Establish Baseline Metrics for CX Improvement

Jonathan Moran, Head of MarTech Solutions Marketing at SAS talks about the recent additions to the SAS product suite, how brand leaders should choose the right tech solution for their stack and more for CX improvement. 

How do you establish a solid baseline for customer experience metrics? Do you use Voice of the Customer data? According to Jonathan Moran, Head of MarTech Solutions Marketing at SAS, these two aspects are important for marketers who want to prioritise customer experience in martech initiatives. 

“Measure current customer experience related metrics to have a baseline from which to improve. Many brands try to improve their customer experience, but they don’t really know where they’re starting – so collecting data around net promoter score, customer lifetime value, and other customer-centric metrics will aid marketers in creating a baseline to improve against. Analytics can aid in this quest,” he says. 

Jonathan is a seasoned professional with over 22 years of experience in software marketing, specialising in the dynamic realm of B2B SaaS. Collaborating closely with sales leadership, marketing, and sales enablement teams, Jonathan crafts unique messaging, compelling digital content, and engaging events to drive conversions and boost solutions software revenues.

CXM Today talks to him about SAS’s approach to the integration of marketing technologies to create a seamless and efficient marketing ecosystem, the latest additions to the product suite, and nudges him on expert advice…

Excerpts from the interview:

How do you align marketing technology initiatives with overall business objectives?

Once you define the objectives of your business – whether that’s growth or margin related, customer satisfaction or lifetime value related, or some other relative objective — you can then structure marketing technology initiatives accordingly. 

For instance, if I am interested in improving customer satisfaction, I might invest in marketing technology solutions or initiatives that are focused on creating and executing personalisation programs. So, it’s really all about tying the objectives of your business with needed capabilities and marketing software and solutions.

How does SAS approach the integration of various marketing technologies to create a seamless and efficient marketing ecosystem?

 SAS is very open and agnostic when it comes to integration. From a marketing perspective, we employ what is called the SAS Connector Framework to provide brands the capability to integrate with any solution that has an open and publicly available APIs. And most marketing technology solutions do. 

Additionally, at the data level, we employ what is called a “hybrid architecture” that doesn’t require brands to lift and shift data. So, if brands can work from a common data repository, then integration becomes much easier particularly at the data and analysis level. 

Many brands like to use our embedded customer data platform capabilities as a place from which they can ingest, normalise, and activate data – not just for our marketing solutions – but other solutions in their ecosystem as well. Starting at the data level provides brands the ability to create a seamless and efficient marketing ecosystem from the ground up.

Tell us about your latest suite of products. How does it integrate or work with other systems?

Our Customer Intelligence portfolio is comprised of two Software-as-a-Service applications – our Customer Intelligence 360 Marketing Suite and our 360 Match Advertising Suite. With over 20 years’ experience, and a global install base, our Marketing solutions sit above our SAS Viya platform at the intersection between:

• deep customer Insight
• cross-channel marketing
• personalization at scale
• and real-time interaction management. 

Our supply-side advertising capability is an embedded part of our Marketing suite for digital content delivery and can also stand alone as an independent ad-serving platform for Media companies, Publishers and Brands.

Both suites are no-code business applications for customer analysts, marketing and channel operations, and other digital teams.  They balance ease of use for business users with the flexibility to call on the power of our analytical depth.

Also Read: Are Your CX Metrics Tied to Business Goals?

What advice would you give marketers on how to prioritise customer experience in martech initiatives?

There are two main pieces of advice that I would give to marketers. The first one is to measure. Measure current customer experience related metrics to have a baseline from which to improve. Many brands try to improve their customer experience, but they don’t really know where they’re starting. Collecting data around net promoter score, customer lifetime value, and other customer-centric metrics will aid marketers in creating a baseline to improve against. Analytics can aid in this quest.

The second bit of advice that I would provide is to query customers or use voice of the customer related data to prioritise and improve upon the customer experience. We see many brands creating internal programmes and initiatives that do not account for the customer and the experience that they receive. Instead, they set up marketing or customer interaction programmes that look at what the brand can or cannot provide, instead of what the customer wants. 

Ask customers what works and what doesn’t, and then create an action plan to address any customer experience related deficiencies. Reworking these CX programs and processes often results in not only an improved customer experience but increased operational efficiencies for the brand – paving the way for digital transformation.

How should brand leaders choose the right tech solution from the right technology partner for their stack?

While there are a lot of marketing technology solutions that serve a variety of different needs, I think the best approach is to consider what capabilities matter most to you within a marketing technology solution. Is it the content creation or creative component, is it the data management component, is it the analytics or measurement component, or is it the customer workflow and approval components? 

Once you answer these questions, I think you can then narrow it down to a list of qualified providers from there. Additionally, take a look at things like customer references, independent analyst evaluations, product and peer review sites, and other sources of information. This should help brand leaders make the right decision on a marketing tech solution. At SAS, we see the following differentiators in the Martech space that set us apart:

• Simplicity. We give you everything you need in a single interface to perform AI based customer engagement.
  
• Flexibility.  We can work with any type of data, across any environment – and activate an interaction to any channel or destination.
  
• Approachability. SAS is a global brand, not a regional one. We localise in over 100 languages and have a presence in almost that many countries around the world.
  
• Scalability. We grow with our customers as they grow – and have many brands that have 8-12 instances of CI deployed across many regions.