A New Age of Experience Management
Flock recently ventured outside the nest to attend X4, Europe’s biggest experience management event in London. X4 is organised by Qualtrics, a research platform that we use at Flock as a tool to support our data, research and insight gathering.
X4 brings together industry leaders and professionals across marketing, HR, product development and brand management to share insights on the experience economy through a day of mainstage events, breakout sessions and networking.
Here are our key takeaways from the morning’s mainstage event, ‘the New Experience Management Landscape’ delivered by Qualtrics CEO, Ryan Smith.
- “Everyone is expected to be an experience brand.”
There used to be a small handful of ‘experience’ brands; think the Ritz, Harrods, Porsche. Those days are long over, and we are now living in a world where all brands are now expected to be experience brands. The figures provided food-for-thought; 80% of consumers have chosen to switch brands due to a poor experience and 80% of CEOs believe that they are delivering a superior experience to their customers, however in reality, only a meagre 8% of their consumers agree (source).
In a world where companies are punished for not delivering great experiences, how can brands work to close these gaps?
- “The answer isn’t more data it’s different data”
There are two types of data. Operational or ‘O’ data tells us what’s happening inside your organisation, i.e., web analytics, profitability. Which is unquestionably useful, however, it only tells us the past. This is where Experience or ‘X’ data comes in. Dubbed by Ryan as one of the ‘hottest trends in business’, X data tells us human factor information; beliefs, emotions and intentions. It lets businesses know why things are happening but even more importantly, it provides an insight into what is going to happen next. Up until now, this sort of data has been difficult to collect. However, in an ever-evolving landscape, X data is becoming less abstract and more accessible. O data has become so easily attainable it’s less of a competitive advantage, which is where X data becomes even more significant.
Experience Management and X data has become a key investment for CEOs. The success of a business used to be largely communicated through O data, however, in recent times there has been a clear shift. There are now annual shareholder reports with the NPS score on the front, suggesting that experience engagement now takes forefront priority. However, it is apparent that companies don’t possess the sufficient technology to manage or utilise this data.
- “Customer, employee, product, brand”
Over the next five years we’re told every industry leader will be an experience brand, however, driving change and being an experience leader can be a daunting task.
Experience management is all about how you work towards closing experience gaps. In order to effectively reduce these gaps, it’s crucial that the experiences of the customer, employee, product and brand are all taken into account. If just one of these elements under performs, it has a knock-on effect on the entire experience. It’s quite simple really – if you don’t have a great brand, you lose employees, and if you don’t have great employees or a great product, you lose your customer base.
So, it’s important that all four of these experiences thrive and must work together, as just one of these experiences alone is no longer enough for market leadership.
Having a strong customer experience (CX) strategy will ensure you optimise and continually improve brand interactions, deliver high customer satisfaction rates, increase customer loyalty and improve revenues and profits. Flock can help you to build a range of capabilities to ensure your customer’s experiences are optimal at all stages of their path to purchase. If you’d like to find out more about how Flock can help you with your customer experience strategies, please contact Julie – Julie.Marshall@flock-associates.com.