Digital Marketing is Redefining Customer Engagement

Over the past couple of years I have been increasingly talking about the growing convergence of the customer service and marketing function. The industry analyst Gartner has been publishing extensive research on this idea. In fact, I believe that their paper from 2015, ‘The Customer Experience in 2020’, is one of the best examples of analyst research summarizing the trend.

In this paper, Gartner talks about the need to create what they call a ‘Customer Experience Hub’ (CEH). This would combine all the traditional company departments that have a direct link to the customer – such as sales, marketing, PR, and customer service. All the relevant technologies and business processes related to engaging with the customer, regardless of the channels used, could be coordinated in one new department.

The goal of the CEH would be to redefine the relationship between and brand and the customer. Instead of considering the customer journey to be “before the sale” and focused on marketing and sales or “after the sale” and therefore just customer service, the journey is redefined so that any of these activities can take place at any point in the customer relationship.

This is a natural development, after all when you buy a new car you don’t consider that you are never going to buy another car again in future. Why not maintain an ongoing relationship with that car manufacturer that goes beyond just making complaints and getting your vehicle serviced?

Gartner identified the importance of the digital marketing process in their 2015 Hype-Cycle research where they wrote:

“The digital marketing stage sees the emergence of the Nexus of Forces (mobile, social, cloud and information). Enterprises in this stage focus on new and more sophisticated ways to reach consumers, who are more willing to participate in marketing efforts to gain greater social connection, or product and service value. Enterprises that are seeking to reach this stage should consider the following technologies on the Hype Cycle: Gesture Control, Hybrid Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, People-Literate Technology, Speech-to-Speech Translation.” 

I believe this trend should not be ignored as executives continue to improve the way they reach and engage customers. It is about to dramatically change the way that major companies do business and combined with the technologies identified, it is going to create a roller coaster of change over the next few years.

Photo by Tony Chang licensed under Creative Commons.