If you’re a business owner, you’ve undoubtedly made customer service a major priority. You’ve figured out a way to make a customer’s time in your store or office simple and carefree. For customers that walk in through your front door, you’ve got their experience covered. But what about the flawless customer experience you offer online, for those who enter your business through its digital front door?
There is a vast amount of useful data that is stored in CRM software. Everything from contact information, email interactions, purchase history, demographic information, and customer attributes among other things. Not all marketers realize the value of the CRM data that is literally right at their fingertips that can be used to both improve customer experiences as well as improve ad targeting.
CRM data provides useful data that marketers and brands can use to leverage in their marketing campaigns. CRM data also allows marketers to shift to one-to-one marketing at scale. By using this data, marketers can not only decrease wasted ad spend but also reach customers more effectively through addressable media.
Cross-channel marketing technology leaders Signal has put together a comprehensive infographic that gives actionable advice for marketers on how to effectively use CRM data for more effective marketing and improved customer experience. In the infographic they cover the evolution of the CRM over time, the challenges that come with activating data across multiple marketing channels, as well as provide advice on how to use the CRM data. To learn more, check out the infographic below.
There have been many evolving definitions of ‘customer experience management.’ Are you sure you have the right one?
No surprise, it is all of them. Put simply, customer experience is the sum of all the interactions and experiences encountered by a customer throughout a brand’s customer lifecycle.
First, let me say: it’s good to be home. I’m just back from an extended vacation in France with my family. [Cue jealousy.]
One of the most memorable experiences we had was dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Table de Patrick Raingeard. While sipping my champagne and feasting on perfectly cooked duck, I reflected on what a good job the restaurant had done to ensure our customer experience was elevated.
You might not be one of the best restaurants in France, but these are customer experience lessons you can put to good use, too.
The staff at the restaurant was well trained. We visited for brunch, which included free-flowing champagne. Now, being a connoisseur of the champagne brunch in the United States, I was accustomed to draining my glass before the harried server came over to refill. Not the case here. Before I was even halfway done with my champagne, the waiter would silently glide over and refill it. I was kept happy.
I was a little concerned about feeling like we didn’t belong in such a fancy place, but I needn’t have worried. From the hotel concierge who greeted us by name and personally escorted us to the restaurant to the director of the restaurant (I imagine he’s like the maitre’d), everyone engaged in witty repartee and made us feel like they wanted us there. The young man whose job it was to help people navigate the buffet, after I inquired about items I might be allergic to, went to the kitchen to make sure he’d told me of all the potential shellfish pitfalls. Turns out there was another—on my plate, no less—that I should avoid. I was pleased that he went out of his way to make sure I wouldn’t bring up my delicious and expensive meal later.
A recent trip to my grocery store got me thinking about customer experience as part of marketing. I was at Albertson’s, who a few years ago, jumped on the member-card bandwagon with everyone else. I didn’t really mind carrying my card, although I recognized the absurdity of creating a club for saving money just so the store could get some demographics.
But last week, I saw signs everywhere telling me I no longer needed a card to save money. At first it left me feeling stripped. How would the system know how much I bought when there was a product campaign (like the one where I got a cheap pot for spending $500 in several months)?? But then I realized Albertson’s was taking customer experience into consideration. No doubt many people forgot their cards and grew frustrated. So now everyone can save money without the hassle.
A positive customer experience keeps people coming again and again.