This first appeared in the September Issue of AdNews. You can subscribe to the print edition or download a digital version here.
In today’s brand-rich world customer experience is everything. Andrew Swinton, managing director ANZ Williams Lea Tag, a leader in creative production and strategic sourcing, discusses the trends and challenges he hears from brands in their quest to perfect customer experience and stand out in a crowded marketplace.
What challenges do you see brand managers facing at the moment?
Despite the metrics-driven nature of marketing, there is a surprising lack of integrated data out there. Marketers have so many siloed systems in place to collect data throughout the customer journey, from CRM to their digital asset management tools, that often they do not have a clear overview of their data resulting in a fragmented understanding of the customer and what motivates them.
This makes it challenging for brands to improve customer experience. It’s meant a surge in brand hires away from the traditional marketing talent pool, with data scientists hired to make better sense of all of the available data.
There is a common struggle among marketers to find the right technology to match their needs, which often goes hand-in-hand with budget constraints dictating which technology can be used, as well as the more traditional issues associated with reduced budgets.
What can brands do to improve the customer experience?
There is a tendency to overthink customer experience and make it more complex than necessary, when really the simplest experience is usually the best. In a crowded marketplace where customers are drowning in information – simplifying the experience can make your brand stand out.
Couple this with greater personalisation in messaging, so customers receive product offerings that are meaningful to them and you quickly improve customer experience and achieve stronger customer loyalty and brand affinity as part of the process.
You need to present customers with choice, but not make the choices for them – do not treat them like children.
Is the key to brand success simplicity?
Just as a simplified customer experience is proving to be successful, so too is simplification on a larger scale. Many brands are choosing to strip back their services and products to make their offerings more simple. Look at Netflix for example; a brand that offers a simple service but also a personalised customer experience that improves the process of watching movies and series. Another great example is Google – the king of simplified customer experience – a customer searches for something and they are presented with a list of relevant items to choose from. How much more simple can you get?
Ultimately, what these brands understand is that everything they do is driven by customer need, this comes above everything else. They don’t get tied down trying to satisfy internal KPIs or by complicated processes and systems, instead they focus on what the customer wants at all times.
This need for simplification also manifests itself in a need to streamline processes and create marketing campaigns and messaging that reflects this. This can be as simple as localising content from a global campaign to ensure relevance in a specific market.
How do you achieve simplicity of CX with so many channels?
Everyone talks about the sheer number of channels they have to work with, but at the end of the day it is not about channels – it is all about making meaningful connections through consistent conversations with the customer.
Customers want to engage with brands on the channel of their choice, and they want to be able to do this across multiple channels seamlessly. Place the customer at the centre of everything and you will create customer experiences that transcend channels.
Brands should also ensure that they can sufficiently concentrate on everything customer related and leave the production, activation and administrative side of their campaigns to agency partners. This way they won’t lose sight of customer needs.
Who is getting it right?
Diageo has done a fantastic job at this with Bundaberg Rum. The Bundy team create relevant and consistent conversations with their loyal communities across channels. The irreverent and playful tone they use resonates in everything they do and is key to retaining the awareness of their customers. They always stay relevant and there is a simplicity about their campaigns that helps drive their core messaging home.
What do you think the future holds for brand management?
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for brand management, but one thing is for certain: everything has to have an emotive edge. Yes, AI will become a major component of brand management; we are already seeing this with the increased use of chatbots to enhance customer experience. But what we will see more of is the human side of AI, technology will start to take on more human characteristics and develop a personality, much as Siri at Apple has. Brands will need to look to create this ‘human touch’ so that they can connect with their customers and create lasting relationships.
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