customer-centric IT: It’s your future

Although technology will always be important, today’s IT pro-fessionals are required to think about more than just technology. Increasingly, employers look for technical experts who can see a product or service from the customer’s point of view. In fact, an organization’s ability to create a superior customer experience is becoming a competitive advan-tage.

By 2020, customer experience will surpass both product and price as the key brand differentiator, according to Walker Information, a consulting firm. The pillars of the latest wave in technology (sometimes called SMAC or the “Third Platform,” comprising so-cial networking, mobile comput-ing, analytics/big data and cloud services) have not only revolution-ized IT, but also made customers more tech savvy. By using social media, ubiquitous connectivity and mobile devices, consumers are better informed and more demanding than ever.

Third-platform technologies are transforming how companies interact with consumers across the planet, from financial services

launching new payment network to retail businesses expanding into location-based services. IDC predicts that these technologies will account for one-third of glob-al ICT spending and 100 percent of spending growth this year.

JetBlue, for example, recently did away with the traditional airline check-in process, all in the name of delivering a superlative customer experience. Taking that step required a shift in IT’s mindset to focus on the custom-er rather than the technology problem.

“IT was accustomed to thinking in transactions,” JetBlue CIO Eash Sundaram told CIO Magazine. “We wanted to look at the cus-tomer’s airport experience.”

Employers want IT professionals who have both the right technical skills and the right mindset, but are having a hard time finding them. According to IDC, one-third of employers globally say it’s difficult to find the right IT talent. The firm expects shortages in the four pillars to inhibit over 30 percent of IT projects over the next three years. Add the require-

ment that an IT employee think like a customer, and the shortages could be even more severe.

In particular, IT is working more closely with marketing than ever before. An IT professional who can serve as a bridge between what the customer wants, what marketing promotes and how technology can enable it is ex-tremely valuable. To stand out from the pack, job candidates should highlight examples of how they have translated technology into a product or service that delighted consumers by solving a problem or making a transaction easier, thus increasing customer satisfaction and/or revenue.

“The most successful IT people can put themselves in other people’s shoes and understand their pain points,” notes Alan Stu-kalsky, CIO at Randstad.

“Customer experience has be-come the most important fea-ture,” says Robert Hubley, prac-tice director - mobile and modern web, at Randstad Technologies. Even in mobile apps – an area where developers already pay attention to the user experience –

consumers are demanding more. It’s no longer enough to deliver information quickly, he says.

“Consumers want the whole web experience on their mobile device now,” Hubley observes. “And if companies can’t provide that, their customer will go somewhere else.”

Randstad Technologies has unique insights into current and future recruitment demand for specific IT skills, helping clients and candidates stay at the fore-front of technology and innova-tions by attracting the best skill sets. To learn more, go to https://www.randstadusa.com.