Mobile Apps Unlocked Vegas 2016
Wednesday, May 5
Main Stage — 10:50am - 11:10am
Customer journeys are a hot topic among marketers. Organizations are prioritizing initiatives to map and orchestrate each customer's journey in order to deliver personalized value to them, and in return capture more value from customers. But how well are marketers making progress in building and optimizing these journeys? And do consumers feel they’re getting a clear, compelling journey from the brands they follow? New research examines these questions, and the difference between the marketer's and consumer's perception.
Julie Ginches, Chief Marketing Officer @ Kahuna
Mihir Nanavati, Senior Vice President of Product @ Kahuna
6. 3 Big Challenges for Building Customer Journeys
Proliferation of Platforms Unified View of the
Customer
No Clear Ownership
7. Huge Opportunities for Getting the Journey Right
likely to recommend a
brand with valuable
messaging
of consumers say messages
have positively impacted a
purchase
say in-app and push
can have a positive
impact on a purchase
8. 3 Keys to Building Value-Driven Customer Journeys
Personalization is
about the moment.
Modern marketing
isn’t enough.
Get serious about
“engagement.”
10. Drop Off Your Business Card
at Kahuna (Booth #109) to
Get a Free Copy
of the
State of
Customer
Journeys
Report
Editor's Notes
MIHIR: The customer journey represents the new battlefield for marketers. Customers, and their loyalty, will be won not just on price or location or cleverness, but on how deep, personalized and valuable the journey they provide. This is the new mandate of marketing - and it’s going to require a stronger concentration and understanding of the customer, and technology to meet their individual needs in real time.
Steve Cannon of Mercedes-Benz summed it up best when he said: Customer experience is the new marketing. This is the reality we face, and our data from consumers prove we need to get better.
MIHIR: The preoccupation of the marketer on the customer journey is a trend tens years in the making. Both mainstream and specialty press are publishing dozens of headlines about the customer journey. It’s prevalent across social media. And if you look at this chart, you’ll see search traffic for customer journey has been steadily rising. And it’s not just “customer journey.” Related terms are seeing a similar pattern in growth.
When you think about the changes that have occurred among consumers and business over the past decade, it’s easy to understand why this is happening. Think about it: smartphones are ubiquitous, there’s an app for every facet of life, channels have proliferated and fragmented, social media is now a daily part of our lives, devices are no longer in our pockets and on top of our desks, they’re extending into our homes and vehicles as the Internet of Things gains steam.
All this change means more opportunities to reach customers, but also more challenges reaching them effectively and holding their attention and loyalty. And that’s why businesses are focusing on building customer journeys, pulling together multiple touchpoints across channels and devices, rather than concentrating on just campaigns and siloed functions.
MIHIR: Marketers recognize the need to build and compete on customer journeys. But the mobility of the customer - their demand and ability to access content, offers and messaging everywhere - is a strain on marketing teams. Today, consumers are using an expanding number of devices to connect, purchase or communicate with brands. And they’re using more than one channel to make these connections, each channel serving as a unique touchpoint.
JULIE: But brands struggle to treat these channels uniquely, which results in confusing and disjointed messaging, redundancies that annoy, and missed opportunities to generate value and continued affinity.
The consumer research confirms this: 42% of consumers reported using a brand’s mobile website and 36% have used a brand’s mobile app.
And many are following brands across a plethora of channels. 42% said they follow a brand on multiple channels. Of those, 73% follow a brand on two channels. Another 27% say they follow a brand on three or more channels.
MIHIR: These challenges are the reason why the mobile-enabled customer is not getting an orchestrated, differentiated experience as they move from channel to channel. Without a unified view of individual customers, marketers locked in silos default to treating channels as broadcast media rather than touchpoints. That’s why consumers say they’re getting redundant, annoying messages across channels.
56% agreed they’ve received the same message from a brand on multiple channels. And as we zero in on specific industries, we found that problem gets worse. 70%, 67% and 62% said they witnessed the same irksome issue from retail brands, media brands and travel brands, respectively.
JULIE: Additionally, a lack of unified customer data and mobile-ready technology leads to yet another problem. While brands are making strides in tailoring messaging to past customer behavior or preference, their timing is still off. Though 60% of consumers actually said that the branded content they receive is personalized based on past behaviors and preferences, a whopping 70% said the messaging is not timely or relevant. In other words, it’s not reaching them at the moment they’re likely to respond.
Marketers are starting to include behavioral patterns to recognize a need, but in a sea of noise knowing the right individual moment to engage the customer is the key to turning that behavioral pattern into a behavioral trigger.
60% of consumers say messaging is personalized to past behaviors and preferences
70% of messaging not timely or relevant
JULIE: Mobility is one part of the challenge. But there are several others. When it comes to building compelling, consistent customer journeys for the mobile-enabled customers, marketers just don’t feel ready to compete on this new battlefield.
One issue is just having the resources and best of breed technology. Marketers are strained when it comes to prioritizing the customer journey, particularly when facing day to day demands and needs for quick wins with 78% of customers saying they don’t have the time or resources. And a startling majority - 91% - of marketers do not have nor fully utilize the tools they need. In many cases, they’re using technology built for a static, fixed customer experience - not a mobile customer journey where the conversation between brand and consumer is dynamic, fluid and conducted across a growing range of devices and channels.
MIHIR: This has real impact on marketing’s ability to understand each customer uniquely, and in turn provide a differentiated, personalized customer journey. 65% of marketing executives agree that consumers expect them to bring their information together for a real-time comprehensive view when they contact the brand. 53% of marketing executives reported that they would like to implement, but currently lack, an “engagement hub” that connects an individual’s consumer data at every touch point to support a seamless consumer experience.
JULIE: And a clear ownership for the customer journey is also a big issue. In research we’ve conducted, there was no clear mandate for one functionary group. (38%) say Corporate Marketing defines the strategy for delivering personalized messaging. But that represents a plurality, not a mandate.
MIHIR: Despite the challenges, getting the customer journey right means real competitive advantage. That’s because consumers can be influenced by marketing if the messaging provides continual, individual value and reaches them when they want and where they want.
For instance, when we asked consumers if the messages they’ve received positively impacted them, 60% agreed. And when we asked if in-app messages or push notifications could impact their decisions, 45% agreed.
And it’s not just purchasing and consumption that marketing can influence. A positive customer journey can turn customers into advocates. 59% agreed or strongly agreed they’re likely to recommend a brand after a positive customer experience.
JULIE: There’s clearly a gap between the marketing customers in every industry are expecting and the messages that marketers are currently deliver. But within this gap lies a competitive advantage for brands who are able to structure customer journeys that reinforce value, are truly personalized, and are well-orchestrated across the channels consumers interact with. That’s not just modern marketing - that’s value-driven marketing.
The marketer must apply both the artistry of their craft with the science of predictive capabilities like machine learning to build individual customer profiles so that the right content is delivered to capitalize on the right moment. This isn’t a static process, but ongoing and dynamic.
MIHIR: Despite more insight into customer behavior than ever before, few marketers are using that information to deliver messages in the right moment. Marketers must make use of engagement-focused platforms that analyze customer behavior and deliver a messages when the desired goal (i.e. purchase) is most likely to be achieved.
JULIE: If marketers are going to truly prioritize engagement, they must more tightly define it and measure it based on larger business objectives. For instance, clicks and opens may be valuable, but only if they correlate to the signs of real engagement such as purchases and repeat purchases, bookings and repeat bookings, registrations and subscriptions, referrals and recommendations, etc. Tying engagement to these values that deliver value to the organization, and prove value is being received by the customer, is essential to marketing receiving the resources to provide the customer journey.
MIHIR: The customer journey represents the new battlefield for marketers. Customers, and their loyalty, will be won not just on price or location or cleverness, but on how deep, personalized and valuable the journey they provide. This is the new mandate of marketing - and it’s going to require a stronger concentration and understanding of the customer, and technology to meet their individual needs in real time.
Steve Cannon of Mercedes-Benz summed it up best when he said: Customer experience is the new marketing. This is the reality we face, and our data from consumers prove we need to get better.
JULIE: This is just a short summary of our findings. The full report comes out in early June. And we’re offering free access as soon as it’s published to all Grow.co attendees. Just stop by our booth with your business card and will make sure you get a copy.