Social networks – Twitter, Facebook and MXit – are the next step in developing a solid foundation for a customer-centric business and being up to date with the latest consumer demands.
This is according to Yaron Assabi, CEO of Digital Solutions Group, speaking at the recent ITWeb BPM summit held in Midrand.
He estimates that 98% of consumers refrain from purchasing a product after a bad experience with either the company or the product and this massively affects business success. 
According to Assabi, managing strong ties of communication with consumers is key to developing a rigid knowledge foundation about a product and motivates the business to re-invent and improve its services.
“Consumers have full control over successful businesses because they own the relationship with the company and shape the brand.”
Since companies are unable to receive all consumer views about their product due to limited measures of consumer-company communication, he motivated them to partake in social media as well.
Twitter, Facebook live chats and MXit are the fastest growing forms of social media, which enable suppliers to know about consumer views of their products. He also advised businesses to make room for consumers to rate its services through SMS, and to become proactive instead of reactive.
He believes that in future, the most powerful brands will be customer-centric and successful companies will know their customers very well.
According to Assabi, a successful business is owned by consumers since companies no longer control the mass message about its products. He believes one customer experience with the product can either lead to another customer’s purchasing the product or refraining from doing so.
Assabi criticised businesses for adopting company-driven approaches, focusing on efficiency and lengthy deployments. He encouraged businesses to embark on customer-driven approaches, focusing on unified loyalty and consistent good experience.
He believes these are the fundamental building blocks for a solid customer to company relationship.
“A great customer experience therefore requires that knowledge exchanges take place in a timely way across all communication channels and is consistently accurate, relevant, clear and up-to-date,” said Assabi.
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