In an age of rapidly changing expectations, successful customer engagement requires gaining a deeper understanding of the consumer lifecycle. Often this means creating authentic experiences that meet the consumers on their level and from their individual perspectives.
InMoment understands the challenges that many marketers now face. But by leveraging a wide range of customer experience, VoC, and customer engagement expertise and capabilities, InMoment has helped numerous brands navigate this dynamic landscape.
Recently Kristi Knight, CMO of InMoment, found time to talk with Loyalty360 about how brands can overcome many of these challenges, and the exciting opportunities they present.
What types of changes are you noticing in consumer expectations today?
Knight: Anybody who’s lived through the rise of social media knows how much has changed. Because we live in an environment where the customer is empowered and their voices have broader implications, their expectations are different. They want to share their stories, and have a real impact. People consult Google and Yelp reviews before visiting brands’ websites; they look for other people’s opinions of their experiences.
Knowing that is very important for customer experience professionals. We recently conducted a study and found the reason customers provide feedback is because they want to give back, and help create a better customer experience for themselves and for their friends and family. They want to be part of the solution, and I hope that companies are listening. If brands understand and respond appropriately there is really an opportunity to connect in an authentic manner, and build relationships that keep customers engaged in a way that has never been possible before.
How can brands create the authentic customer experiences that match these expectations?
Knight: Authenticity has to start with a good understanding of how you are currently perceived. Putting your brand promise out there is great, but if that is not how your customers see you, a brand promise means nothing. You have to start with a good understanding of what customers expect and be truly willing to listen. The ultimate goal for customer experience professionals is to remove the disconnect between the brand promise and the brand experience.
Data is a big part of understanding customers. But with so much data being generated, how can brands discover what is useful and actionable?
Knight: I have yet to talk to a marketing leader who says they need or want more data. We have lots of data. Knowing what to do with it and how to sift though all this data is a painful process. We have all that data. And it is helpful, but it is not particularly insightful.
I find that the most useful information comes from the customers themselves.
Often the most actionable and insightful information comes from listening to what the customers want to tell me, not what I want to know. And sometimes those things are the same, but often they are not. The clients who we work with who approach customer feedback from the standpoint of making it simple for customers to share their stories are making some really innovative moves.
How can effective feedback help brands really listen to customers?
Knight: Marketers spend a lot of time and energy designing surveys, but I think they have forgotten that the process of collecting customer feedback is also part of their experience. I recently purchased a car, and I loved the dealership. I was excited about the vehicle. I had a great experience … until I got the survey in the mail. It contained pages and pages of irrelevant questions about things they should have already known. So they were asking me what they wanted to know.
We’ve got to be very deliberate about giving customers an opportunity to talk. There are new places and ways of listening, as well as prompting technologies that help brands encourage customers to share more of their stories. It is the customer’s story, in their words, that really has power for marketers.
With the marketing landscape changing so quickly, how can brands keep up with the needs and wants of customers today?
Knight: There is both an art and a science to marketing, and we need to maintain a balance. The science is listening to your customers. The art is in figuring out what to do about the feedback they provide. To me, that is being able to take the data and create an understanding of what customers are trying to tell you. Understanding the intentions of the customer really provides opportunity.