Key trends in the customer experience revolution
There’s a revolution underway. Fuelled by a sea change in the capabilities of customer experience technology, leading brands are rethinking the way they interact with their audiences.
This revolution is the dawn of hyper personalisation. Customer experience will be fuelled by context and brands will have a one-to-one connection with every customer and prospect in their database.
At 2024’s instalment of Adobe Summit, the world’s largest digital experience conference, we spoke to customer experience and digital transformation experts from Macy’s and Deloitte to discuss the future. Some of the key takeaways are summarised in this article. Or you can catch up with the session on our Adobe Summit 2024 hub using the link below.
>> The CX Revolution: Creating Next-Level Omni-Personalization Experiences
4 trends in the customer experience revolution
1. Mass to micro
For decades the prevailing ideology in business has been to cater to as large an audience as possible. Think big. Serve the masses. That’s been the received wisdom. But the incoming customer experience revolution turns that ethos upside down.
It’s time to start thinking at the level of the individual customer. The ability to anticipate customer intent and serve journeys that are sensitive to your customer’s history with your brand will be a hallmark of great customer experience.
2. Customercentricity
This focus on the customer mustn’t be seen as merely the endpoint of your marketing output. A customercentric focus – or as Macy’s put it: ‘customercentricity’ – should be baked into everything you do, from marketing strategy to product design. In Macy’s view that’s the only way to make sure every customer interaction is personalised, intentional and fully contextualised.
3. Speed and scale of processing and production
To be able to produce highly personalised experiences – for every prospect and customer in your database – a revolutionary new era of speed and scale in data processing and marketing output is required. Your ability to synthesise data on customer behaviour and flex customer journeys in real time will be a barometer of your success or failure with the next generation of customer experience.
New technologies are there to facilitate this. And brands are investing. But a shift of mindset is required: from a campaign mindset to a journey mindset; from a single channel mindset to an omnichannel mindset.
4. Enablement through AI
AI is about to unleash a world of hyper-interconnectedness. And it will help to facilitate real-time, personalised customer experiences by drawing rapid insight from customer data and facilitating the production of on-brand content at scale. As revealed in the Summit session, Deloitte’s research suggests that more than 50% of brands are set to invest in AI capabilities in 2024.
This is happening. And it’s happening now.
The rewards of a successful digital transformation
Of course, there are challenges inherent in any significant tech transformation. (Macy’s talk candidly about the challenges they encountered with their own digital transformation in their Summit session.) But staying focused on the rewards of embracing a new era of customer experience is the best way to get internal buy in and see the change through. Here are some of the key wins that Macy’s have encountered since enacting their transformation.
A closer connection with every customer
Investing in the next generation of customer experience technology has empowered Macy’s to live and breathe their ethos of customercentricity. It’s unlocked the ability for deeper, more meaningful customer relationships – which is improving customer retention. And, by extension, revenue.
Brand accountability
Macy’s experts were quick to highlight the fact that their digital transformation has given all staff a more tangible understanding of how their ideas and actions affect customers at the individual level. There’s a renewed awareness that product design and marketing is ultimately about human connection. Every interaction makes a difference. Moments matter.
Tips for successful digital transformation
Invest in the right technology
Investment in the right technology is crucial. The ability to have a tech stack that facilitates the new era of customer experience has been a key part of Macy’s ability to realise their vision. It’s enabled follow through on the c-level ethos of obsessing about how the customer can derive value from every product and every brand touchpoint.
Get your data in order
It’s impossible to embrace the new customer experience capabilities if your customer data is fragmented and disparate. Centralised, reliable, real-time data on your customer engagement is the gateway to tomorrow’s customer experience.
With Adobe Experience Platform, Macy’s are able to capture rich customer behavioural insight from cross-channel interactions to facilitate positive customer experiences. And that starts a virtuous circle. The more you personalise, the richer your data. The richer your data, the better you can personalise.
Strategic leadership from the top down
Macy’s experts are clear that an ethos of customercentricity has to come from the very top. Buy in and strategic guidance should start in the c-suite and flow down through all levels of the organisation.
A clear view of attribution
The ability to attribute their customer experience efforts to improved revenue has been key in keeping Macy’s motivated during the challenges of a digital transformation. In their own words, being able to see the revenue impact right there in the attribution analytics vindicates the efforts and the decision to embark on a customer journey transformation.
The right processes
While it’s essential to invest in the right technology, you still need the right internal processes in place to make sure you capitalise on its full capabilities. Pablo Picasso didn’t become a world-renowned artist because he had the best paintbrush. The same principle applies when it comes to modern marketing technology.
Listen to the session now
Revolution is a strong word: hyperbolic and frequently overused. But a revolution is exactly what’s happening with customer experience – and the time to act is now.
Listen to the Adobe Summit session with Macy’s and Deloitte at the Adobe Summit hub.
Based in Paris, Ania Zahi is a Product Marketing Manager for Adobe, driving go-to-market strategies focused on marketing automation in the EMEA regions. Prior to Adobe, Ania had worked for 8 years in digital marketing across EMEA and APAC creating strategic insights and designing Web go-to-market plans in fast moving environments.
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