In their fifth edition of State of Marketing, Salesforce reveals that 80% of the customers place equal importance on the experience as the product or service provided by a company. Their data comes from 4,100 of top marketing professionals in the world.
How it Came to Be
This has been observed in the previous edition of the same report. It observed a change in what customers deem as good experience. Customers started demanding not only relevant offers but, also, for companies to know and understand them as individuals. They started expecting engagement at the exact moment of their need across every stage of the customer journey.
Response from Companies
High-performing marketers responded by leading initiatives to improve customer experience across their organizations. They placed priority on real-time customer engagement in a conversational manner. They upgraded their technology to unify data sources to make the customer journey seamless. This resulted in a more personalized engagement that resulted in a more satisfying experience for their customers.
However, implementing this requires the cooperation of the whole organization. High-performing marketers have done so by creating “collaborative relationships” in every part of their organization. This helped the company respond in a timelier manner through effective application of customer data.
Understanding the customers has made marketers the center cross-functional relationships in the organization. It changed how they work within their organizations as the customer takes primacy in creating a better experience. They increased in their efforts to support and complement the work of other functions in the organization.
A New Challenge
This change in customer expectation brings about new challenges as well. Despite how technologies help marketers in personalizing customer experience, customers are wary of how their data is being used by the company. Many companies have assured their customers by being transparent with their use but the issue remains with the regulators. Moreover, marketers are having a difficult time of providing the expected customer experience without crossing the lines.