Debunked! 3 Myths About Customer Experience In The Digital Era

In working with our clients across industries, we’ve encountered several common misconceptions about what makes for an improved customer experience, how to measure it, and who should lead it.

Fact: Customers’ attention and loyalty are increasingly won by brand experience.

It sounds simple enough–and yet many organizations struggle to deliver. Why? Authentic and consistent experience transcends channels and involves reimagining the entire business to put the customer at the center.

In working with our clients across industries, we’ve encountered several common misconceptions about what makes for an improved customer experience, how to measure it, and who should lead it. Here we walk through three of the most common myths and how to address them.

Myth #1: Customer experience is a task best left to the CMO or CIO.

Not so fast. Functional C-suite executives often find themselves accountable for the entirety of customer experience, without having the authority or perspective needed to transform the entire organization. This leads to a disconnect. While some organizations have made experience design and execution part of the CMO agenda, or customer-facing technology the responsibility of the CIO, companies need to realize that customer experience in the digital age transcends every part of the organization, including all of its processes and systems. If the CEO does not set the customer experience agenda and commit to aligning every critical process, team, and decision with that vision, there can be no consistent experience.

Execution of the CEO’s vision is best accomplished by leaders with deep, cross-functional knowledge who can bridge silos and drive change through influence. To that end, some organizations have introduced the role of the chief marketing technology officer (CMTO). This individual is responsible for bringing marketing and technology together, seeing around corners, detailing the vision into concrete blueprints and plans, and driving radical digital transformation within marketing, communications, and IT. In short, a CMTO is an activist responsible for driving change through scrappy innovation, yet embracing enterprise scale and complexity.

Myth #2: Customer experience technology is complicated, and, mostly, it doesn’t work.

Many say that technology is complex and demands too much attention. They even worry that technology distracts from higher-order functions of creativity and strategy.

But the truth is, many organizations have made fragmented technology investments, resulting in unnecessary complexity and broken customer experiences. If you wonder why your favorite boutique retailer sends you completely irrelevant marketing messages, it’s more than likely because it has an incomplete profile of who you are, what you want, and your communication preferences. They probably have plenty of technology that somewhat works.

Marketing in a digital world is complex. Technology has moved from a back-office function to becoming the primary medium of customer dialogue. Marketing technology was developed in response to marketing’s complexity, and marketers must work diligently to understand and tame it. Wistful nostalgia for the Mad Men era of marketing isn’t going to turn back the clock. Technology is a tool to address the complexity of the digital world we live in. CMOs simply cannot accept somewhat working as a good enough answer.

The reason why Amazon kills it on customer experience is because Jeff Bezos cares about how the technology that supports the company’s customer experience is designed and built. Back in 2002, Bezos insisted that all Amazon technology components be built in a way that they could easily communicate with each other over web protocols, and he promised to fire anybody who didn’t do that. His focus continues to pay off. It’s no accident then that Amazon leads in customer experience, powered by technology unmatched in the industry.

Myth #3: The customer experience can’t be measured–and doesn’t translate to financial ROI.

Companies find tying customer experience investments to business outcomes very difficult–so difficult, in fact, that many simply do not try. We recently surveyed 223 marketing technology professionals, and nearly one-third (31%) said their organization does not have any metrics to measure customer experience. Yet organizations that focus on customer experience deliver superior shareholder returns. For example, Forrester Research found that CX leaders grow revenue at a much higher rate (17%) than laggards (3%).

As the adage goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Yes, measuring and tracking the customer experience is complex, but it is vital to driving improvement. While measures will vary by industry and business needs, some baseline customer experience metrics include overall customer experience rating, Net Promoter score, problem resolution time, social sentiment, and customer lifetime value. It is through careful evaluation and development of a customized scorecard that the organization can unify efforts to move the needle on customer experience and deliver results to the bottom line.

The pesky thing about myths is they often become damaging, self-fulfilling prophesies. That’s why it’s important to recognize them for that they are—and act decisively to counter them.