Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Customer service belongs at the heart of marketing

While all the latest Big Data and analytics tools are critical in helping marketers get their brand messages and values in front of the right customers (ideally with a highly personalised and context-based offer), many companies have yet to translate that outreach strategy into meaningful and positive customer engagement.

"Marketers must remember that, despite all their investment in technology that gets them closer to their target audience, customers also now have access to more alternatives than ever before," warned Baker.

Consequently, Echo has compiled a checklist to help marketers strike the right balance between communicating via the channels that data analysis predicts customers may adopt, and a more customer-centric approach that delivers an excellent quality of service regardless of the channel customers choose:

1. Customer service comes full circle
   Responding to customers quickly and effectively can prove a real advantage, providing you're able to treat each and every interaction that way. As service metrics evolve toward a greater focus on Customer Effort, making things as easy as possible for customers can provide marketers with the competitive differentiation they need.
2. Getting control of your Big Data
   Unprecedented levels of insight and analysis are powering a new generation of data-driven campaigns. However you need to question whether these activities are being driven by the data or by real customer requirements.
3. Start with the customer first
   Marketers need to build customer journeys that recognise people and treat them as a single customer, whether they're engaging online, through self-service or via a contact centre. It's here that marketing and operations need to work hand in hand.
4. Loyalty programmes aren't enough to secure long-term loyalty
   Many customers are worn down by aggressive loyalty initiatives, of course we all like a good deal but we don't always want to sign-up to demanding loyalty programmes just to take part.
5. Keep it real
   Personalisation and contextualisation is great, but nothing beats a high quality human interaction. Understanding customer requirements and responding to them effectively and quickly - in a polite and positive manner - can provide a foundation for true long-term engagement.
6. Make sure it's the customer's choice
   Whether it's social, email, chat or voice, you have to meet customers in the channel of their choice and according to the sensitivity and/or complexity of the conversation. While there may be significant short term savings to be gained from driving customers toward self-service, this doesn't always equate to long term value and can dilute customer loyalty.
7. Understand where 'targeted' ends and 'intrusive' begins
   Today's sophisticated targeting is just tomorrow's background noise. There's a very fine line between nuanced targeting and going too far. Customers will increasingly tune out of campaigns that are over-intrusive.
8. Reporting from an outside-in perspective
   Marketing-driven campaigns thrive on customer feedback, so it makes sense to listen to what your contact centre agents and service partners are telling you. Aligning your engagement metrics with successful service delivery ensures that you can act immediately on customer feedback.

"Designing and delivering campaigns in a world where nothing stays the same is always going to be challenging for marketers, however successfully achieving this requires more than just the latest social, mobile or Big Data technologies," concluded Baker. "Customers also want to be recognised, engage with people who they feel understand their concerns, and trust that their business is valued. That means always having the right people and processes in place to do whatever's necessary to resolve customer issues and respond to changing customer demands."

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)