Have you ever clicked on a website or digital advertisement because you really had an interest in learning more about a seller’s product or service only to abandon the effort because it was just too annoying a process? My guess is that most likely the answer would be, who hasn’t?
For experienced business professionals, the battle between those responsible for optimizing the financials and “customer-centric” minded marketing practitioners is a debate and experience that is well known for causing division within an organization. Let’s be honest, the science, or numbers, of doing business is all about optimizing return on investment. When it comes to measuring the impact of customer-focused campaigns the numbers are also very important for justifying and optimizing the artistic side of things. However, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. “There is so much pressure on marketing teams to deliver metrics related to lead acquisition and ROI that the customer experience is becoming an afterthought” says Anita Brearton, Founder/CEO and Co-CMO of CabinetM.
Studies indicate that investing in customer experience pays off for businesses that keep up with those trends. Businesses that prioritize customer experience grow revenue 1.7 times faster than businesses that don’t. They also grow the customer lifetime value by more than twice on average compared to organizations that don’t.
The issue is that some digital gatekeeping efforts are being overdone. Asking a potential customer to input identity information numerous times upon visiting a website can become annoying, driving prospective customers away. Once the necessary personal details are collected, move on and stop asking the customer to perform the same task over and over.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and Bots are very productive technologies that can and will collect vital information for analyzing the benefits of a campaign. However, not having the human element to back up the technology will damage credibility and counter the positive effects of personalized, authentic, and credible content. Simply turning on the technology and walking away can often result in potential customers walking away.
Have you ever called customer service and been asked to provide automated inputs to route you to the proper department only to receive a recording that goes something like this? “Thank you for your call. All of our customer service representatives are currently busy helping other callers, but your call is very important to us. Please hang on for the next available representative to assist you.” The artificial recorded message continues to repeat itself over and over again until it becomes very clear that you and your call are not all that important to them. Despite all the amazing, efficient technology, people with the skillsets to use the tools effectively are vital to creating and optimizing customer-centric experiences.
When delivering interesting webinars and recordings online, short is better than long and too much information is too much. Users find videos and recordings of three minutes or less in length to be tolerable. Anything longer risks the listener being turned off and clicking off. Resist cluttering the website with unedited, rambling content. Establish comprehensive customer experience goals and objectives in the planning stage of a campaign and initiate a simple but effective program of analytics to measure the campaign’s success or failure against those goals and objectives without creating a miserable customer experience.
At Junction Creative Solutions (Junction), our digital marketing professionals are experienced in leveraging the latest technology to create positive customer experiences for our clients. To learn more about how Junction executes smart, purpose-driven marketing campaigns to optimize marketing spend, call 678-944-7219 today.