5 Priorities to Help Marketers Own the Customer Experience

The Economist Intelligence Unit recently released a report revealing 86 percent of CMOs and senior marketing executives believe that, by 2020, they will own the customer experience from start to finish. However, at present, many marketers find it challenging to utilize the insights gathered directly from customer interactions, and need guidance to achieve this goal.

Here are five priorities for marketers as they embark on the journey to own the customer experience:

1. Utilize the voice of the customer

Customers use a wide range of channels to communicate with brands and, thanks to technology, are ‘always-on.’ Whether it’s social media, text, or the telephone, businesses must always be listening across all channels. To gain a firm understanding of those conversations, marketers should employ speech and text analytics strategies to collect the right data to understand customer sentiment. Not only is this integral to getting ahead of potential issues, it gives brands direct access to the voice of the customer to improve customer experience.

2. Be ready to innovate

In a quickly changing marketing landscape, waiting to implement new technology may sound like a reasonable approach. However, being slow to innovate often forces brands to react to consumer demands rather than proactively drive behavior. To stay ahead, marketers need to continuously research and encourage the implementation of new technology that helps them get closer to customers.

3. Embrace machine learning

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will soon be commonplace in maintaining a competitive advantage. Customers expect personalized communication with brands, and those businesses that “get it” will win customer loyalty. As with any new technology, it’s important to find the right balance between artificial intelligence and the human touch. The perfect combination of both not only enhances the customer experience, it allows brands to create the type of personal, tailored interactions that keep customers coming back for more.

4. Use data properly

To ensure that brands are not missing any insights that could drive customer experiences, marketers must remember to analyze both internal and external data sources. Many marketers think about big data that gives intel on market demographics, but forget about “small data,” such as collecting contact center interactions to understand how employee behavior and training can affect customer service. When marketers use data as insights from across the contact center and other internal sources, they’re more likely to excite, engage and motivate the teams on the front lines.

5. Be prepared to break data down

The right contact center data provides important details about customers, but if those insights are not utilized across the organization, brands are missing out on information that can transform the business. From product defects to shipping preferences to future product or service ideas, contact center data is critical to the bottom line. By making these findings accessible across the business, customer experience strategies can be adapted throughout the entire customer lifecycle.

As the path to purchase become more complex and consumer habits broaden to encompass a number of communication channels, forward-thinking marketers are essential to staying competitive in 2020 and beyond. With the right technology strategies and sharing of insights across the organization, marketers can empower their teams and deliver a superior, personalized experience for customers.

Scott Henderson