Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, October 14, 2015
Since data lives in numerous databases such as sales, service, and marketing, it’s difficult to unite all and recognize the data in each as a set of records belonging to one person. In The Customer Experience Cloud report released Wednesday, Omar Akhtar, managing editor at Altimeter, a Prophet company, and Charlene Li, Altimeter’s principal analyst, refer to this concept as the customer experience cloud, which brings together all customer experiences across a company’s departments.
The report outlines the essential components of the technology and teams needed to build a customer experience cloud, as well as the crucial steps companies can take to get started. There are four: system of record, content management team, customer insight team, and system of engagement. The report also has a guide to choosing the right technology, and an overview of the major technology vendors who can help companies deliver on this vision.
Improve customers’ experience or risk losing them. Verint Systems released a report highlighting loyalty and what makes a customer switch brands.
A 360-degree view of customers and their data is important, but it’s also about providing adequate training and empowering employees to make decisions themselves, rather than always having to speak to a manager.
Akhtar says companies need strong leadership and customer insights team to provide a common view of consumer behavior such as where they shop, channels they use, and what’s important to them.
Businesses also need technology, but the complexity of the data determines what’s required. “Do you need CRM data, which is typical for customers who don’t have a quick path to purchase?” Akhtar says. “Then you pick the data system that can handle a specific amount of channels through either quick or simple responses.”
Akhtar and Li agree a handful of brands such as REI, McDonalds, General Electronic, Visa, among others, have begun the process to set up successful customer experience clouds.
Li says the report also aims to arm brands with logic that can begin conversations with technology vendors. “I don’t think brands are asking the correct questions, especially those with so many options,” she says. “We not only want them to think of the technology, but also the strategy choices they need to face.”
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