According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, 86% of CMOs believe they will own end-to-end CX by 2020. I want to urge B2B marketers (who are often later to the game than their B2C counterparts) to seize this opportunity sooner rather than later – and prepare themselves to lead the CX conversation with their CEOs going forward. Here’s why:
Your brand is under scrutiny every day
Your customers conduct a referendum on your brand every day. That’s across every aspect of the business, across every touchpoint. They’re not thinking in channels or departments, what they care about is the overall experience and how you make them feel. That’s today’s truth, whether you sell fizzy pop or enterprise software.
Your customers’ expectations are set by the companies who do this exceptionally well – the Netflixes, the Amazons, the HPs. KPMG Nunwood reports that 30% of Fortune 500 companies have already made the shift to CX-led strategies. And that means outdated product- or silo-led strategies are already looking very tired.
“Marketing is not a function, it is the whole business seen from the customer’s point of view” says Peter Drucker, the ‘father of business consulting’ (and in my mind a marketing rockstar). He had high expectations for our industry. His quote tells us to stop managing channels and platforms and realise our true value as experts on our customer motivations, behaviours and needs.
This couldn’t be more relevant right now. Customers have never been more sceptical about brands and are even paying to ignore digital marketing!
How we make people feel and improve their world should be at the centre of everything we do.
Thinking in a people-first way forces us to challenge marketing and operational norms. It means we need to listen, understand, and have context across every customer touchpoint. Empathy is at the heart of the brief.
"Customers have never been more sceptical about brands and are even paying to ignore digital marketing!"
Start by taking responsibility for CX
An approach to marketing that embraces CX takes the loss of customers as personally as a win. It means truly understanding the motives and behaviours behind every customer decision and action. And it does that across all channels, platforms and devices. This requires an obsession with getting under the skin of data, meaningfully connecting technology and having the creativity to give your customers more moments that matter.
Growth should be focused across the whole customer journey, from discovery to renewal. Go beyond the funnel. The better we get at identifying the true moments that matter across this journey, the better we get at impacting bottom-line performance.
It’s the one thing that’ll make a true difference. Let’s go all in on CX.