Rising Marketing Budgets Means CMO's Own CX Tech Selection

Tuesday, Jun 28th 2022
Team working on project, making decisions, using technology

A recent Gartner study found that marketing budgets ascended to 12% of company revenue in 2016. Additionally, due to the explosion of digital, the CMO is taking on more responsibility. Gartner found that over half of companies with customer experience functions report in to the CMO.

The same study also revealed that CMO marketing tech spending is on track to exceed the CIO technology spend in 2017, as marketing continues to look after a growing number of customer touchpoints.

The pivotal responsibility of selecting the right technology to support and drive the customer experience (CX) strategy now rests on the shoulders of the CMO. And it’s a tall order.

As new applications, software and solutions continue to cloud the market, one easily gets lost in the world of CX technology.

Where do you begin?

The key is to take a step back and evaluate your organization’s needs based on your existing infrastructure, interdepartmental processes, industry regulations, your long-term CX strategy and how it connects to the overall customer journey.

It’s critical to avoid using band-aid solutions to address your CX challenges.

You must put in place a technology infrastructure that will sustain and propel your CX strategy for years to come. One that brings together business users and key stakeholders throughout your organization in the name of exceptional customer experience.

But when it comes to customer communications – in most cases – the process is broken.

Gartner notes, “customers expect organizations to know them and communications to be tailored to their specific context through whichever channel and on whichever device they are using at the time. Yet organizations typically take a fragmented approach to customer communications — separate groups (marketing, customer service, sales and so on) share responsibility for specific types of customer interaction, but no group manages the channels in a cohesive way.”

Traditional communications such as contracts, statements and welcome kits are typically owned and compiled by IT and operations, while the social and digital channels are owned by marketing and the digital teams. Rarely does the customer voice and the customer’s experience get incorporated into their design and delivery.

As the individual in charge of the customer, it is your job to change that.

In volume 1 of this new industry report, "CX Market Insights with Gartner Research" Gartner and Quadient share some thoughtful perspectives on how customer communications management (CCM) is leveraged as a means to improve the customer experience, eliminate departmental silos, reduce regulatory risk, and drive efficiency.

After you read it, we want to hear from you. What are some of your most pressing CX challenges? How will you bring your organization together in the name of customer experience? Please email me at t.sigal@gmc.net  

Sincerely,

Tamir Sigal
Chief Marketing Officer
Quadient