Some CX strategies require a larger budget than others but with the pandemic impacting nearly every business, here are some ways to provide a great CX strategy when a company's budget is tight.
Alex Allwood founder and Director, Customer Strategy and Experience at All Work Together says a customer's world has changed through how they live, how they work and how they socialise.
"I think the marketer's persona needs to reflect the new customer's world," she says. "At the moment we are working with old persona's and customer experience is very complex and dynamic. They need to reflect the new world needs and new world context, so updating personas would be one thing I'd be advising on a budget."
Alex recommends marketers invest in empathy nudges, another tool that won't break the marketing budget.
"They help create small shifts in behaviour, simply by adding a question around 'what would our customers think about that?' around the decision-making table will help put the customer at the centre of the organisation's thinking, problem-solving and decision making," she adds.
Another tip for marketers is getting back to basics. Alex recommends a "back to basics" listening program.
"You're getting customers and your non-customer facing people together. That's a good way to create new organisational rituals for your people," Alex says.
Future of CX
It's been a tough year for marketers but the future of CX still holds promise according to Alex. She says there are a few things on her CX radar.
"At the moment there are a lot of conversations around journey orchestration," she says. "Now, marketers have done exceptionally well in putting the right content in front of the right people at the right time, in the right channels. Using AI to do that, they have made great gains in regards to customer service and AI, again serving the right content at the right time.
"Also making gains in terms of products and service usage. Journey orchestration is on marketers' minds going into the future," she explains.
AI is another tool that will be prominent in the future, Alex says,
"Human vs machine in terms of brand preference. It's going to be interesting to see who will be making brand choices. Will it be the customer or will it be machines?" she asks.
Athina Mallis is a Senior Content and Communications Specialist at AZK Media.