With both digital transformation and data intelligence central to creating a customer-obsessed model, Daniel Telling, Managing Partner, Bench, looks at why marketers should start with the customer experience, not with technology.
In this ‘age of the customer’, arguably the only competitive battleground left is customer experience. According to Gartner’s 2015 – 2016 CMO spend survey, 56% of marketers ranked customer experience as one of their top five marketing technology investments. Forrester predicts, “companies that shift to customer-obsessed operations will gain sustainable differentiation .”
Further compounding this, is the pace at which things are moving – not just in terms of customer demands and technological advancements, but the speed at which marketers are expected to react to, adopt and embrace these changes.
With both digital transformation and data intelligence central to creating a customer-obsessed model, it is perhaps no surprise that they are of top priority. As technology is so crucial to modern marketing, it naturally goes hand-in-hand with ambitions to implement a customer obsessed operating model.
However, this in itself raises challenges. Just as the marketing and data landscape is evolving at a rapid pace, so to is the technology to enable it. The market is in a period of hyper growth. There are literally thousands of marketing technology providers, from start-ups who specialise in specific areas, to large, recognised vendors, who are rapidly changing capabilities to enable ‘marketing cloud’ offerings.
All of this presents a multi-faceted challenge to organisations. Not only are they attempting to embrace new operating models and approaches in order to stay competitive and stave off disruptive forces, they are also faced with a wide array of technology to choose from, as they attempt to both navigate new terrain and implement new marketing and data technology eco-systems.
In addition, as marketing becomes an increasingly technical function, new skills are required, which have not traditionally been part of a marketer’s core skill-set. This in itself leads to another challenge – that of breaking down internal silos and working more closely with IT.
When implemented and integrated correctly, marketing and data technology have the potential to drive digital transformation, enable business intelligence, allow organisations to become truly data led and ultimately transform customer experience for the better.
However, marketing and data technology implementation all too often does not deliver the benefits it should.
So what can organisations do to ensure marketing and data technology success?
Start with the customer experience, not with technology. All too often the tendency is to try and solve a need in the quickest way possible by throwing some technology at it. To really get value, organisations need to step back and start with the customer.
In addition, organisations should be sure to conduct an internal audit before purchasing any new technology, in order to fully understand the systems they already have. Due to the particularly high turn-over in senior marketing roles, coupled with increasing marketing technology spend, businesses are likely to have multiple systems in place, which are not being utilised properly.
Then comes the challenge of selecting the most appropriate technology for your needs.
In an age when there are more marketing and data technologies to choose from than ever before, having the skills to know which will not only deliver results for your specific needs, but also fit into your existing eco-systems, is vital. As such, seeking independent, expert advice can save considerable time and money.
When it comes to implementation of new systems or software, many organisations make the mistake of rushing and trying to implement technology too quickly. This is perhaps understandable, as there is often immense pressure to deliver results.
However, this approach rarely delivers true value in the long-term and in fact, can often be counter-productive. By rushing implementation, and not effectively managing expectations across the business, the technology is unfairly viewed as a failure.
In the same way, if a new technology is not integrated correctly, then adoption rates are likely to be low, it will be perceived badly and ultimately it will not provide the required return on investment or solve the issues it was bought in to address.
It is not just technical expertise that is needed. Your team also needs to be expert communicators and bridge the gap between both marketing and technology, but also the rest of the organisation.
Ultimately, in order to really harness marketing and data technology to gain advantage in this age of the customer, organisations need to shift their mindset. This is not an easy task, but with access to the right skills and expertise, it is achievable.
By Daniel Telling
Managing Partner
Bench
http://mybench.co.uk/
How to Chart a Course for Successful Martech Adoption – Allocadia
[…] “Start with the customer experience, not with technology. All too often the tendency is to try and solve a need in the quickest way possible by throwing some technology at it. To really get value, organisations need to step back and start with the customer. In addition, organisations should be sure to conduct an internal audit before purchasing any new technology, in order to fully understand the systems they already have.” —Read more at Netimperative. […]