Are You Integrating Marketing and Customer Experience? Here’s Why You Should Be

Are You Integrating Marketing and Customer Experience? Here’s Why You Should Be

In Gartner’s 2017-2018 CMO Spend Survey, a downward trend in marketing budgets follows years of increases. That being said, CMOs surveyed also reported that these budgets would be focused on existing customers, spending less time on outbound methods and spending more time on leveraging and engaging inbound support contacts. This means that marketers are now recognizing the resolution of a customer’s issue as the moment of truth, so to speak, when it comes to offering other services or products. Thus, marketing and customer service are more closely intertwined in such a way that customer relationship management (CRM) pushed on the market for years.

What does this mean for marketing strategies moving forward? Through resolving customer support issues effectively and satisfactorily, a company is almost surely going to ensure that customer’s future interaction or transaction with their brand. Building customer loyalty means building their chances of returning to a company time and time again, leading to increased sales. Customers often tie brands with experiences, and we all know that buying is an emotional experience. This, in turn, means that the purpose of your customer service team should primarily be the goal of changing how a customer feels about your brand rather than your product.

A great avenue for customer service and proper engagement is social media and tapping into the mindset of providing messaging that meets a customer where they’re most likely to expect a response. Things like polls, video, chat and live streaming are proven to drive engagement and provide personalized conversations that give customers the feeling that they are valued and supported throughout the buying process – and post-purchase. As Sir Richard Branson once said, “A business is simply an idea to make other people’s lives better.” Doesn’t it then make sense to make your customer’s lives better through convenient, comfortable channel interactions?

Additionally, in the past seven years there has been a definite rise in the number of Chief Customer Officers (CCOs). A 2016 article by Forbes, “Why Your Company Needs a Chief Customer Officer,” it was stated that “improving experiences along the customer journey... can boost revenue by up to 15 percent and increase customer satisfaction by 20 percent.” Marketing, however, should regular oversee customer service agents, while the CCO examines CX across channels, departments and products to bring in more revenue.

Marrying CX and marketing in business is not news – cross-departmental obstacles are necessary to overcome to put customers first. How do you bring together the two? Let us know in the comments below!