Page 21 - AdNews magazine Jul-Aug 2021

Agenda
with businesses online has set new benchmarks, leading to CX’s renewed importance.
“CX is becoming a huge part of the business portfolio,” says Tim Lavelle, senior director, CX apps, JAPAC at Oracle.
“When you think about CX, it’s not the marketing platform or a content platform, but customer experience as its true format is making sure we’re having the right conversation with the customer at the right time, in whatever channel they want to have it on.”
The spotlight on CX comes as research continues to point to its link with revenue growth. According to research by Forrester and com- missioned by Sitecore, each one-point improvement in a firm’s CX score drives millions of dollars of incremental revenue.
Adobe’s Digital Trends Report also points to CX leaders as having the ability to prove the value of marketing through real-time customer insights and attribution.
“In many ways, the pandemic proved the customer experience prop- osition,” says Adobe vice-president of marketing APAC Duncan Egan.
“Companies that were already exploring and investing in new tools and processes for optimising customer experience prior to the pandemic were in a more advantageous position than those who hadn’t. They were able to adapt more quickly to remote work and digital service delivery and rapidly innovate to redesign the customer journey.”
The experience customers have is key to their retention and many are even willing to pay more for it. The CX Trends Report 2021 from Zendesk revealed that 75% of customers are willing to spend more to buy from companies that give them a good customer experience.
As the on-demand economy continues to grow, fast and friendly service is now expected by customers when shopping online, with 65% of customers wanting to buy from companies that offer quick and easy online transactions.
Beyond that, they want a brand to show empathy, know their tastes and preferences and also align with their values. For example, 63% want to buy from companies that are socially responsible and more than half
“[Brands] want to win one of the 10
x 10-minute shops that we now do on our mobile phone.” Facebook director, global business group, retail ANZ, Kate Box
Facebook and Instagram Shops features.
(54%) want to buy from companies that prioritise diversity, equity and inclusion in their communi- ties and workplaces.
Egan says empathy and trust are central to the next evolution of CX in a post-COVID-19 world.
“Today, empathy is an underutilised differentiator, but it is accessible by understanding the areas of friction in the cus- tomer journey and customers’ motivations to improve the expe- rience,” he says.
Getting the
foundations right
Just like anything being built, foundations are the core stabiliser that hold it together. Without them, everything can come crash- ing down.
“CX is a first step to simplify how we engage with customers in what- ever channel that they choose to engage with,” says Rachamalla.
“To do truly great CX, you need to be looking at what the brand stands for. Now the baseline for CX is shifted up higher. So, of course, now every brand has a good digital storefront. Every brand has the ability to engage with customers digitally for customer service and enquiries.”
He says the brand experience is a key differentiator for those look- ing to remain competitive in the market. To move into this next phase, though, means brands need to have all the foundations in place.
In this new world of CX and commerce, and with the impend- ing deprecation of third-party cookies, customer data platforms (CDPs) are becoming more impor- tant than ever for marketers to house their own first-party data and build out personalised experi- ences in privacy-compliant ways.
“If you don’t already have a customer data platform, it may be time to invest — a CDP enables brands to create and then execute from aunified customer profile,” says Egan.
“Brands that don’t already have much first-party customer data should focus on creating a robust first-party data strategy that includes obtaining durable customer IDs with marketing consents attached.
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