Creating Connected CX – The Next Wave of Success in the Marketing World

Building and scaling a business has never been simple. But these days it feels more challenging.

Brands are trying to predict growth in a dynamic macro-environment. The economy is down, the market is volatile, and people are still navigating through the noise of hybrid work.

And while we’re navigating through all this uncertainty, businesses are dealing with another major shift – which is delivering a connected CX.

Over the past few years, the strategies that brands relied on to attract, engage, and delight their customers have started to fade off. Now, it’s much more complex to generate demand, drive leads, reach prospects, and meet customers’ higher expectations.

On top of that, it’s harder than ever to connect with customers.

Today, brands are facing a major challenge of disconnection caused by three major reasons – disconnected systems, disconnected people, and disconnected customers.

The catch for success in 2023 and beyond? Brands must find a way to weave together a connected experience.

But what does connected experience actually mean and how to get it right?

We’ll find out in this article! So, let’s dive right in!

The What and Why of Connected CX

The rapid advancement of technology and the proliferation of digital channels have given rise to a new paradigm known as “connected CX.”

Connected CX refers to the seamless integration and synchronization of customer interactions across multiple touchpoints and channels. It encompasses all the interactions a customer has with a brand, including online experiences, mobile apps, social media, physical stores, call centers, and more.

The goal is to create a consistent, personalized, and frictionless customer journey, regardless of the channel or device used.

Here’s why you need to deliver a connected CX:

• Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Connected CX enables a unified and seamless experience for customers. It eliminates the need for customers to repeat information or switch between channels, leading to higher satisfaction.
• Competitive Advantage: With it, you can leverage data from automated processes and self-learning software and build better customer relationships to get a competitive edge.
• Rich Data-Driven Insights: Connected CX generates a wealth of data that you can analyze to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points. By leveraging this data, you can identify trends, make data-driven decisions, and implement targeted marketing strategies.

How to Create & Deliver Connected CX to Delight Customers

Customers are not looking for transactions, they are looking for relationships. Here are the four ways you can leverage to deliver connected CX to delight customers.

1. Leverage Marketing Automation

Having a solid marketing automation platform in your tech stack can help you deliver connected CX. With marketing automation, you can optimize and streamline processes such as marketing, order processing, shipment, and post-sales support. It can help you deliver a consistent brand experience that meets customer expectations and build trust. Additionally, you can map customer journeys. Customer journey mapping is a great way to understand the target persona that makes your customer base. Once you’ve mapped out a range of journeys, you’ll be able to identify opportunities to sprinkle in a touch of personalization and consistent experience.

2. Integrate Your MarTech Stack

Today, businesses are constantly adding new software, data, and apps to their tech stack. While every department within a business may act independently, It is crucial that the systems are integrated. if your systems aren’t connected with other departments of your business, this can create data silos. According to a report by MuleSoft^[i], data silos remain a significant challenge to creating integrated user experiences.

Disconnected technology leads to disconnected experiences. You can deliver connected experiences by integrating different software in your technology stack that will help you:

• Create a single view of customers
• Get more out of your customer data
• Access data from anywhere, any time
• Streamline work processes
• Analyze data in real-time

3. Choose the Right Technology

As customer expectations evolve, so must your marketing strategies and techniques. The right blend of MarTech tools will enable you to create hyper-personalized customer interactions throughout the customer journey and effectively practice customer-centric marketing.

According to Gartner^[ii], CX now drives 66% of customer loyalty, more than price and brand combined. The right technology is key to creating connected experiences that build loyalty. For instance, look for omnichannel features in your software and choose technology that serves multiple purposes and has a long-term strategic & profitable business.

4. Use of Artificial Intelligence

Customers rely heavily on chatbots to resolve their issues or get updates about their existing queries. And conversational AI is the best choice for how businesses can respond to their customers instantly. By empowering customers to receive instant responses in any place and time, you can build a real connection that meets their expectations no matter what channel they are on. AI is being leveraged by businesses across all industries and throughout various stages and processes. From the development of code and providing recommendations to the customers by analyzing the user behavior and customer journey to using chatbots for customer support, AI is becoming an integral part of all systems and processes.

5. Collect and Leverage Data

By collecting and analyzing data from various sources like purchase history, browsing behavior, demographics, and customer feedback, companies can develop detailed customer profiles. This helps in understanding customer preferences, needs, and expectations, enabling personalized and targeted interactions.

6. Prioritize Personalization

Personalization plays a significant role in delivering a connected CX as it helps in tailoring interactions and offerings to individual preferences. Personalization makes customers feel valued and understood. By delivering relevant content, product recommendations, and offers based on individual preferences, organizations can capture customer attention and drive higher engagement. By making personalization a core component of the CX strategy, organizations can differentiate themselves in the market, and foster loyalty and advocacy.

Real-World Examples of Brands Delivering Connected Customer Experiences

For years, brands have relied on legacy CRMs to manage their customer relationships. But that won’t cut in this new world of marketing. Therefore, these two brands have brought their powerful solutions together to deliver connected CX.

1. HubSpot

• Connected Applications: HubSpot’s five hubs (Marketing, Sales, Service, CMS, and Operations) are designed to connect your entire front office. They give your teams a single, unified view of the customer journey.
• Connected Platform: HubSpot’s CRM platform powers the hubs with connected data. You can customize the platform according to your needs and utilize more than 1100 app integration partners to witness flexibility at scale.
• Connected Community: Brands need more than technology to grow. HubSpot brings together educational content through its Academy, resource center, and expertise through partner networks.

2. Amazon

Amazon is the world’s biggest online retailer. So, what got Amazon where they are? No, it’s not just the products, it’s the connected customer experience.

Amazon has always focused on ‘customers’ and based on this vision, they have created a comprehensive ecosystem that spans various touchpoints and channels, including its website, mobile app, voice-activated assistant (Alexa), smart devices (such as Echo speakers), and physical stores (such as Amazon Go and Amazon Books).

This connected ecosystem allows customers to seamlessly transition between channels while maintaining a consistent experience. Also, Amazon Prime is a subscription-based service that offers various benefits, including fast shipping, streaming services, exclusive deals, and more.

By bundling these services, Amazon provides a unified and connected experience across shopping, entertainment, and other offerings, making it easier for customers to engage with the brand in multiple ways.

The Bottom Line

Businesses that will win in the future marketing space are the ones that will hyperfocus on delivering connected customer experiences. And you can efficiently do that by connecting customer data and your systems. It will help you gain real-time insights that power responsive and relevant experiences across all touchpoints.

Statistics References:

• ^[i] MuleSoft.com
• ^[ii] Cmswire.com