Quick. Critical. This week’s TheCustomer QT covers the latest news on CMO tenure, reasoning with data, support for your CX, the low-code revolution, making your digital transformation work, and design thinking for the win!
Happy skimming!
UH-OH 
CMO Tenure Study
Quick Take: Average CMO tenure in 2020 dropped to 40 months, the lowest it has been since 2009. Median tenure fell to 25.5 months, the lowest on record. A somewhat surprising trend is that CEO tenure at the same companies in our CMO Tenure Study hit an all-time high in 2020, at 80 months.
DATA
The Power of Unstructured Feedback
Quick Take: 84% of Marketing and CX professionals see the value in unstructured feedback and data, but only 30 percent of data collected today is unstructured.
Good Intentions – Intent Data
Quick Take: Of the marketers polled, 46% are executing and measuring an intent data strategy. Another 13% are using intent data, but not as part of a well-defined strategy. In contrast, 23% are developing a strategy but are not yet using it, and 8% are looking into it. Also, 5% have no plans to use intent data in the future, while 5% plan to use it. Of those who use intent data, 70% rate their digital marketing strategy as very successful versus 33% of non-users.
CHANNELS
The Untapped Wealth of WeChat Data
Quick Take: By the end of December 2020, WeChat had 1.2 billion active monthly users. Its versatility extends far beyond communications. It allows users to make payments (with retailers ranging from major supermarkets to tiny street vendors), hail cabs, book flights and hotels, do their banking, play games, make and share short videos (similar to TikTok). Meanwhile, its ‘Mini-Programs’—applications within the WeChat app—let brands engage directly with consumers via marketing activity and ecommerce.
CX
Better Customer and Employee Experiences
Quick Take: Eighty percent of customers say that “the experience a company provides is as important as its product or services” according to the Salesforce State of the Connected Customer, 4th Edition.
Don’t Abandon Your Chief Customer Officer
Quick Take: Saying, “welcome our new Chief Customer Officer whom I’ve hired because we need to be more Customer-centric,” isn’t going to be nearly enough. You need to finish up that introduction with, “and goodness, am I excited for her to dig into all of our processes, identify where they’re causing pain for our Customers, and work with you and your teams to improve what we do.” That’s a good start.
Research Reveals Poor Customer Experience Leads to Customer Churn
Quick Take: In fact, one third of consumers considered breaking up with a brand while another 65% severed ties with a brand as a result of a poor customer experience (CX)
Customer Journeys for the Post-Pandemic World
Quick Take: Customers happily serve as the engine of business outcomes when doing so is a byproduct of achieving their own intended outcomes. Every time a customer achieves their purpose, the company that enabled them to do so receives revenue or some other value (loyalty, advocacy, etc.). But the vast majority of customer journeys I see focus on company outcomes. They guide marketing or sales or service teams, perhaps inadvertently, to manipulate customers toward a business outcome. This practice is so engrained that we have a name for it: The funnel.
TECHNOLOGY
Some Technologies Leave You Feeling Exhausted
Quick Take: “As a psychologist, I have to tell you that if there is one thing that we’ve learned through COVID-19, it’s that we aren’t there yet,” Margalit suggests. “That is, we aren’t ready to transform our everyday lives through the digital world—not completely.”
Low- and No-Code Platforms Turn Marketers Into Data Scientists
Quick Take: In the presence of a low-code environment, data science will shift to move the analytics directly into the hands of the marketer, in effect making them the data scientist, according to Smith. Such “marketer-scientists” will then move forward becoming ever more specialized, as they seek to add value to the business. “Rather than being replaced by AI,” Smith said, “their creativity, insight, intuition and all the other things that make a human being unique will be even more in demand.”
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Customer Empathy: Four Data Points
Quick Take: The pandemic has accelerated most companies’ digital transformation efforts. In 2019, only 56 percent of businesses noted they were either in progress or had completed their digital transformation, compared to a whopping 71 percent in 2020.
How to Accelerate With Care
Quick Take: For David Neitz, Chief Information Officer, CDM Smith, a global engineering and construction firm, it’s about creating a “do not do” list and “challenging what you’re doing every day.”
Pandemic ‘Turbocharged’ Digital Transformation
Quick Take: Enterprises have also become more socially aware during the pandemic. In the survey, 76% said the pandemic “has placed fresh responsibility on companies to play a constructive role in wider society.” And 75% said any digital transformation plans should go beyond business motivations to include the impact on society.
DESIGN THINKING
Design Thinking Can Improve Sector IT
Quick Take: In his book, “Why Your Startup is Failing,” author Henry Latham suggests many organizations prioritize being efficient at the expense of delivering actual value to their customers and to their business. In other words, while Agile DevOps focuses on “delivering software right,” design thinking focuses on “delivering the right software.”
The Power of UX to Influence Consumer Purchases
Quick Take: Trust is the first emotion that a consumer should feel when they are browsing a website. They should be assured of the veracity of the website and its products quality.
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Photo by Roman Shilin on Unsplash
