10 steps to powerful customer experience management

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Customer experience management (CXM) is the buzzword of the moment, placing customer needs at the center of communication. But CXM is not possible without professional marketing automation. Merifond, the expert in customer relationship management, has summarized ten steps to efficient marketing automation.A conversation at eye level - this is what customers and companies want in equal measure. However, in order to offer customers relevant, up-to-date and personalized content, every action they take must be registered and analysed so that a holistic customer picture can be created from many individual facets. The insights gained should flow directly into communication and enable an optimal, personalized customer experience. The magic word here is Customer Experience Management, or CXM for short. This approach places customer needs at the center of all of a company's activities and actions: by creating positive customer experiences, an emotional bond between the customer and the company should be established. However, successful CXM cannot be implemented without marketing automation. The entire communication workflow is automated based on the recorded customer behavior and the customer profiles created: With the help of special software, the data is bundled and evaluated in order to quickly and reliably determine customer needs and interests, which in turn are then automatically incorporated into the communication. Merifondthe service provider for customer relationship management, presents the following 10-step program for efficient marketing automation.Step 1: Recognizing the true potential of marketing automationMarketing automation is often only used consistently in the area of online customer acquisition and click generation - until the sale is closed. But it is much more than just a lead machine. After the initial threshold of setting up and setting up the appropriate technical solution, marketing automation offers a range of possibilities - from new customer acquisition to individual reactivation of existing customers.Step 2: Set up the content concept correctlyMarketing automation brings clear advantages in the conception of content creation - basic structures remain the same, only certain elements should be individual or thematically interchangeable. CXM professionals do not completely redesign the newsletter every three months. The right content concept saves time and money and increases the quality of the marketing content. For example, the product specialists can take care of updating the product news section in a newsletter, while the advice editors maintain the advice section.Step 3: Structure content at all levelsWhether customer localization according to branches, business or product areas or weighting according to customer activity or even purchasing power: content should be created appropriately for each level - both for the defined customer groups and the target customer clusters determined by the algorithm - so that only optimal and relevant content is communicated.Step 4: Have the courage to massCompanies are often afraid of flooding customers with too much information. However, relevant and interesting content - especially if you know that the customer is interested in the topic - is never perceived as annoying, even if it is sent frequently. Starting with a single topic, a large number of communication processes can be automated. Content overlaps are normal and, if they are relevant, are also accepted by the customer.Step 5: Actively use data miningCompanies think they know everything - but in reality they have a very limited view of their customers. With the help of data mining, company-relevant information can be selected from a large database and even upcoming "events" can be determined from the customer and sales data, e.g. the time when a customer will move house or other life changes such as the birth of a child. In this way, it is possible to react automatically to these events - sometimes even before they occur.Step 6: Conduct data-driven marketingMarketing automation workflows must be dynamic and always take changes into account. For example, if the customer buys a product or if a complaint is received, a new response must be made. Good CXM managers are attentive observers who skillfully prepare their findings for the automation process, continuously adapt the marketing processes to them and are not afraid to break new ground.Step 7: Let customers "collaborateHandraiser campaigns, reactions to the content of emails or newsletters, lots of little "opinion clicks": customers like to be asked for their opinion and are actively involved. Clever market research on worthwhile topics in turn leads to tailored communication with the customer. This increases relevance for the customer.Step 8: Let the customer decideCXM stands for interaction and dialog with the customer. Two-way communication means that the customer can actively influence the exchange of information with the company: They can determine the pace (e.g. the frequency of newsletter delivery) or change the content (e.g. exclude certain product groups when receiving offers). This applies not only to regular communication, but to all areas.Step 9: Focus on customer experienceThe customer is king - and he wants to be delighted. It is therefore extremely important to always keep in mind what the customer gets back from the company with their concerns, interests and activities. This means observing the customer, analyzing their click behavior and focusing on their needs.Step 10: Controlling, controlling, controllingMarketing automation in particular requires proper controlling. Due to the high complexity of the data and the enormous volumes of data, this is definitely no longer possible manually. The computing power of many systems also collapses under the mass of data. It is the task of the marketing controller to qualify an efficient business intelligence tool that can analyze every dimension of campaigns, transactions and customer data.