Customer Journey Lessons Learned from Salesforce’s ExactTarget

In ExactTarget’s Customer Journey Lessons Learned: Your Guide to Building Lasting Relationships they share:

Customers aren’t willing to give their loyalty to brands that don’t understand their tastes and preferences or personalize messages specifically to them.

Don’t let data pass you by. Each time a customer interacts with your brand, it’s an opportunity to collect critical data that will help you personalize your communications in the future based on each customer’s preferences.

Create customer profiles. What good is data if it’s not in one place? Creating profiles of customer behavior across all channels can help you make the most of your data and tailor messages based on a comprehensive view.

Only brands that consider every element in the customer journey—and are prepared for the unexpected—will come out on top and develop real, ongoing relationships.

Send messages relevant to a customer’s status. When a customer has an unpleasant brand experience, the last thing they want is a marketing message—especially a product review. By flagging a customer’s status, you can create a cohesive experience that matches each individual’s journey.

Bring together marketing and operations. A customer’s journey is more than just marketing touchpoints. Operations activities like customer service, shipping, billing, etc., make a up a key part of the brand experience. When marketing and operations come together you can create truly personalized interactions.

When customers feel bombarded by messages—even if they are important and relevant—they lose faith in the brand and could overlook even the most effective communications.

Set expectations for frequency. Know the maximum number of messages you want to send a customer across a specific time period (day, week, month, etc.) and stick to it!

Learn from unengaged subscribers. Customers who are unengaged can tell you a lot about your messaging strategy. Look for trends across subscribers—frequency and relevancy can often play a role in engagement.

Customers are operating at lightning speed across online and offline channels, and they expect brands to keep up.

Map out the customer journey. Take a look at your current campaigns to identify where they fall in the customer lifecycle and if there are potential pitfalls in the customer experience.

Identify quick wins. Finding ways to improve the customer journey can have immediate business impact! A good place to start is your customer’s frequency and channel preferences.

Collect data about your customers’ interactions across channels and touchpoints to develop profiles and map their journey. Use this information to monitor and measure your customer experience to ensure your customers receive the right message at the right time at the touchpoint that they want to receive it. All operations in your organization that touch your customer needs to a part of your customer experience program – Sales, Marketing, Service, Support, Billing, IT, etc. – everyone!