7 essentials to prepare for next generation customer experience
Your brand faces a stark choice regarding customer experience. The decisions you make now will become a key determiner in your future success with fundamentals like audience engagement. Customer conversion. Customer retention.
Fuelled by revolutionary, AI-infused capabilities in martech, brands can now curate hyper-personalised experiences for their customers. Experiences that are reactive to real-time intent. But your ability to capitalise on this customer experience revolution demands not only a tech transformation, but a cultural and organisational one too.
Do you adapt or do you risk getting left behind? And what challenges lie ahead?
What Delta Airlines can teach you about modern customer experience
One of the most illuminating sessions at Adobe Summit 2024 was the fireside chat with Shayan Samani – General Manager in Digital Transformation at Delta Airlines. During the session Shayan eloquently discussed the challenges that Delta encountered while transitioning from legacy marketing technology to a future-facing martech stack.
Now in their second year with Adobe Experience Platform, Delta Airlines is curating personalised experiences with millions of customers in the US alone. Seven key learnings from Shayan’s fireside chat are summarised in this article. Or catch up with the full session on demand using the link below.
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1. Organisational readiness is a crucial starting point
When it comes to digital transformation, organisational readiness cannot be overstated. Everyone must be aligned on the vision: the reason for the transformation and the benefits it will bring. There has to be a shared strategic roadmap and the leadership to follow its course.
This may require comprehensive training; an ability to share what Shayan refers to as “the art of the possible”. It’s why Delta placed change champions throughout every area of their organisation. A network of individuals who were aligned on the overarching strategy, could set common goals, could proliferate change in the right way, at the right time.
This has driven adoption of – and enthusiasm for – both the product and the project.
2. Invest in the right technology
Delta had a vast martech stack. So many tools. Each with its own value and set of rules. But today seamless customer experience is derived from the integration of marketing tech. Delta were craving a centralised way to manage and orchestrate customer experience to unlock cohesive customer narratives.
Most brands don’t have the capability. But the tech is out there. Adobe Experience Platform is an example of technology that’s unlocking the future of customer journey management. It gives Delta have one platform that integrates with external tech and acts as a central hub for all marketing activity. All while providing a single source of truth for customer behaviour and engagement across channels.
But not all tech is created equal. Due diligence on the available options is crucial to make sure your marketing technology is aligned with your strategic objectives as a business. At its core, modern marketing tech must be able to facilitate real-time customer experiences.
3. Revolutionise the way you gather, store and interpret customer data
Evolving from one-size-fits-all, batch-and-blast campaigns to customer-triggered, in-the-moment engagements requires gathering data in a way that’s instantly interpretable and instantly actionable. There’s no use sifting through petabytes of data desperately trying to extract insight. Having your data in order is an essential gateway to connected, meaningful customer experiences. Without the right data – and the ability to act on it – you are hamstrung from the start.
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A unified customer data profile is a minimum requirement. One source of truth for customer behaviour and historic engagements with your brand – across all relevant channels. You also need the ability to segment audiences based on key behaviours or triggers. And the ability to activate these segments across campaigns. This will become the backbone of tomorrow’s customer experiences – and will allow you to anticipate the intent behind customer interactions. For marketing that’s more meaningful.
4. A culture of cross-team collaboration
Have you heard of Conway’s Law? It refers to the notion that teams will use technology in a way that reflects the operational structure of their organisation. Connected customer experiences are born from connected teams. Yet in most organisations each team has its own culture. Its own goals. Its own targets.
The aim is to build bridges between these islands. Create a shared mindset with shared objectives. Move away from “my channel” to “our customer”. There needs to be collaboration between the people responsible for data strategy, privacy and governance, marketing strategy, experience strategy, financial strategy, technology strategy and so on – not to mention the people in control of campaign execution across each marketing channel.
Tech won’t directly change how you work as people. You will need to change the way you work to best utilise the technology – collaboratively working towards one common goal: customer value and customer satisfaction.
5. Put the customer first and be more human
Marketing is psychology. Great marketers understand that to be successful, campaigns must resonate on a human level. It’s why knowing your audience is so crucial. Yet humans are complex. The journey from prospect to loyal customer is rarely linear. Boosting brand loyalty starts with putting the customer front and centre. Fostering a deep understanding of – and respect for – the customer at all levels of the business.
One way to do that is to make sure you are interacting with customer and prospects when necessary. While some brands seem to reach out with almost ceaseless frequency, Delta advocate a more nuanced approach. They extol the virtues of suppression lists – making sure customers only receive messages when it’s absolutely relevant. In the age of information overload and constant push notifications, you can build trust and respect by knowing when to leave your customer alone.
Another emerging trend will be increased focus on privacy and data governance. Consumers will become increasingly sensitive to how brands gather and use their data. For example, consumers may not want you using their data to train AI. Your ability to show respect for each customer’s time, preferences, and intent will help to distinguish you as a brand.
6. Get the right experts in the room
“It takes a village.” That’s a phrase that was mentioned frequently at Adobe Summit 2024. Major technology change isn’t easy. Partnering with the right change and tech experts can guide you through the process while you build knowledge internally. Having ready access to a consultative partner also provides your team with access to the skills required to fully utilise the potential of modern marketing tech – rather than running into roadblocks born from a lack of skillset.
7. Accept that it’s a journey
If you were cooking for the first time, it would be misguided to attempt a five-course gourmet extravaganza. In the same way, knowing where to begin when you unlock vast customer segmentation and personalisation capabilities isn’t easy. Delta recommend starting where you have easy access to data truth. And start small. Adopt an MVP mindset. Find the use case that fits with your team resources and data availability. Then progressively expand your repertoire.
Question marks and blind spots are inevitable. But failures are not setbacks – just stepping stones to innovation. The best way to learn is to learn by doing, in a way that’s gentle, controlled, and measurable. You will create virtuous circles: the more you personalise your marketing output, the better your customer data gets. The better your data gets, the more you can personalise.
And while people talk about digital transformation, it’s important to remember that no brand is ever in a state of “fully transformed”. It’s a journey. A continual evolution – reacting to changing customer expectations and the changing capabilities of marketing technology. The brands that understand that and get onboard with the journey are the best placed to continually succeed.
Catch up – on demand
You can catch up on the full fireside chat with Delta Airline’s Shayan Samani here. Or browse the other on-demand sessions from the world’s largest digital experience conference over at the Adobe Summit hub.
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