Fusion Theme Blog | Digital Experience

How to choose a CDP

May 13, 2022

Organizations collect data from a wide range of sources and store it in any number of solutions, which can be spread across the business. For marketing departments trying to deliver personalized customer experiences, those silos present a problem, and a customer data platform (CDP) can seem like an easy answer. That could be the right conclusion, but it also might be premature. If you’re wondering how to choose a CDP, it makes sense to start with the basics. How to choose a CDP: 1. Understand the benefits and limitations of CDP solutions 2. Get internal alignment around the need and timing for a CDP 3. Surface your requirements, and prioritize your top 3-5 4. Map your core requirements to functionality you need in a CDP 5. Get stakeholder buy-in and secure a budget 6. Create a CDP selection matrix 7. Get external help if you need it 1. Understand the benefits and limitations of CDP solutions The CDP Institute defines a customer data platform as “packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.” This simple definition goes a long way toward unpacking the pros and cons of CDPs. A CDP is packaged software. PRO: A CDP is prebuilt and doesn’t require as much help from IT to implement and maintain as other solutions like custom platforms and data warehouses. CON: Because it’s packaged software and not a platform, a CDP will be less customizable and less efficient than adding customized functionality to an existing architecture. A CDP must create a persistent, unified customer database. PRO: A CDP ingests data from multiple sources across the business, standardizes it, and uses it to build an identity graph to enable real-time customer identification that fuels targeted multi-channel marketing efforts. CON: A CDP overcomes some of the difficulty of identity resolution but obscures the methodology. You get a unified customer view, but not a lot of certainty that it’s accurate. A CDP must be accessible to other systems. PRO: You can use the aggregated data and outputs from a CDP with your downstream systems. CON: The CDP you select must either come with the API connections you need for the rest of your martech and enterprise tech stacks or you’ll need to factor in costs for custom APIs. 2. Get internal alignment around the need and timing for a CDP Today’s martech stacks are growing fast, and it’s not always clear whether the functionality your marketing team needs already exists in the broader enterprise architecture. Overlapping features and blindspots are a problem — but also an opportunity. Gathering a cross-functional group that includes marketing, IT, data, and product teams can help you figure out how to get the most from your technology investments across the business. If you’re wondering how to choose a CDP, you might be surprised to find that many of the core functions you’re looking for in a CDP are already available in your CRM, MDM, data warehouse, analytics, and BI solutions. For example: Some analytical CRMs can track real-time online events like website browsing, adding to cart, and the like, much like CDPs. Your data warehouse may allow for an identity graph overlay and machine learning algorithms that can play a key role in enterprise-wide customer identity resolution. Your IT and data teams may already have identity and access management processes in place, and that single source of customer data truth could be integrated with your existing martech stack. So, how do you know if your organization needs a CDP? Your cross-functional group can explore potential use cases in light of departmental needs, budget, and existing functionality. While every organization is different, here are some ways to frame the conversation. You might need a CDP if: Your organization has a large volume of customer data stored in multiple places, and you either can’t or haven’t been able to integrate it into a single, real-time view Your marketing team can’t access customer data or perform data tasks without help from data and IT teams You can’t unify your online metrics, CRM data, and offline touchpoint and transactional data, making it hard to build a 360-degree view of your customer You’re moving to a first-party data strategy, but you don’t have systems in place to use your data to inform audience segmentation and personalized campaigns You have functionality gaps in your current martech stack that match up to CDP features You might NOT need a CDP if: You have a minimal and well architected martech stack Your customer data is simple or straightforward enough to analyze easily without additional tools Your marketing plan doesn’t require a lot of personalization, either because your products and services don’t require it, or because your roadmap doesn’t call for it in the short term Your customer data strategy has already mapped your needs to existing solutions and your roadmap doesn’t include a CDP Your budget doesn’t allow for duplicating storage costs, building and operating data ingestion processes, or keeping up with the steep total cost of CDP ownership Your security requirements don’t allow for third-party customer data storage Your internal IT and data teams find more affordable and secure means to implement identity and access management, democratize data access, and connect data storage with martech tools 3. Surface requirements, and prioritize your top 3-5 As you meet with your cross-functional team and discuss your need for a CDP, you can also surface requirements and use cases for a CDP solution. From your larger list, choose 3-5 top priorities to help you choose a CDP. Some common examples of CDP use cases include: Streamlining identity resolution, and making those outputs more accessible and actionable Combining online and offline data Creating more personalized content experiences on your website Using more strategic targeting in your multichannel campaigns Integrating and standardizing data across systems and making it easier to use those outputs in omnichannel marketing efforts 4. Map your core requirements to features you need in a CDP After you identify your top 3-5 use cases, map those core requirements to features you need in a CDP. For example, if one of your core requirements is enabling more targeted multichannel marketing campaigns in the EU, you might need to look for a CDP that offers GDPR-compliant identity resolution processes. Be sure to note which systems and solutions you’ll need to connect to your CDP both in terms of data ingestion and output sharing with downstream systems. Your CDP will need integrations and APIs to enable those connections. Common CDP integrations include CRMs, analytics tools and dashboards, advertising platforms, BI tools, data warehouses, and data lakes. Meet with your cross-functional group again to confirm your conclusions and assumptions. This meeting is a good time to clarify any security and data governance implications for your CDP selection as well. 5. Get stakeholder buy-in and secure a budget Your next step is to get stakeholders on board for the CDP acquisition and to establish funding to make the purchase. Leadership needs to know the full report from your cross-functional team, but they’ll also have questions about what kind of return the organization can expect from the investment As you frame up the value story, consider thinking about what not having a CDP costs your company: Is your marketing team using a significant amount of IT or data team hours looking for information? If you were to solve your data connectivity issues with custom-built APIs, how much would that cost? How much are you losing in customer value by not providing a customized experience? How much time is your marketing team spending manually moving data from one system to another? 6. Create a CDP selection matrix The vendor selection process doesn’t have to be painful. Your team can feel more confident about choosing a CDP because you’re going into the process with defined use cases and requirements, as well as support from the organization. That said, with an ever-growing CDP vendor landscape, it helps to have a process for narrowing down your choices. To accomplish that task, many companies use an internally framed selection matrix or decision tree, customized to fit CDP-specific needs and requirements. These tools can help you think through solution options using your own criteria. However you handle the vendor review, plan to bring a short list of possibilities back to your cross-functional team for a final discussion before making a purchasing decision. 7. Get external help if you need it. Figuring out how to choose a CDP and where the solution fits into your larger customer data strategy isn’t easy. Fusion Alliance helps companies navigate changing customer data environments with a unique methodology that fosters collaboration, transparency, and shared ownership of digital transformations.   Whether you’re just getting started or stuck in the messy middle of a CDP selection process, we help you unpack your processes and partnerships to identify risks and opportunities so you can take the right next steps toward a future-focused customer data strategy.   Let’s talk. Keep reading: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your Customer Data Strategy

CDP vs CRM: 5 key questions to inform your decision

Apr 22, 2022

The difference between a customer data platform (CDP) and customer relationship management (CRM) solution may be difficult to determine at first, because both options collect, store, and put customer data to use in support of business goals. While their functions may overlap, the CDP vs CRM debate becomes easier when you get clarity about the people, processes, and use cases for each option. How to make the CRM vs CDP decision 1. What is a CDP? 2. What is a CRM? 3. What data is collected by a CRM vs CDP? 4. Who uses a CDP vs CRM and for what purpose? 5. What do we need: a CDP, CRM, or both? 1. What is a CDP? A CDP unifies and standardizes large and detailed data sets from a wide variety of sources, resulting in robust customer profiles that enable real-time personalization. The CDP Institute defines a CDP as “packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.” Additionally, a CDP must have the following capabilities: Ingest data from any source Capture full detail of ingested data Store ingested data indefinitely (subject to privacy constraints) Create unified profiles of identified individuals Share data with any system that needs it Through the process of identity resolution, the CDP can match, merge, and deduplicate data into a single customer view that can be segmented and analyzed — by human analysts or with the assistance of machine learning. 2. What is a CRM? A CRM and a CDP are both software solutions that handle customer data, but they differ in how, why, and who for. The difference came about organically, as organizations adopted different use cases for their customer data over time. “CRM solutions were often proposed to tackle customer data management problems. The idea was that you could get ‘all of your data in one place’ to use for sales, marketing, and customer service. The promise was they’d break down silos in enterprises and design a view of the customer that wasn’t specific to sales or marketing or customer service. That sounds familiar to the promise of CDPs, doesn’t it?” — Lizzy Foo Kune, senior director analyst at Gartner A CRM helps organizations manage customer relationships by consolidating what is known about customers from one-to-one touchpoints and transactional details into a single database, giving sales and service teams personal and actionable insights. According to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 website “CRM systems help you manage and maintain customer relationships, track sales leads, marketing, and pipeline, and deliver actionable data.” Sound similar to a CDP? There’s a key difference: CRMs only apply to known customers and contacts. Moreover, they don’t cleanse, combine, standardize, or deduplicate the customer records, so they can’t give a business a “single customer view” across channels. 3. What data is collected in a CRM vs CDP? That key difference reflects the two business silos that CRMs were developed to unite: marketing and sales. Marketing needs a high volume of customer data across touchpoints in a single, unified view to understand your customers and their behavior. CDPs collect digital data automatically using integrations and code snippets embedded in digital touchpoints, gathering customer data from websites, laptops, mobile devices, apps, and even CRMs into one place. The CDP then cleans it, and produces consolidated customer. Sales needs customer data to help manage the customer relationship. CRMs store historical data about customer interactions in order to inform future interactions. The data CRMs collect is usually entered manually and its purpose is tightly focused on logging an interpersonal or transactional interaction — for example, notes from the latest sales call – to inform future interactions. The data inputs are simple, although difficult to standardize or automate, and are usually done manually by sales (and service) people to track the progress of the relationship. 4. Who uses a CDP vs CRM and for what purpose? Your organization’s CDP vs CRM discussions may come down to who needs to use the system to accomplish critical business tasks. As we’ve said above, marketers need a unified view of the customer’s entire experience of the brand over time. A CDP’s ability to ingest, cleanse, manage, and analyze large volumes of data from many digital sources makes that task easier. But for sales and support teams, the key driver is managing customer relationships. In these customer-facing roles, contact management is critical, so a CRM’s ability to capture notes and manual inputs about one-to-one interactions facilitates that function. 5. What do we need: a CRM, CDP, or both? While choosing between solutions isn’t easy, it’s not necessarily an either/or decision. You might find a both/and solution serves your business better. How do you make the call? If your business primarily needs to manage customer relationships in a more detailed, efficient, and personalized way, you might choose a CRM. In fact, over the last few years, CRMs have been innovating and evolving to function more and more like CDPs so it might be prudent to wait and/or choose vendors carefully. Gartner predicts that 70% of independent CDP vendors will be acquired by larger technology vendors or will diversify by 2023.  “CRM systems have seen the competitive threat that CDPs brought to the table,” Gartner’s Foo Kune said. “As CRM technologies recognize that they need to update their aging databases to meet the needs of modern business functions, including marketing, augmenting your CRM with a CDP may be unnecessary.” If your business primarily needs to have a broad view of who your customers are and how they engage with your business, you may opt for a CDP. “Companies seeking a new strategy to form personalized customer experiences through data will need a CDP as it offers the resources to create a comprehensive view of the customer across each platform they interact with in real-time — whether it’s social media, apps or mobile,” says Heidi Bullock of Tealium, a CDP provider. “CRMs, on the other hand, help manage sales-focused customer data rather than collecting data across different channels.” And, if your business is broad you can choose both a CDP and a CRM.  While CDPs and CRMs offer two different marketing and sales data management solutions with differing strengths, you don’t necessarily have to choose between them. “CDPs and CRMs can actually operate simultaneously, as they work to fulfill different business goals,” Tealium’s Bullock notes. It’s possible to use a CRM as an input and output channel to a CDP, and, in turn, use a CDP to provide a 360° customer view data set within the CRM. Choosing both a CDP and a CRM can deliver both an amazing customer experience and tremendous business value: achieving high marks in customer satisfaction and providing integrated tracking and engagement. The CDP vs CRM choice depends on your roadmap. Fusion works with clients to define a customer data strategy that fits each organization’s unique strategic objectives, operational needs, and timeline. From there, our team creates a tactical roadmap to define actionable steps toward those goals. Whether you’re just getting started or trying to get your digital transformation back on track, we can help. Ask a question >> Book a workshop >> Learn more about customer data strategy >>

Driving digital transformation forward

Mar 1, 2021

Everyone is talking about digital transformation, but there’s a lot of confusion and misinformation about what that term means. Much more than just a buzzword or doing things “digitally,” digital transformation means reimagining your business and driving it forward in a better way. When done correctly, digital transformation can fundamentally change how you deliver value to your customers. That’s what you need to focus on if you want to thrive in this market. Customers today have high expectations and a lot of options, so carefully considering your customer journey is critical to success. Before you get started, here’s an overview of what you need to know about digital transformation and how to continue to drive it forward: What exactly is digital transformation? The evolution of digital transformation Cloud computing fuels digital transformation More than just technology Keys to successful digital transformation The challenges of digital transformation Where are you in your journey? What exactly is digital transformation? Digital transformation is the integration of technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It can often be confused with digitization or digitalization, but they are all different things altogether. Digitization is the process of taking information and converting it from a physical format to a digital one, like typing up paper notes and putting them into Microsoft Word or scanning into a PDF. Digitalization, on the other hand, uses these digital files to take the processes already in place and make them more efficient using the new digital format. Digitalization allows you to make your processes faster but doesn’t evolve the process itself. Digital transformation does more by enabling you to interact with your customers in a new way that is constantly evolving to meet both their needs and your business needs. By ideating and implementing better business processes and technologies, you’ll not only create an elevated customer experience that will result in increased profitability, but you’ll also save significant time and money in operating costs. The evolution of digital transformation Digital transformation might be a popular term today, but this was also true in the late 1990s through the mid-2000s. It started with companies computerizing processes 30 years ago, and as the internet was established, websites started to connect companies with their customers. That’s when Fusion Alliance got started, and we’ve been focused on the end goal of developing solutions for clients ever since. Digital processes emerged to support customer interactions, from sending emails to managing online ordering. As digital ambitions grew, companies realized a need for dedicated digital teams to manage social and mobile channels. Connected to customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, companies realized the need to connect all of these data silos. Seeing the potential in connectivity, organizations focused on digital platforms connecting all systems. Then they started to experiment with new digital ways of doing business, leveraging data more effectively, and creating greater agility. Today, we live in a world where customer expectations have never been greater. They demand personalized experiences in every interaction with a company’s products and services. Because of this, companies must innovate quickly and deliver. In addition, the pandemic has forced IT leaders to adapt yet again, with many adopting cloud software for video collaboration and building apps that enable workers to enter offices governed by social distance practices and contact tracing. Technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence all power the innovation that is able to deliver value. An important element of digital transformation is technology. But often, it’s more about doing away with outdated processes and legacy technology than it is about adopting new tech. It should also about enabling innovation. Cloud computing fuels digital transformation Companies are increasingly moving toward a hybrid cloud infrastructure. From SaaS applications and on-premise solutions to a mix of public and private clouds, hybrid cloud strategies help companies find the right balance for their unique infrastructure needs. Over the past year, cloud providers like AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, and Oracle have made investments to support hybrid strategies. OEMs like HPE, Dell (VMware), and Cisco have also increased investments in tools that enable simpler connectivity between on-premises data centers and the cloud. These investments are all centered on meeting the customer where they are in the moment. Hybrid cloud adoption was already underway before 2020’s pandemic, but the sudden disruption sped things up. Being agile and nimble was, and still is, a significant business advantage. More than just technology Although the focus of digital transformation is often on emerging technologies moving the business forward, true transformation has to encompass much more. Business leaders at the top level must be involved in this change and must be willing to invest in and empower your employees, as well as focus on building your culture. As employees begin to see changes occurring around them, they might begin to wonder how it will affect them and their coworkers. They may question their own position within the organization and try to figure out their own best next steps. During any transition, leadership must communicate with employees to help them feel secure in their own positions as well as the direction of the organization. Head off potential issues by making sure your employees understand what digital transformation is, what it’s not, and how they can be a part of it. Additionally, it may be best to communicate how rapidly things can change throughout this process. Being as transparent as possible and preparing your employees for future changes can make all the difference in ensuring your digital transformation is successful. Keys to successful digital transformation Data from McKinsey shows that when companies achieve transformation success, they are more likely to have digital-savvy leaders in place. Less than one-third of all respondents say their organizations have engaged a chief digital officer (CDO) to support their transformations. Those that do are 1.6 times more likely than others to report a successful digital transformation. Companies that have already invested in data and infrastructure to support technology efforts are more adept at again succeeding. The keys to finding success with digital transformation projects vary because no two companies are the same. However, we do have a few recommendations: Define what digital transformation means to your business Create a map of where your business is now, including people, process, data, and technology. Then define where your business needs to be. The gap identified becomes a roadmap. Defining the gaps are in the business is the first key step in your digital transformation process. Identify and involve the right internal stakeholders Leaders and decision-makers might not have the insider knowledge to execute technical challenges. Your stakeholders should be throughout the organization, across departments, and exist at different leadership levels. Align with a partner to shepherd the process You might find your business well-suited to tackle projects outside your normal scope of work, but many companies lack the internal resources to be able to undertake larger projects. Finding an outside partner might be helpful to keep things moving and provide direction with next steps. The challenges of digital transformation While digital transformation is worth it and necessary to the survival of your organization, there are challenges that come along with reimagining any new business process. To make your transformation truly successful, ensure that you have a good understanding of your brand and your customers. Without that, the entire digital transformation strategy you build will be misguided, and you’ll end up back on square one. Budget can also be a big hindrance for a lot of companies looking to begin their digital transformation. Often, there are additional resources and training needed upfront. Although the cost savings and increased profitability are worth it in the end, the initial expense can be intimidating. Additionally, poor data quality can become a huge challenge for organizations as they go down the digital transformation road. Poor data analytics often leads companies to make important decisions based on misguided data. Poor data also prevents companies from being able to use emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, since they prove useless when fed with bad data. Sound strategy and good data will ensure you start your digital transformation journey on the right foot. Where are you in your journey? Whether you’re an established business or a startup, the perfect time for digital transformation is now. No matter how old your business is, your digital transformation will be unique to your organization. It is helpful to think ahead to the future — where do you see your company in the next 5 years? Create a roadmap of where you want to be in terms of customer experience, technology, and data insights, and involve those team members in your planning discussions. By involving decision makers across the organization, you can ensure that you are aligning all parts of your business with the end goal. And, if you can, bring in an experienced third-party to help streamline planning, bring in additional insights, and ensure that your projects run smoothly. Digital transformation allows your organization to deliver the right customer experience to the right people and not only remain relevant in your market, but actually build your brand. One thing is consistent: customers today expect a flawless and customized customer experience, and you’ll need digital transformation to deliver it. Your digital transformation partner Customers today expect a customized customer experience, and you’ll need digital transformation to deliver. When you’re ready, we’re here to help you execute. Need help addressing or assessing where are on your organization’s digital transformation journey? Let us know.

Digital and the experience economy

Sep 9, 2020

Forward-thinking organizations, regardless of industry, are reorganizing their business strategies to be customer-centric. But why? Businesses of the past operated and prospered by focusing primarily on the needs of shareholders, leaving customers at the mercy of the business’ view of the customer — or lack thereof. Without the resources to explore options or to research the quality and culture of a company before the point of purchase (PoP), customers were constrained by location, with limited access to information. Purchasing within this restricted, merchant-regulated space gave businesses the ability to dictate the customer experience. All that changed with the emergence of digital technologies and the influence of the millennial generation. The digital influence Digital technologies created customer awareness, enabling product and brand research and broadening purchase options. A new wave of discounts and convenience offerings created a large consumer demographic of cost-conscious, quality-seeking researchers. Commoditization with access to high-volume information has empowered customers to define what they want out of the purchasing process. Customers have shifted from loyalty to a brand to a search for brand experience. They’re less loyal to brands and more loyal to their own search of personal experiences that fulfill their needs and expectations. This shift has resulted in rapidly increasing consumer demands for brand awareness, personalization, production ethics, quality assurance, and politically correct consumer environments. The millennial influence With the majority of millennials currently in the workforce, they are now in command of the economy, with an estimated $1.3 trillion in annual consumer spending. Millennials are predisposed to being cost-conscious because of their age/earning capacity, the recent recession, and student loan debt. Within this context, millennials realized the full potential of digital and have been the driving force in commoditization and increasing competition in the economy. This cost-conscious characteristic may seem counterintuitive, given their annual consumer spending, but the disparity comes from this generation’s value of experiences over possessions. While older generations spend time and money on services or products, millennials spend their time and money on experiences. With millennials now accounting for over one-fourth of the total U.S. population, their focus on experiences supports the growth of an economy driven by the consumption of experiences. What does this mean for businesses? Traditionally, experiences were lumped in with services. With the millennial-influenced shift from material satisfaction to psychosomatic gratification (sensory and emotional needs), experiences have become a distinct economic offering. To realize the magic of digital in the eyes of the customer, organizations must adapt to the experience economy or risk falling behind. Embracing the digital space While it’s no secret that digital is a disruptive innovation on a titanic scale, it is not biased against the existing marketplace. Quite the opposite, the digital space (the word “space” was chosen deliberately because of its seemingly limitless potential) carries with it the power to transform businesses. The digital space provides an unbounded channel to deliver positive, personalized customer experiences. It provides an unprecedented opportunity and platform for businesses to: express brand voice engage and build trust with new customers and millennials deliver personalized experiences; nurture customers to PoP continually support the customer relationship Digital technologies fuel the evolvement of business strategy, providing the necessary data to produce a 360-degree view of the customer in an ever-changing marketplace. With 360-degree views of your customers and expanding avenues to reach them, you can deliver the experiences your customers now expect. Digital is the foundation on which you can build those great customer experiences.

Customer retention strategies for banks: 5 tips for keeping the wealth in your institution

Aug 25, 2020

A massive storm is brewing in the banking, financial services, and insurance industries, and when it strikes, it will be devastating to the unprepared. That storm is the unprecedented transfer of wealth, $3.9 trillion worth, that will be passed from the hands of older generations to younger in the next eight years or so. The rains have already started to trickle, but when they come in full force, if your organization hasn’t already connected with younger generations, you’ll see millions of dollars in wealth walk right out your door. If your bank doesn't have a plan in place for customer retention, it’s not too late to take action. Consider that millennials (born circa 1981-1997, also called Gen Y), are now the largest generation, accounting for over 25% of the population. They are followed by Gen Z (born circa 2000-present), those born with digital devices in their hands, who comprise more than 20% of the population. The potential purchasing power of these generations combined is something that can make or break banks, wealth management firms, and insurance companies. Yet most businesses in these industries still don’t have a game plan to connect with an entire population. Will your company be different? The problem is complex, but no matter where you stand, a solution is within your reach if you create a strategy informed by data and insights that has a clear road map to success. Here are five tips to building successful customer retention strategies for your bank, so you can emerge strong on the other side of the impending wealth transfer. 1. Understand the challenges of banking for millennials Recognize that this is a whole new audience you’re dealing with. The old ways won’t work in the new economy of connected consumerism. A 360-degree view of your current customers will help you gain insights into what the older generation wants, but with an eye towards the future consumers of your brand. They’re not like baby boomers (born 1946-1964) or Generation Xers (born 1965-1979). This newer generation sees things differently than their parents and grandparents did. Get to know this younger audience on their terms and understand why they have different belief and value systems, why they view traditional institutions skeptically. Examine the world from their eyes. They’ve seen that industry giants who their elders once perceived as invincible (e.g., Lehman Brothers) are now gone. Or that others, like Wells Fargo, AIG, and Countrywide, had to be rescued by the government from the brink of bankruptcy, with taxpayers footing the bill. They’ve seen the effects of parents being laid off after years of loyal service to a corporation. They know families who lost their homes when the housing bubble burst. Can you blame them for being leery of traditional institutions? An Androit Digital survey examining millennials’ brand loyalty reported that 77% said they use different criteria to evaluate brands than their parents do. Are you aware of what criteria they are using to evaluate your brand? If not, you need to arm yourself with answers. Research shows that younger generations frequently turn to friends, independent online research, reviews, and social media for decision making. For example, an astounding 93% of millennials read reviews before making a purchase, and 89% “believe friends’ comments more than company claims,” according to an IBM Institute for Business Value survey. Your future hinges on understanding these behaviors. A report by Gallup on the insurance sector revealed, “Millennials are more than twice as likely (27% vs. 11% respectively) as all other generations to purchase their [insurance] policies online rather than through an agent.” Online purchasing is far from the mainstream among insurance consumers overall: “74% originally purchased with an agent vs. 14% online – but if this trend among millennials continues to grow, it could substantially change the way insurance companies interact with customers in the coming years,” the report stated. Likewise, “Banks are losing touch with an entire dominant generation,” according to Joe Kessler, president of Cassandra Global. The Cassandra Report cited that 58% of young adults said they would rather borrow money from friends or family instead of a traditional institution. Two-thirds of the respondents said it is “hard to know where to learn about what financial services they might need.” In other words, when it comes to banking, millennials don’t know who to trust. Begin the process of getting to know this younger clientele by conducting research that will help you gain insights into what they stand for, how and where they interact, and what their expectations are of your industry, your company, and your brand. By evaluating that data, you will be able to set the process for communicating with and building different ways to engage with these new young consumers. Your interactions and communications must be seamless and easy and reflect that you can talk in their terms. You’ll need to look at this emerging demographic with a “digital lens” because this is how millennials engage with brands. What are those channels, what are their preferences? What other services can you make available in a seamless and frictionless and customized way? If you don’t take the time to get to know your audience, you won’t be able to lay the foundation for a successful strategy to engage them. 2. Make young customer retention your bank’s primary mission Younger generations, millennials especially, are driven by a different set of values. They want a work/life balance. They like to donate money. They don’t want a lot of stuff. They like to travel. They want to experience life. They question long-standing rules that don’t make sense to them. So, develop your business strategy around a purpose or a mission – one that they will connect with. Build upon the information you learned about your younger customers in tip #1, then map this customer’s journey with behavioral analytics. Evaluate the digital channels and content that your younger clients find compelling. Now you can create a strategy and roadmap to engage these customers. 3. Build your customer experience for different audiences A strong customer experience (CX), one that creates loyalty, is one that is personalized, timely, relevant, appropriate, and built on trust. The more customizable the user experience, the better. According to Janrain, 74% of online users are frustrated with brands that provide content that doesn’t reflect their personal interests. You know users want to be recognized on their terms, but you have a problem. How do you build a single CX that addresses vastly different generations with different behaviors and interests? Is there a way to reconcile their differences via a single CX? The answer is no. For the time being, you need to develop both. If someone tells you differently, beware. Think about it. In wealth management, banking, and insurance, the older generation still holds the money and keeps the lights on for your business. The newer generation will get that money within a decade, but if you go full-throttle and build a single, mobile-first CX, you’re going to alienate the people holding the purse strings. In the next few pivotal years, your bank’s customer retention will be heavily dependent on how well you address each audience on their own terms. How to cater to older generations Older folks prefer offline channels, like walking into a branch, agency, or brokerage firm. They like to do business face to face or via phone conversations with tellers, bankers, agents, and wealth advisors. Online, they like having a “control panel” style experience on a desktop, such as you might find with financial trading platforms. This is how you build trust and timely, relevant, personalized experiences. Online, build a web portal to appeal to the interests, needs, and communications preferences of the older generation. The younger generation will use the web portal now and then, but that is not going to be the experience they associate with your brand – because you’ll give them their own. How to cater to younger generations Give the younger generation mobile apps and SMS communications. With over 87% of millennials saying they are never without their phone, this is where you should reach them. They have no interest in stepping foot in a building that feels like an institution or talking to some random agent, broker, or salesperson when they can do everything quickly and effortlessly on a mobile device. Take the information you learned in tips #1 and #2 and build strong loyalty, providing timely, relevant, personalized, and appropriate experiences on a digital dimension. As you build a CX specifically tailored to banking for millennials, you’ll find you can gain loyalty on their terms because you’ll be able to interact in a more agile, nimble, and personalized way. The older generation will probably use the mobile app for simple tasks like checking information and balances, but they’re going to associate their comfort with your brand with the CX they use most – the desktop. Two CXs could be the right solution for today’s transitioning market, but keep in mind that there are additional channels through which you can build loyalty with these younger audiences across the digital landscape. For example, you can share educational, informative content through social media channels. 4. Knowledge transfer to the younger generation Everyone in wealth management, insurance, and financial services already has a foot in the door with the younger generation. That connection is the strong relationship between existing older customers and their offspring. Leverage it. First, understand that the older generation wants to take care of the younger ones by leaving money to them, but they are worried that the next generation doesn’t have the knowledge or discipline to hold onto and grow that money. There are so many stories of young people, like athletes or celebrities, getting rich quickly, getting bad advice about money, and then squandering it all away. What if their children make the same mistakes? Help address that fear and protect those kids by arming your older customers with educational tools on how to prevent this from happening. For this CX, you’ll need to develop portals and educational content, manage and market that content, and make it come to life in an updated website (geared to the older generation) that features whitepapers, articles, or videos, such as “Talking to Your Children About Money 101” and the like. Educate this audience on how to talk about the benefits of insurance or long-term investment strategies and provide them with incentives to set up meetings with themselves, their offspring, and you. The younger generation isn’t interested in talking to an institution, but they will listen to the advice of the parent or grandparent giving them this money. Let the parents and grandparents have meaningful conversations that hold much more weight than your business sending a bulk email to junior that says, “Invest in an IRA.” Now when members of the younger generation, the recipients of transferred wealth, decide to check out your company on the advice of their parents or grandparents, they will access your relevant app that speaks their language and addresses things of interest to them. They’ll soon figure out that you’re not some stodgy institution and will be much more open to a discussion when their parents suggest a conversation with your company’s brokers, advisors, or agents. This is how the knowledge transfer will occur organically, growing your bank’s customer retention along the way as you build a relationship of loyalty and trust. You not only will give the benefactors peace of mind that their offspring will be good stewards of their fortune when the time comes, but you’ll keep the money in-house because you took time to connect with and earn the trust of the young beneficiaries. 5. Make use of emerging technologies in banking to satisfy the ever-changing digital landscape At this point, you know you could benefit from two CXs. The web platform focuses on the needs and concerns of the older generation that holds the wealth today. The mobile platform addresses the younger person who will inherit the wealth, providing guidance, teaching the basics of how to invest or buy insurance, and will be chock full of quizzes, games, personalized spreadsheets, automated tools, and more. The challenge is that when the older generations pass on, the desktop experience will be moot. You don’t want to have to rebuild all the technology infrastructure that you worked so hard to establish. The answer? Don’t build applications or tools – build platforms for the future that can be adapted as the younger generation takes over and as mobile-first interactions become predominant five years from now. Don’t overlook the fact that more cost-effective emerging technologies in banking, such as infrastructure in the cloud, will be a necessary ingredient for success. Banks and insurance companies are reluctant to get in the cloud, but if you understand that most applications are going to be in the cloud five years from now, you understand the critical nature of developing these capabilities today. The cloud enables rapid changes to meet market and customer demands. It is flexible and nimble. You pay for what you use, can pay for service or infrastructure, and simultaneously increase security and reliability. To those unfamiliar with the cloud, security can be a scary proposition. However, with major cloud providers like Microsoft and Amazon employing an army of experts to ensure security and regulatory compliance, the cloud is safer from a security standpoint than most on-premises data storage. While 85% of companies using the cloud report they are confident their providers are able to provide a secure environment, 90% of IT managers reported they are not confident in their own companies’ ability to detect security problems internally. If you’re building a flexible technology platform with the right digital CXs, infrastructure that looks to the future and cloud capabilities, then your organization will be positioned for success when the wealth transfer hits in the next decade. Final thoughts on customer retention strategies for banks There are more than 75 million millennials out there spending $600 billion every year, and that number is only going to increase. They are graduating from college with massive amounts of debt, face a precarious job market, and are typically naïve about financial matters and insurance.The companies who aggressively work to offer practical tools and advice on banking for millennials are the ones who will outperform their competition in the future. It’s not too late, but you cannot wait to take action. If a business does not begin building the bridge between current wealth owners and soon-to-be wealth recipients until after the wealth-transfer process has begun, it will experience a devastating economic blow and get left behind by those who have embraced this shift. The ball is in your court Everyone has predicted that the landscape of the wealth management, banking, and insurance markets will change dramatically due to the digital disruption and younger generations, but with the right strategy in place, your organization can emerge as a leader. Look at this as an opportunity to differentiate. A digital strategy will be the key to your success. Don’t look at digital as an application. Digital is the way all future generations will engage and interact. Leverage it today and do it well to tie the present with the future. Your formula for success is to create an actionable plan that is both informed and driven by insights and data on what people buy, how, what they expect, how they feel, and whether the experience is personalized, relevant, and timely. You need to understand your audience and use those insights to feed a strategy that ties into the mission and purpose of your customers. Bring your strategy to life in a digital channel that sits on top of flexible technology. Measure your customers’ experiences and level of engagement with your brand, and then make adjustments, continually working off of research and data. Follow this formula, and eight years from now, you’ll be the organization that is reaping the rewards because you understood how to keep millions of dollars from leaving your company. Need help improving your customer retention in banking? Let us know.

10 key steps to building a customer experience (CX) strategy

Aug 20, 2020

Businesses that seek to deliver an outstanding customer experience face challenges today due to elevated customer demands and expectations. To be successful, you must rethink and reorganize your experience strategy to accommodate these demands and shorten the gap between business goals and customer needs. Here are 10 steps that will help you get ahead in today’s experience economy and build a customer experience strategy. Step 1: Discover Before you start to develop a customer experience strategy, the CX lead should uncover how the brand is currently experienced by customers. Is there a clear vision for the future? Interview the following roles for input and perspective as you proceed with the discovery process. This input can be useful in defining customer experience strategy and aligning business operatives to a unified objective. Roles will depend largely on the business and its ecosystem. Typical key influencers in customer experience adoption include: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) — the CX visionary VP of Sales Chief Information Officer (CIO) — the technology Chief Financial Officer (CFO) — the bottom line Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Step 2: Research your current customer The first step in a customer experience initiative is to perform a situational analysis using qualitative and quantitative research. This includes in-depth customer and employee/stakeholder interviews, surveys, web analytics data, and user studies. Gathering this information will help you gain insights that will inform your strategy development to answer the question, “Where do we stand right now?” The purpose of this research is to identify where business value, customer value, and opportunity align. Analyzing data to understand your company’s business, customers and the marketplace in which you compete connects insights to strategy. This step in customer analysis is crucial. Step 3: Analyze business missions, values, and processes Obtain a 360-degree view of your organizational mission, values, and processes. The goal of doing this is to restructure operations to align with a successful CX strategy. Business objectives To understand your company’s strategic priorities, ask the right questions about current business objectives. For example: Is the current objective to win new customers or broaden the revenue stream from existing customers? Is the business entering new markets or bringing new products/service offerings into the current one? Brand promise A successful CX strategy delivers on the promises a brand makes. You may find it helpful to review recent brand image studies or new branding initiatives. This is often helpful as you define where improvements can be made and what aspects of the brand resonate with customers. Business ecosystem Document people, processes, and systems to determine which aspects of the business best support customer journeys and where upgrades or improvements are needed. A great way to accomplish this task is to create a diagram called an ecosystem map. This will illuminate the connections and technologies needed to support a CX strategy. It will also highlight what core assets your organization already has, around which you can build your CX strategy. Step 4: Align business processes with CX opportunity Gaining a 360 view of the business enables operatives to: restructure goals to create lasting value through a CX strategy, identify barriers in reaching objectives, and define how a CX strategy will accomplish objectives. Knowing the mission, values, and processes will help answer the core questions surrounding a CX strategy: How well do internal processes support customer journeys? Where do gaps exist between customer expectations and current experience? What assets can be used to enhance the customer experience? What new technology, people, or processes are required to accomplish new objectives through CX strategy? The answers to these questions will paint a clear picture of: current business contribution versus potential, what is needed to govern customer experience, and the resources available to deliver meaningful customer experiences. Step 5: Map your customer journeys Collecting and analyzing customer data will provide critical insights into your company’s existing and target customer base in terms of needs, wants, greatest pain points, and moments of truth. Once the customer data is analyzed, operatives can now paint vivid pictures, or “personas” of who your customers are. Each persona is used to map out that type of customer’s key journeys and the customer experience currently being delivered, summarized in a customer journey map. The customer journey map can then be used to conduct a gap analysis to understand where the business falls short to inform the new CX strategy. A diagram can be used to identify all the brand touchpoints a customer interacts with to summarize your findings, as well as the relationships among other people, processes, and technologies working behind the scenes. Together, this creates the customer experience. This complete picture identifies hidden relationships, root causes for customer experience failures, and provides the 360-degree view of the customer required to deliver meaningful experiences. Step 6: Analyze your competitors, market, and industry Now that there is a clear understanding of business and your customers, it’s important to know your competitors and what experiences they offer. Use both internal and external resources to research competitive and market threats and to gain an overview of the current competitive landscape and market environment. Your research should include an assessment of comparative customer growth, churn, financial performance, consumer attitudes, technology trends, and specific targeted CRM capabilities. This research will help provide a fact-based foundation that identifies specific gaps between current position and competitors. These gaps can serve as key considerations to guide the development of the CX strategy and materialize the business case for change that can be presented to executives. Step 7: Define goals and SMART objectives The next step is to analyze all the insights gained about the current state to create a series of compelling strategic goals and objectives that will serve as the foundation of the CX strategy. The strategic goals and objectives are developed to specifically address the various competitive threats, issues, and opportunities identified throughout the strategy project. Strategic goals and objectives represent major platforms or themes, such as: Developing a deeper understanding of customer satisfaction Facilitating more meaningful customer interactions Enabling the end-to-end customer experience Enhancing campaign and marketing effectiveness Establishing actionable business and customer analytics Improving speed to market and agility Establishing a foundation for operational effectiveness Step 8: Develop your CX strategy Now that your vision has been established for the customer experience, goals have been created and SMART objectives are in place. It’s finally time to develop your strategy to answer the next important question, “How do we get there?” Creating a roadmap will serve as a strategic document and canvas that outlines the strategies and tactics across customer experience channels that will drive customer engagement and deliver results — closing the gap between the current experience and the future-state vision. The roadmap should tie in defined business goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring success. To kick off roadmap development, begin by defining major customer experience strategic initiatives, such as: Explore pain points and barriers to CX (identified in step 4) Define customer commitments Utilize the customer engagement strategy to create an overall CX strategy Brand messaging and voice strategy Distill what matters about your business into a voice and message that creates a memorable, empathetic experience designed to establish credibility and authority with your customers. Engagement strategy Engagement strategy is a continuation of experience strategy. Customer experience is the perception or impression of those interactions. Customer engagement is the interaction/behavior by the brand or customer and the means by which their relationship is created. With an engagement strategy, identifying key customer segments and mapping the plan and approach connects your customers with your business and brand. An effective customer engagement strategy will foster brand growth and loyalty. Read more: 11 behaviors for successful digital customer engagement. Step 9: Measure your CX strategy To understand if a CX strategy is a success, as well as where and how to make improvements, you must develop a strategy to measure success. The measurement strategy should use metrics to track data sources. Business value will be traceable using CX metrics and KPIs. These KPIs typically fall into three categories: descriptive, perceptive, and outcome-based metrics. Descriptive metrics answer questions like when, where, and how your business is interacting with customers. Perceptive metrics try to capture the customer’s perception of the interaction they had with your business. Reviews, ratings, or Net Promoter Score metrics (also called NPS, which measures customer loyalty in terms of how likely a customer is to recommend you to others) fall into this category. Outcomes are metrics that capture the actions taken by customers before or after interacting with your business. Examples include calls to action on your website, such as online sales, promotions, or form fills. Some great places to look when defining these metrics are the customer journey map, ecosystem map, and 360-degree view of the customer diagram. They will help you hone in on the experiences that matter most to your customers and business. Step 10: Optimize your CX strategy Customer experience strategy isn’t set and done. It’s an ongoing process. With a measurement strategy in place, executives should revisit the CX strategy and regularly look for ways to manage and optimize efforts. CX strategy can be affected by many factors, including macroeconomic trends, new marketplace regulations, shifts in consumer behavior, new competition, and new technology. It is important to continue monitoring these factors as you focus on implementation. Now that you know how to develop a successful CX strategy, you can join the leaders who are transforming their businesses now to adapt to the experience economy and gain a competitive edge. Need help? Let us know.