Marketers and advertisers should have one clear purpose when it comes to creating an exceptional customer experience – take complex brand messaging and make it simple for the customer. 

Today, marketers have a range of tools to deliver clear and personalised messages across all customer touchpoints – and that’s exactly what customers want. According to the State of the Connected Customer, 75% of customers expect companies to use new technologies to create better experiences.   

But what happens when technology makes a simple process complex? As the old saying goes, throw somebody one ball and they will catch it, throw them 10 balls at the same time and they will drop all of them. 

Here’s how marketers can use technology and data to their advantage without getting lost in it. 

Shift the focus to be customer-centric

We live in a world where we can’t ignore technology. It’s there in both our work and personal lives helping make decisions, keeping us informed and collecting information about us.

Businesses are in a race to get their hands on this information through the latest technology. But while technology and data can help deliver on business and marketing goals – it’s not the ‘why’. 

Businesses need to start asking themselves, ‘why am I buying this technology, why am I collecting this data, and what am I giving my customers in return?’. By shifting the focus from tech hype curves and shiny new tools to ‘what does my customer want?’, marketers can take a more strategic approach to how they use technology. 

If the next marketing tool you consider doesn’t help personalise the customer experience, ensuring it’s consistent across channels and devices, and give the consumer value that differentiates the brand, then step away. 

With 84% of customers saying the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, businesses need to move away from being process-centric and become customer-centric. 

Understand the critical value exchange

Focusing more on the customer is even more applicable as we enter further into the ‘trust crisis’. 

When the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced in May 2018, marketers’ most common fear was their decreased ability to target consumers. And while data protection should be a priority for businesses – Deloitte’s 2019 Privacy Index revealed 73% of consumers choose brands they trust the most with their personal information – marketers need to work harder to provide customers with data transparency.

“Just because a consumer said yes for this engagement, doesn’t mean they’re going to say yes for this second thing. Being able to engage on that is important,”  Salesforce’s Chief Marketing Officer Stephanie Buscemi told CMO during Dreamforce 2019. 

Giving power to the customer is crucial to building trust – 92% of customers are more likely to trust businesses with their data when they’re given control over what’s collected about them. Think of it this way, if you’re asking your customer to provide a phone number you need to give them a reason why. If it’s to provide exclusive offers via SMS, let them know and give them the option to opt-in or out. 

As the State of the Connected Customer revealed 79% of customers are happy to share data, but, in return, they want to get a contextualised experience back. In short, a critical value exchange needs to occur.

Streamline the MarTech stack

It’s clear that today’s marketers must simultaneously provide seamless customer experience and protect customer data and privacy. 

To do this marketers need to have the right tools. From AI to analytics, CDPs to DMPs, social media to email marketing, the MarTech list could go on. So it’s no surprise the sheer scale of what’s on offer can leave marketers feeling overwhelmed. 

Salesforce has been working on an answer to simplify this process with the latest iteration of the Customer 360 Platform. 

It allows marketers to authenticate and govern customer data and seamlessly deliver trusted and personalised experiences across customer touchpoints. With all customer data in one place, something that previously would have taken five steps and multiple tools can now take one. 

Turning that complex process of delivering clear and personalised brand messaging back to a simple one.