'CX is Very Important in a Recessionary Environment'

In a conversation with BW Businessworld, Rob Tarkoff, Executive Vice President & General Manager - CX, Oracle Corporation, speaks on the importance of customer experience (CX) against the backdrop of growing fears of recession, importance of AI and more. Excerpts Rohit Chintapali

- Rohit Chintapali

You are one of the foremost CX leaders in the world. Could you tell us about the importance of CX in the current difficult economic environment? 

CX is one of the most important things right now, particularly as we head into a recessionary economic environment, where customer loyalty is going to be more important than ever. We have to work with our clients to make sure that they have the right strategies, technologies and the right way to leverage intelligence on their own customers. So, it’s critical now more than ever because in a constrained economic environment, you have to be much better at knowing and anticipating what your customers want.

Could you help us understand the kind of trends that are prevalent among businesses today with regard to understanding customers?

There are three major trends that we’re seeing. One is consumer choice. Customers are continually pushing to make sure that any business that interacts with them has a contextual understanding that they need to have a consistent experience, regardless of channel. Whether they are interacting with you over email or in-app, or through advertising, or through service conversational channels, digital channels, they want every company to have contextual awareness of them. In order to do that, you have to really master your first-party data.