Skip to main

Experience Dynamic Closes the Gap Between Marketing and CX

Authors: Chris Johnson Chris Johnson
Posted Under: Customer Experience
Listen to this Article

Experience Dynamic Closes the Gap Between Marketing and CX

I’ve been in the digital marketing world dating back to 1996, including launching my own digital agency in 2002 and leading an independent integrated agency since 2013. Now I’m leading a new collective that helps our clients navigate the transformational change they need to compete in what we believe is the future of corporate competition: Customer Experience.

I think most recognize the two letter abbreviation “CX” to be customer experience but what does that mean? Who is responsible for it and why should anyone care? 

I used my quarantine downtime at the onset of the pandemic to consider the future of our agency, partnerships we may want to enter, and where successful companies (see our clients) were going to need to accelerate to weather this storm. Each answer I was forming came back to an aspect of Customer Experience (CX). 

First, what is CX? 

In short, I settled on the definition that CX is the sum total of every interaction someone has with your brand. Including:

  • Advertising to consumers
  • Content they consume
  • Digital experiences in which they interact or observe
  • Non-digital experience in which they interact or observe
  • Communication from the company
  • Company representatives with whom they communicate 
  • The products and services they purchase
  • The customer service they receive
  • Friction, or lack thereof, throughout the customer journey
  • Brand reputation and expectations

I’d like to also mention that we believe that the “C” in CX has more connotations than just customer. We believe you could replace the “C” with any word depending on your industry and audience: stakeholders, clients, students, parents, patrons, stockholders, buyers, patients, members, employees, et al. 

Ninety-one percent of customers say they’re more likely to make another purchase after a great service experience. Click To Tweet

Who owns CX? 

Who in an organization is the champion of this effort? This stat slapped me in the face and left me thinking that it wouldn’t happen as long as our agency was involved: 

76% of CMOs say their jobs are on the line if their CX strategy fails.” – CMO Council 2019 (pre-pandemic this was even a concern!) 

Sure. One person needs to be responsible for the organization’s CX strategy. However, as I dove deeper into the CX impact, it has to be embedded in your organization’s culture. Employee Experience is just as important from how employees are recruited, trained, promoted and grow JUST AS MUCH as the consumer’s with the brand and its employees. 

Everyone in an organization is responsible for the experience of the brand. From the inventory room to the CEO office, each person has impactful actions and attitude which can take your brand experience from one your audience endures to one they enjoy. 

If your customer experience is not putting money IN the bank for your organization, it is most certainly taking it OUT. Click To Tweet

CX as a company culture

This past holiday season I had a run in with exceptional CX. The short of it is that I ordered a last-ish minute gift for my wife from Tiffany & Co. before Christmas and had it delivered to my office. Their delivery provider tried twice to deliver it at 9 PM when the office was closed. Then they left me a note letting me know that it was headed back to Tiffanyland. 

The next day I got a phone call from a CSR to fix the situation. She was great, realized what the problem was and overnighted my package without me even asking for it. Christmas saved! A great CX experience to follow a poor one. 

Companies can’t always bat 1.000, but how it was handled with proactivity and willingness to fix it as quickly as possible left me as a Tiffany fan. 

Now, it may be easy to look at Tiffany’s gross margins and say this is only for large, profitable companies, but we could look at this through a different lens and ask: Can Tiffany do this because they’re such a profitable, successful brand, or is Tiffany a profitable successful brand because great CX is core to their business?

Why should anyone care about CX? 

In the 2021 State of the Connected Customer report developed by Salesforce, they say: 

Ninety-one percent of customers say they’re more likely to make another purchase after a great service experience. 

and…

Eighty-five percent of B2B buyers and 79% of consumers said that the experience a company provides is AS IMPORTANT as the products or services. 

So, what are the business implications here? 

If your customer experience is not putting money IN the bank for your organization, it is most certainly taking it OUT. 

A recent study by Twilio estimated that six years of digital transformation had been condensed into months, as part of the COVID-19 lockdowns. swept across industries. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction has been declining since 2018 and remains weak, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Closing the gap between marketing and CX

Allow me to introduce you to Experience Dynamic. Experience Dynamic is launching as digital transformation has accelerated, often outpacing brands capabilities to fulfill promises. This is a collection of data, marketing and training groups dedicated to solving the customer experience gaps of our clients. 

As my friend Jay Baer puts it:  “Customer experience marketing without strategy is a recipe for frustration and ineffectiveness. Conversely, customer experience strategy without execution tends to be a lot of ‘holding hands by the campfire’ exercises. To make a meaningful difference, you have to combine both. Combining strategy and execution in one place better serves today’s CMOs who are responsible for guiding an increasingly complex customer journey.”

He also says, “The data shows that marketing departments are increasingly responsible for the entirety of the customer experience. Now is the right time to bring together these disciplines, with the understanding that it is a full-line process of research, strategy, execution and metrics.”

So much of the focus we see today is on the pre-sales customer experience. As we talked about 80% of CMOs today are charged with leading CX transformation, along with delivering on growth. However, the reality is that to truly deliver exceptional experiences change must be made across the entire enterprise. 

Ready for CX transformation?

Through Convince & Convert’s involvement and expertise, we are excited to be building a collective that is prepared to help business leaders tackle customer experience transformation by guiding our customers in their evolutions toward truly integrated CX transformation.”

Let’s work together to take your audience experience from enduring to enjoying. Contact Experience Dynamic today for a free consultation.

 

Blog Banner Image

Get our best tips in your inbox! Join the smartest marketers who receive our ON newsletter.

Uncover the hidden drivers and expectations of today’s consumers from Generation Z to Baby Boomers.

The Experience Dynamic collective presents a first-of-its-kind report sure to get you ahead of the competition. Download the full report, plus watch the recorded webinar video. Enjoy the lively and informative discuss between Chris Johnson, CEO of Experience Dynamic, and Jason Dorsey, Behavioral Researcher, Author, & Speaker.

Request Report and Webinar

b2b influencer

Ready to Get Started?

I am looking for...

(Required)