Connected CRM: Implementing a Data-Driven, Customer-Centric Business Strategy

Chapter 6 Experience Delivery

Finding the Sweet Spot for Expert Customer Integration

If you don't believe that data-driven experiences are going to continue to evolve and explode, becoming a crucial component of a customer-centric business strategy, just take a look at Google Glass. It'll soon be clear that customer experience is no longer just about media and channels. It's going to be all around us, literally, in front of our eyes at every waking moment. Our lives—as marketers and consumers—are going to be all about data-driven experiences.

We in the marketing profession are accustomed to building arsenals. We develop all these tool sets, bring them to scale, and then try to launch them toward customers. We've been doing this for years, but I propose that we rethink our approach. Instead of starting with the arsenal of products and then retrofitting the customer experience, we need to first think about what the customer data-driven experiences actually need to be, and then start to build solid tool sets that will enable those experiences. The company's placement on the customer relationship marketing (CRM) maturity continuum is a key consideration here. In levels 1 to 3, marketers don't have the expertise or tools to drive experience in today's highly complex, tech-driven world. They know brands and targeting, but they need to know how to drive the experience in a seamless, integrated way.

As we refer to customer experience, we are talking about the creation of connected programs ...