EDITOR’S LETTER
Say Hello to Illuminar, The Digital Enterprise Digest
Customers have choices. Choices from word of mouth. Choices from a simple online search. Choices through high visibility advertorials.
There is need for Customers to connect with the brand at all stages. When they are researching on their needs, when they become a prospect and then most importantly when they are our Customers. It is their experience with the Brand which is going to build brands in this digital economy.
Customer Experience is not just about creating uniform visual experiences and tag lines, but it is more about how brands articulate their Customer centricity through uniform culture, values, product or service traits. This needs to happen at all touch points starting from a stage when they are about to know you as an organization and then continuing to a stage when they are your Customers.
Customers first transact with a positive expectation in mind and continue to stay with a brand only when those expectations are met with unflinching discipline. Now that’s the mandate which CXOs have in competitive world class organizations who are investing to build brands that last.
Customers now have heightened expectations about their engagement with a brand and would like immediate opinions, be able to post comments and conduct transactions from any location. This behavior has dramatically changed the way the marketing organization of an enterprise interacts with their Customers and prospects, to provide them experiences that will keep them attracted and engaged with their brand.
Gone are the days of generic campaigns and promotions. Today the Customer expects to engage with a brand irrespective of the channel. They want such engagements to be personal, relevant and convenient. Through various interactions, Customers display certain behaviors. It is the job of a brand to collate these interactions, draw inferences from various data points on Customer preferences and ensure that this is relayed across channels so that Customer expectations can be fulfilled. A contact centre is expected to know what the Customer did on their social pages a couple of minutes ago. The sales representative is expected to know the Customer’s past history to be able to suggest new launches that could be of interest to them. The Customer expects to continue the engagement with a brand across channels irrespective of where they dropped off last. Failing to offer this experience is sending a message to the Customer that they are not important.
The role of a CMO has become increasingly complex. Not only are they responsible for marketing activities, they now need to tie the organizations’ entire backend operational processes to ensure a unified and consistent Customer Experience.
This issue is dedicated to the topic of “Unified Customer Experience”. This issue carries interesting perspectives from Mr. Sandip Tarkas, President (Customer Strategy) for Future Group and CEO for Bengal Warriors. Sandip shares insights into some of the good practices in providing unified Customer experience, how marketers handle the execution challenge and the work that Future Group is doing in this space.
We look forward to your comments and questions. Please do write to me directly. I look forward to staying connected.
Have a beautiful day with good health and happiness forever.
Best Regards,
Srividya Kannan,
Editor, Illuminar- The Digital Enterprise Digest
editorials@avaali.com