Build a Strong Technology Foundation for Customer Experience Management

Design an end-to-end technology strategy to enhance marketing effectiveness, drive sales, and create compelling customer service experiences.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

Technology is the catalyst to create – and keep! – your customers.

"Customers want to interact with your organization on their own terms, and in the channels of their choice (including social media, mobile applications, and connected devices). Regardless of your industry, your customers expect a frictionless experience across the customer lifecycle. They desire personalized and well-targeted marketing messages, straightforward transactions, and effortless service. Research shows that customers value – and will pay more for! – well-designed experiences.

Strong technology enablement is critical for creating customer experiences that drive revenue. However, most organizations struggle with creating a cohesive technology strategy for customer experience management (CXM). IT leaders need to take a proactive approach to developing a strong portfolio of customer interaction applications that are in lockstep with the needs of their marketing, sales, and customer service teams. It is critical to incorporate the voice of the customer into this strategy.

When developing a technology strategy for CXM, don’t just “pave the cow path,” but instead move the needle forward by providing capabilities for customer intelligence, omnichannel interactions, and predictive analytics. This blueprint will help you build an integrated CXM technology roadmap that drives top-line revenue while rationalizing application spend."

Ben Dickie

Research Director, Customer Experience Strategy

Info-Tech Research Group

Framing the CXM project

This Research Is Designed For:

• IT leaders who are responsible for crafting a technology strategy for customer experience management (CXM).
• Applications managers who are involved with the selection and implementation of critical customer-centric applications, such as CRM platforms, marketing automation tools, customer intelligence suites, and customer service solutions.

This Research Will Help You:

• Clearly link your technology-enablement strategy for CXM to strategic business requirements and customer personas.
• Build a rationalized portfolio of enterprise applications that will support customer interaction objectives.
• Adopt standard operating procedures for CXM application deployment that address issues such as end-user adoption and data quality.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• Business leaders in marketing, sales, and customer service who want to deepen their understanding of CXM technologies, and apply best practices for using these technologies to drive competitive advantage.
• Marketing, sales, and customer service managers involved with defining requirements and rolling out CXM applications.

This Research Will Help Them:

• Work hand-in-hand with counterparts in IT to deploy high-value business applications that will improve core customer-facing metrics.
• Understand the changing CXM landscape and use the art of the possible to transform the internal technology ecosystem and drive meaningful customer experiences.

Executive summary

Situation

• Customer expectations for personalization, channel preferences, and speed-to-resolution are at an all-time high.
• Your customers are willing to pay more for high-value experiences, and having a strong customer CXM strategy is a proven path to creating sustainable value for the organization.

Complication

• Technology is a fundamental enabler of an organization’s CXM strategy. However, many IT departments fail to take a systematic approach to building a portfolio of applications to support Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service.
• The result is a costly, ineffective, and piecemeal approach to CXM application deployment (including high profile applications like CRM).

Resolution

• IT must work in lockstep with their counterparts in marketing, sales, and customer service to define a unified vision, strategic requirements and roadmap for enabling strong customer experience capabilities.
• In order to deploy applications that don’t simply follow previously established patterns but are aligned with the specific needs of the organization’s customers, IT leaders must work with the business to define and understand customer personas and common interaction scenarios. CXM applications are mission critical and failing to link them to customer needs can have a detrimental effect on customer satisfaction – and ultimately revenue.
• IT must act as a valued partner to the business in creating a portfolio of CXM applications that are cost effective.
• Organizations should create a repeatable framework for CXM application deployment that addresses critical issues, including the integration ecosystem, customer data quality, dashboards and analytics, and end-user adoption.

Info-Tech Insight

1. IT can’t hide behind the firewall. IT must understand the organization’s customers to properly support marketing, sales, and service efforts.
2. IT – or Marketing – must not build the CXM strategy in a vacuum if they want to achieve a holistic, consistent, and seamless customer experience.
3. IT must get ahead of shadow IT. To be seen as an innovator within the business, IT must be a leading enabler in building a rationalized and integrated CXM application portfolio.

Guide to frequently used acronyms

CXM - Customer Experience Management

CX - Customer Experience

CRM - Customer Relationship Management

CSM - Customer Service Management

MMS - Marketing Management System

SMMP - Social Media Management Platform

RFP - Request for Proposal

SaaS - Software as a Service

Customers’ expectations are on the rise: meet them!

Today’s consumers expect speed, convenience, and tailored experiences at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Successful organizations strive to support these expectations.

67% of end consumers will pay more for a world-class customer experience. 74% of business buyers will pay more for strong B2B experiences. (Salesforce, 2018)

5 CORE CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

1. More personalization
2. More product options
3. Constant contact
4. Listen closely, respond quickly
5. Give front-liners more control

(Customer Experience Insight, 2016)

Customers expect to interact with organizations through the channels of their choice. Now more than ever, you must enable your organization to provide tailored customer experiences.

Realize measurable value by enabling CXM

Providing a seamless customer experience increases the likelihood of cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and boosts customer loyalty and retention. IT can contribute to driving revenue and decreasing costs by providing the business with the right set of tools, applications, and technical support.

Contribute to the bottom line

Cross-sell, up-sell, and drive customer acquisition.

67% of consumers are willing to pay more for an upgraded experience. (Salesforce, 2018)

80%: The margin by which CX leaders outperformer laggards in the S&P 500.(Qualtrics, 2017)

59% of customers say tailored engagement based on past interactions is very important to winning their business. (Salesforce, 2018)

Enable cost savings

Focus on customer retention as well as acquisition.

It is 6-7x more costly to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing customer. (Salesforce Blog, 2019)

A 5% increase in customer retention has been found to increase profits by 25% to 95%. (Bain & Company, n.d.)

Strategic CXM is gaining traction with your competition

Organizations are prioritizing CXM capabilities (and associated technologies) as a strategic investment. Keep pace with the competition and gain a competitive advantage by creating a cohesive strategy that uses best practices to integrate marketing, sales, and customer support functions.

87% of customers share great experiences they’ve had with a company. (Zendesk, n.d.)

61% of organizations are investing in CXM. (CX Network, 2015)

53% of organizations believe CXM provides a competitive advantage. (Harvard Business Review, 2014)

Top Investment Priorities for Customer Experience

1. Voice of the Customer
2. Customer Insight Generation
3. Customer Experience Governance
4. Customer Journey Mapping
5. Online Customer Experience
6. Experience Personalization
7. Emotional Engagement
8. Multi-Channel Integration/Omnichannel
9. Quality & Customer Satisfaction Management
10. Customer/Channel Loyalty & Rewards Programs

(CX Network 2015)

Omnichannel is the way of the future: don’t be left behind

Get ahead of the competition by doing omnichannel right. Devise a CXM strategy that allows you to create and maintain a consistent, seamless customer experience by optimizing operations within an omnichannel framework. Customers want to interact with you on their own terms, and it falls to IT to ensure that applications are in place to support and manage a wide range of interaction channels.

Omnichannel is a “multi-channel approach to sales that seeks to provide the customer with a seamless transactional experience whether the customer is shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, by telephone, or in a bricks and mortar store.” (TechTarget, 2014)

97% of companies say that they are investing in omnichannel. (Huffington Post, 2015)

23% of companies are doing omnichannel well.

CXM applications drive effective multi-channel customer interactions across marketing, sales, and customer service

The success of your CXM strategy depends on the effective interaction of various marketing, sales, and customer support functions. To deliver on customer experience, organizations need to take a customer-centric approach to operations.

From an application perspective, a CRM platform generally serves as the unifying repository of customer information, supported by adjacent solutions as warranted by your CXM objectives.

CXM ECOSYSTEM

Customer Relationship Management Platform

• Web Experience Management Platform
• E-Commerce & Point of Sale Solutions
• Social Media Management Platform
• Customer Intelligence Platform
• Customer Service Management Tools
• Marketing Management Suite