How do we meet or even exceed the expectations of customers accustomed to excellent experiences in digital environments set by global technology giants? They invest significant resources in perfecting every aspect of the experience with their brand,” explained Marko Perme, CEO at Agilcon.
Customers aren’t concerned about which stage of your sales and marketing process they interact with your brand. Every single interaction matters when it comes to deciding whether they will choose you over your competitors.
“The digital landscape remains a tough challenge due to its complexity, but we’ve noticed when working with our clients that their buyers encounter the most barriers when they step into a physical store,” Perme explained. “Technology is crucial in unifying the digital and physical realms into a seamless experience. It’s the only way we can retain the complexities of customer experience within manageable frameworks.”
How Successful Are We in Customer Data Management?
“The foundation for advanced marketing tactics in a modern company is a high-quality customer profile with all their data in one place. In the complex, multi-channel digital world, it is an ideal that is challenging to fully achieve, but with the right tool, we can come close to it,” Perme emphasized. “Implementing mechanisms to ensure data quality and compliance with storage and processing regulations is also essential. As a solution to these challenges, companies are increasingly placing a central focus on a so-called ‘Customer Data Platform’ within their IT architecture.
We have our data under one roof. What is next?
When the sales, marketing, and support teams are aligned, they can personalize communication regardless of the customer’s situation, the buying process stage, or which department of your company they are engaging with. “You are the tenth in line. Please wait for a free agent,” and generic messages used to be a standard part of the experience years ago, but users no longer readily forgive them today.
Customers expect you to know who they are when they call, to be aware of their recent orders, and to understand what they need in the next step. If your marketing team knows that a customer has an open complaint, they can tailor the communication by offering additional benefits as a gesture for the inconvenience.
Requests come through different channels and are handled by different teams. The true power of team integration is revealed when we have all the data under one roof.
Do Your Customers Keep Coming Back?
Loyalty programs are one of the most effective ways to leverage data for personalization, encompassing everything from product offerings and sales promotions to marketing messages and contact center responses.
However, as loyalty programs become increasingly complex, the days when the IT team could single-handedly cater to the needs of such programs are a thing of the past. In addition to the opportunity for easy upgrades and an excellent user experience for your team, Salesforce provides one of the most preconfigured solutions in terms of implementation complexity and built-in best practices within the technology itself.
“Marketing is becoming increasingly technology-driven, which is why investing in a tool that integrates data, teams, and technology is crucial for companies aiming to meet the standards of excellent user experience and bridge the gap between digital and physical experiences. Only by doing so can they provide the kind of experience that modern consumers expect,” concluded Perme.
