Customer experience is now the epicenter of marketing. What does that mean and how is that different from how marketing operated in the past, marketing was brand, campaign and lead conversion focused. Today, marketing must be experience driven — more specifically, customer-experience driven. A recent Forrester Research report said, “CMOs should step forward and take responsibility for turning the enterprise toward the customer. This means taking on a more significant role on the executive team … it also begs CMOs to lead innovation processes in the organization … the CMO, has to create a more engaged customer relationship … only CMOs who rethink their approach to marketing operations will pull it off.”
For marketing executives to be customer-experience driven they must re-engineer how marketing works from beginning to end — from strategic planning, to the systems they deploy, to how they structure the marketing department and ultimately, to how they develop and deliver their company’s story.
Reset your strategy.
CMOs must formally document marketing’s strategic intent, responsibilities and goals as it relates to the customer experience. They must illustrate how the marketing strategy will optimize the customer experience inside and outside of the company. Then they must secure appropriate ownership across the organization.
Reinvent your structure.
CMOs must align marketing operations (roles, responsibilities, processes) with the customer journey; integrate processes across customer-facing areas of the business; and initiate sustained culture development programs that are required to deliver a connected and compelling experience.
Reengineer your systems.
Communication connectivity throughout the customer experience is critical. That means marketing executives must identify and connect data, systems and processes that are crucial for delivering a cohesive and consistent customer journey.
Renew your story.
To maximize engagement, retention, loyalty and advocacy CMOs must develop and drive the consistent use of a customer-centric Messaging Platform and story inside and outside of the organization. The Messaging Platform must align corporate strategy, vision, mission, purpose, promise and core value messages.
As a marketing executive, if you want to deliver a superior and differentiated customer experience, it’s time to reimagine marketing. You need to center your strategy, structure, systems and story on the customer. More importantly, around the experience your customers desire to have with your company.
