How Edge Technology Enables Brands to Transform CX

The holy grail for every brand is to deliver a better and more compelling customer experience (CX). This focus is driven by the fact that brands need to improve the CX they deliver if they want to engage and delight their customers. The competitive reality is that those that don’t will be beaten by competitors.  

Speed is the focus of several of the most far-reaching and impactful improvements to CX. This can be a matter of improving the responsiveness of the CX or the speed and responsiveness of infrastructure. In either case, edge infrastructure is the most effective solution. In the traditional approach, every interaction must go back to a distant data center. This results in two problems: unacceptable latency and compute and storage actions that are too slow to deliver the desired experience.

Edge infrastructure keeps the interactions where they occur, and that has the potential to transform CX. Many of the specific elements of edge infrastructure that will contribute to better CX will be deployed in the near term, so it’s a good idea to know what’s in store and make plans now.

One compelling CX feature that edge infrastructure will make possible is the ability to provide more immersive experiences. For example, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) at the edge will allow customers to “live” in the product, experiencing it in a virtual world, or “try it on” in a virtual dressing room. When retail meets immersive experiences, the result will be a new concept: retail-tainment.

Other ways that edge technology will improve CX are more in the background, such as the ability to use real-time AI and analytics. AI and analytics will drive greater personalization, the delivery of more contextual information and the ability to extend offers that are more appropriate and desirable for individual customers. Having AI and analytics at the edge for real-time engagement will make all the difference. If it takes several seconds to respond appropriately to customers, they will have already moved on and what used to be a brand-loyal customer is now a free agent for competitors with enhanced CX to move in on.

Another important enhancement that will be brought to life by edge infrastructure is the ability to integrate sensors, cameras and other IoT-type devices into in-person CX, such as inside a physical store. In-store CX has been difficult to enhance, but the edge could make all the difference, making it possible to integrate information from customers’ digital shopping experiences, for example.

Lumen and Intel are leaders in providing the next-generation edge infrastructure that will enable these and many other improvements in CX. Lumen’s edge infrastructure, which will provide more than 45 highly performant and capable edge nodes, is connected to its high-capacity global fiber network, reducing latency to 5 milliseconds or less. These nodes will deliver all the performance necessary to improve CX based on Lumen’s use of 3^rd Gen Xeon® processors and other highly performant infrastructure components from Intel. These two industry leaders provide the edge platform that will meet both current and future demands from AR/VR-, AI- and IoT-focused CX improvements. For more information, please go to Lumen.com/edge.