Improving CRM and Customer Experience with Blockchain

Implementing a customer relationship management program that is based on blockchain will transform customer experience, and increase the perceived value of the enterprise’s offerings. 

Customer relationship management requires continuous collection, sorting, and analysis of data, that enables businesses to make interactions with customers more personalized and convenient. Application of blockchain for this function makes management of data more systematic due to the technology’s ability to maintain chronology and allow the business to make decisions based on real-time updated data. Organizations that are aware of blockchain’s capabilities are planning to use the distributed ledger technology in improving their CRM efforts. The most notable example of this is leading CRM service provider Salesforce, whose CEO Marc Benioff announced more blockchain products.

1. Building Trust

Trust is one of the main reasons why a customer will choose one business over the other. Until now, creating a trusted brand name has required extensive campaigns from corporations with a heavy expenditure of time, resources, and creative effort. Blockchain brings transparency in the business process, which allows customers to access information that builds trust in the organization. For example, a retail organization can gain customer trust by using blockchain enabled product tracking that allows the customer to know exactly where the product was sourced from, providing clarity on authenticity. This is especially useful when the product in question is a luxury item.

2. Personalizing Services

Collecting and profiling consumer data to provide them with a highly personalized experience will enhance the perceived value of the product or service offered by the business. Personalizing services can help in improving customer engagement, by allowing business to run targeted marketing campaigns that would ensure a sale conversion.

3. Ensuring Customer Privacy 

Using token IDs for customer profiles, which is done by using blockchain, ensures the privacy of customer data, which is collected for personalization of services. This system makes it difficult for even organization employees to link profiles to actual customers, keeping the identities of customers safe. This prevents the possibility of identity theft and other forms of data abuse.

4. Improving Loyalty Programs

Keeping track of transactions also allows organizations to devise unique loyalty programs and reward systems for regular customers. Blockchain enables analysis of customer’s purchase history, which can lead to the creation of very personalized rewards based on the kind of products bought by the customer. Having a rewards system that provides highly personalized benefits is proven to increase customer retention of businesses.

5. Streamlining Payments, Warranties and Insurance

A major aspect of positive customer experience is convenience. A customer will prefer a business that ensures maximum convenience in all interactions, not just the sale. In addition to streamlining the payment process by minimizing or eliminating paperwork, the organization can also introduce easier warranty and insurance claims. Warranty verification can be made much easier with the use of blockchain enabled transaction records. Blockchain can help verify the product ID and the date of purchase easily to process the warranty. Insurance claim settlement can also be made easier, especially in healthcare organizations, which can considerably reduce the time and paperwork required to receive insurance benefits.

Industries heavily relying on data can make huge gains by using blockchain to leverage information and enhance customer relations. There is no doubt that blockchain will transform customer experience on its own. However, benefits can be multiplied by using this technology in conjunction with the internet of things, which is as certainly a part of the future as blockchain is.