ustomer experience known as CX describes the interaction between customers and businesses at some point in their buying journey and is mainly focusing
on marketing, support, and everything that is related to them.
The customer experience is not just focusing on a set of actions but it is also focused on feelings. It is essential in modern business because it can determine how your customers will feel about your business.
What is CX in marketing?
CX in marketing represents the perception that customers have regarding a business or a company. Their impression is formed based on how they feel about the interactions with your brand. This process starts from the initial advertisement that they have seen and reaches the post-sales support, along with all the marketing CX touch points in between these two.
Every brand that has customers needs to offer a customer experience because CX in marketing is based on the opinions and perceptions of customers. A business or a brand can claim that it sells a superior product or provides a perfect customer experience, but the users and customers are the ones to decide.
Customer Experience can be a difficult aspect for a brand to control because all of the customer's actions are unstable and unpredictable. The best technique that a brand can implement is to evaluate and optimize every customer touchpoint and interaction to ensure customer satisfaction.
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Why should we integrate CX in Marketing?
The current shift towards eCommerce has required companies to have a marketing CX strategy that is aligned with the customer experience to create a seamless and also customized experience at every touchpoint in the buying process.
We should not neglect the fundamentals of marketing such as the 4P’s, product, price, place, and promotion, and the 4C’s, customer need, the cost to the customer, convenience, and communication because their effectiveness in marketing strategy depends on the alignment with each customer journey stage.
To be able to have maximum profitability, every brand must understand that marketing CX needs to work hand in hand, to have a better view of the customer journey which includes pre and post-purchase experience along with post-usage moments. So, the marketing CX department for a brand plays an essential role in attracting and engaging customers before they make the purchase decision.
The pre-purchase stage
Besides the stage in the acquisition process, marketing should be able to offer data-driven insights and segmentation strategies to provide personalized messages along with relevant content for different audiences.
This targeted method is implemented to make sure that every potential customer will resonate with the acquisition process and they will be more likely to make the purchase decision and trust the brand.
Marketing strategies that are centered around customers with personalized recommendations, tailored promotions, and seamless omnichannel experience will contribute to creating the perfect pre-purchase experience for potential customers.
Despite that, to have a CX in marketing strategy, the customer experience department needs to provide data and information for a brand to achieve effective communication with its targeted customer profiles. Those insights that are generated from surveys, tickets, or reviews are the ones to control the acquisition or the retargeting strategies.
The Post-Purchase stage
It’s important to know that the task is not completed when a customer clicks the “Finish order” button. In the post-purchase stage of the acquisition, the CX Marketing department will further conduct the process to ensure that all of the customers have a seamless and pleasing experience. This will include efficient order processing, fast and correct shipping, easy return and exchange, and lastly proactive customer support service.
CX marketing can help improve the post-purchase experience by providing valuable communication like order confirmations, shipment updates, and also personalized recommendations that are based on the history of purchases for the customer. At the same time, the CX marketing department is also responsible to collect and analyze every customer's feedback and reviews through various channels such as surveys, reviews, and interviews.
After the analyzing process, those employed who are focused on CX in marketing will have to translate them into some useful insights for the marketing team and generate an initiative of improvement based on the customers' feedback.
These two departments need to work together to implement those improvements and also revisit strategies to deal with the pain points to make sure that every customer’s expectation is completely met. So, each department will provide data and insights, to repeat the same cycle of acquisition, retention-loyalization to become increasingly better.
How Marketing helps every brand to improve the customer experience (CX)
It seems like the only job that the marketing department has is to spend all of the budget. But they are doing so much more for every brand and company. Marketing can play a crucial role in delivering a pleasing customer experience by applying many strategies and using different metrics during the customer journey.
Let’s see how marketing can contribute to each stage of the customer journey:
Growth and Awareness
The focus in this stage needs to be on the idea to attract and engage every potential customer. The Marketing teams are using SEO, SEM, or Social Media Marketing to boost the brand visibility online and generate awareness.
If a brand is implementing some pre-purchase techniques it will make sure that they will give a positive first impression of the brand, and the future relation between the brand and customers will start on the right foot.
Educate and Engage
After the customers are already aware of the brand, the marketing focus will shift to educating and engaging them. From the customer's perspective, this stage needs to offer valuable and relevant content and also recommendations.
All of the engaging experiences, even before they decide to place an order, can be helpful to enhance the customer journey.
Convert and Monetize
It’s important to know that if a brand wants to push people's interest into action, the marketing team needs to collaborate with the Customer Relationship Management department to be able to get all of the insights and materials.
So, in the process of combining insights that are derived from the customer data along with acquisition tactics, the Marketing team and CX will be able to deliver a smooth and also personalized buying experience and avoid any friction point that may appear during the process.
Post Conversion
The CX marketing teams are indeed dealing with the post-purchase initiatives, but marketing can still have a contribution to ensuring the seamless transition from sales to customer service while offering support and assistance. In the meantime, also the marketing team can have a role in building a brand reputation that is positive along with creating customer loyalty through their retention strategies.
So, we can consider these two as CX marketing, because marketing acts as the right hand for the CX department, and contributes to the most consistent, relevant, and personalized customer journey.
Marketing Predictions in 2024
In recent years, the customer experience has become a cornerstone of successful marketing strategies. Brands are choosing to no longer sell just products or services and now they are crafting memorable and personalized experiences that are resonating with their target audiences. This shift has changed the way companies and brands approach marketing because they are placing the customer at the heart of every decision.
In 2024, the focus on customer-centric marketing is set to intensify, and with all emerging technologies and new channels that are opening up, businesses must anticipate and adapt according to future customer needs and expectations. So let’s review some of the 2024 marketing predictions:
- The average level of satisfaction in customer experience will improve for the first time in three years.
The ratings in customer experience have been changing during these few years and the signs point to significant progress in 2024. Most of the brands will notice that their CX marketing ratings will stay relatively the same year-over-year, but a significant increase will be made by the small number of brands that continue to implement better practices in the customer journey process.
It is expected that these improvements will be announced at a high level in Europe and the APAC region (Asia-Pacific), much better than Canada and North America.
The improved customer service will play an important role in higher overall ratings, due to all of the firms that are taking advantage of technology such as Generative AI in contact centers, to ensure a smooth experience between employees and customers.
- Almost half of the big firms and companies will implement customer-facing generative AI.
Because generative AI is now in full expansion, more and more companies will want to test the technology in customer-facing applications whether they are ready or not. Companies will try first to implement these in the internal use cases, to build the perfect skills and expertise.
For instance, companies like Walmart and Morgan Stanley can be examples of controlling the internal applications before using the external ones. More companies are expected to do the same because almost 42% of AI decision-makers have identified the improving and personalizing of CX marketing as a top use case in technology.
- It is expected that one of the Thirst brands will launch some customer experiences that are biased, harmful, or inaccessible.
Because the number of returns to office (RTO) is growing fast, this situation will ruin the firm’s attempts to integrate marginalized people’s perspectives in the design process. As a result, most companies will probably release products and services that are not designed according to the key inclusive design standards and will damage their revenue, profit, resilience, and trust.
Companies such as Amazon and Meta have strict RTO policies, which can be an example of firms that are facing higher risks because of their large customer bases.
Those companies that are determined to implement RTO rules must design their employee experience according to accommodations requests, create some inclusive ways of working, and also maintain diversity in the recruitment process.
- Customers are expected to take political action on five big brands because of their choice to stay inactive.
We’ve already seen this situation in 2023 with Bud Light and Target, and most brands try to learn how to play it safe by choosing to stay neutral. But what is setting off customers is inaction and most brands will probably choose to do this as more important events are coming such as the US presidential election.
- Almost 60% of skeptics will use and enjoy generative AI, whether they are aware of it or not.
Generative AI is a hot topic currently but is raising concerns about the human impact of tech success. Indeed, skepticism is now widespread but the majority of consumers, including those who are doubting it, will adopt the generative AI in some cases unknowingly.
This is happening due to the growing number of companies and brands in 2024 that integrate some of the generative AI features into their everyday apps and products that people are using frequently. Whether they want to or not, generative AI overall will soon become a seamless and invisible part of consumer’s lives.
What are the next predictions for 2025?
As we look ahead to 2024, it’s obvious that the intersection of CX and innovative marketing strategies will continue to have significant success. We are now in an era where personalization, convenience, and engagement are the most important aspects and those brands that prioritize a customer-centric approach will likely succeed.
At the same time, it’s important to stay ahead of the new trends such as AI, immersive technology, or data-driven insights because they will allow marketers to meet customer needs and expectations.
If they can balance these two important aspects, customer experience and progressive marketing CX strategies, brands will create serious connections that will not only attract but retain loyal customers into their products and services.
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