Looking Back and Forward on Customer Experience with Loni Kao Stark

by Barb Mosher Zinck | January 8, 2014 2:50 pm

This is the time of year when everyone takes some time to look back and see how far brands have come with their customer experience strategies, as well as what’s in store for 2014. We get our first look back/forward with Loni Kao Stark, director of product marketing for Adobe Experience Manager. Working for one of the top vendors in the customer experience market, Stark has the opportunity to see how large brands are spending their time and money developing CXM strategies.

The Mobile Evolution

2012 was crazy with the release of mobile devices right and left (starting with Apple), but 2013 saw a slowdown in new releases and we received more incremental updates to existing devices.

Now, Stark said, we’re talking about wearable devices like watches and glasses. These are interesting but haven’t hit mainstream yet, except for the area of the fitness.

This past year, the focus hasn’t been so much on mobile in terms of devices but on mobile as it relates to multichannel strategies – a more sophisticated decision for marketers.

In 2013 there were different reasons to use mobile and different approaches depending on nuances and goals. Stark is referring to the discussion between native vs hybrid vs responsive design (which is best for multichannel). It’s interesting to note that Stark heard the effort needed for native app development is four times that of hybrid app development. That should make you reconsider your development model alone.

Now It’s the Omnichannel

We also talked a lot in 2013 about the omnichannel. Stark noted that digital experiences are not the enemy of in store experiences. Companies are starting to look at enhancing the offline experience with digital elements. She spoke about one company that was looking at the customer journey and approached the project from the entire customer experience.

Stark said that digital can augment traditional company experiences to help them stay relevant. The key is to make the shift quickly. Those that don’t (and Blockbuster is an example Stark gave here) will ultimately fail. You need to marry the two in right way however (consider experience driven commerce as a good example), it’s not a simple process.

As the market gets more crowded, she said, brands need to go more digital. It can be as simple as making a physical experience digital. You just have to think about what’s possible and what you can realistically do to transform a process and improve the offer and the benefits.

Social is Business

From a brands perspective, social is tied to business value. It also means more communication and deeper conversations.

Stark spoke of the work of a number of financial institutions which developed deep social strategies this year through social hubs or communities.

We talked a bit about the challenges that come with social silos. But Stark doesn’t agree that these silos necessarily are a negative thing. With social communities, silos can make sense as people tend to be interested in certain topics. She said groups are passionate about different things and tend to have deeper conversations, so it makes sense they would not all be connected.

In terms of the social profile, Stark said there’s still much to understand. Should it be like a currency? Or should it be driven by the consumer?

What Did Brands Get Right?

What did many brands get right this past year? Stark said ‘analytics’. Brands have really improved on the collection and usage of analytics to improve the customer experience. She pointed out that media and entertainment have the most advanced metrics.

Stark also said there have been some really great apps this past year, particularly hybrid apps. In addition, people are starting to understand the skill-sets required for digital marketing teams.

The Big Focus (s) in 2014

But there will continue to be challenges and 2014 will focus on the cross-channel experience. This is the idea of making the experience from the desktop to mobile seamless. We’ll see more about the marketing profile as the customer expects the conversation to move with them. This will require new strategies and skill-sets, and the use of the right technology.

The biggest change for 2014 though, said Stark, is a larger focus on customer loyalty. This is where brands need to spend some energy, because the customer life cycle expands past the buying phase and keeping a customer is no longer a given. In theory, it should be easier to keep a customer than win a new one, but I suspect many brands have much to figure out in this area.

One final note that Stark and I discussed related to conversations around customer experience overall. Stark said the conversation is over. The CIO gets it. The CMO gets it. It’s time to connect it all to practical use. And that is what I look forward to seeing more of in 2014, don’t you?

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