firms and public sector organizations. Alan is also an adjunct faculty member at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, for the US Navy, where he lectures on the impact of disruptive technologies. He has been quoted in numerous business and technology publications including, B2B Magazine, Business Week, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Government Computer News, Fortune Magazine, Congressional Quarterly, Computerworld, CIO Magazine, CIO Today, Government Technology, and French CIO Magazine.