How Intelligent CX Can Improve Customer Experience

In SAPinsider’s recent AI – State of Adoption 2024 report, 51% of respondents noted improved customer experience (CX) and satisfaction as a key AI benefit implementation. These figures underscore the importance for SAP users of leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance customer interactions and service quality.

In a timely reflection of this, SAP’s recent SAP Customer Experience LIVE event, SAP CX LIVE in 2024, focused on the AI theme and intelligent customer experience. Where last year’s event was more AI feature-centric, this year’s CX LIVE highlighted the customers using intelligent CX features to enrich customer interactions and the quality of their service.

The Sharks and SAP CX

The event follows on from the unveiling at SAP Sapphire of the SAP CX AI stand-alone app, which works with and brings in additional AI capabilities to SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, and SAP Sales Cloud. As part of the toolkit, data is leveraged from the three platforms to help users maximize the value of their CX solution, with generative AI helping to draw insights, create relevant content, and maximize customer interaction. For example, Intelligent Q&A is a SAP CX tool that can understand customers and answer their questions faster with proactive insights and answers, as generated and derived from enterprise data.

SAP CX LIVE in 2024 delved deeper into the possibilities of intelligent CX with a case study from professional ice hockey team The San Jose Sharks on its digitalization and AI efforts behind creating MVP experiences throughout the customer journey. As San Jose Sharks CMO Doug Bentz remarked, “Many people assume that we’re just a hockey team. We’re so much more than that: we’re in the business of delivering experiences.”

As such, The Sharks rely on digital technology that allows the business to connect with customers at scale. By integrating vast amounts of data from various sources such as hockey games, concerts, food, and merchandising, a holistic view of their customers is formed. Furthermore, The Sharks’ use of SAP CX solutions, including SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP CX AI Toolkit, SAP Customer Data Platform, and SAP Customer Data Cloud, significantly enhanced customer engagement. This strategic approach led to season membership renewal rates increasing to 87% and open rates soaring from 26% to 80%.

“We saw entirely different numbers year over year […] We really attribute that to the ability to segment based on the data coming in from the [SAP CX] system,” according to Doug Bentz.

Neda Tabatabaie, SVP Business Analytics & Technology, San Jose Sharks, went on to explain their experiences previewing the SAP CX AI toolkit.

“There are several use cases that we’re going to start experimenting with, [for example] Intelligent Q&A. There’s a lot of different products when it comes to Sharks games, so the information can be quite overwhelming. With SAP’s intelligent toolkit we can reference and provide that information at the point of service to [customers].”

For Neda Tabatabaie, the most exciting future possibility of SAP CX is San Jose Sharks unleashing its power to service customers better.

“Every person should have the information they need – whether they’re coming to an event, watching the game on TV or going to one of our stores or ice facilities – at the moment they need it, based on the best channel possible.

“That’s hugely impactful […] The customer’s going to be happier, and the business in general is going to thrive.”