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A Guide to Closing the Customer Experience Gap (feat. Tracy Gattis)
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In this episode of Get Personal With Loyalty, we speak with Tracy Gattis, Senior Content Marketing Manager at Annex Cloud. We jump into one of her most recent guides: It’s Personal—How Loyalty Helps Close Your Customer Experience Gap, and discuss topics such as experience led growth & customer experience goals. Tune in to learn how Loyalty can change your customers' experience.
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Transcript
Introduction and Research Journey
00:00:10
Speaker
Get Personal with Loyalty, where we're discussing using loyalty to deliver personalized, relevant customer experiences. Hello everybody and welcome to the next episode of Get Personal with Loyalty. I'm your host, Aaron Rees, and today I'm here with Tracy Gaddis, our head of content here at Annex Cloud. Welcome, Tracy. Thanks, Aaron. I really appreciate you inviting me to talk with you today.
00:00:34
Speaker
Well, Tracy, I'm super excited to have you here today. For the audience, we've invited Tracy because Annex Cloud just launched one of our new guides.
00:00:43
Speaker
This guide is on building customer experience. And this was Tracy's baby. She put it together, shipped it nuts from outline and vision to what it is today. And she just did a ton of research, talked to a ton of different people. And I thought it would be beneficial for all of us to hear what she learned on her journey in putting this together. So Tracy, really excited to dive into this with you. Maybe we start with, what was the inspiration for the piece?
Importance of Customer Experience
00:01:10
Speaker
Sure. One of the first things that
00:01:12
Speaker
was a survey I ran across that showed 88% of shoppers feel that the customer experience now is just as important, if not more important than the actual product or services they're buying. And then I found Gardner issued a market guide for loyalty this past September, and it referenced
00:01:32
Speaker
survey in there that uncovered according to cmos that customer. Understanding and experience management is the largest gap that they have in their marketing organization the final thing was was a report by mckenzie and company i you know i love stats and and.
00:01:50
Speaker
Look at a lot of their their materials because it's really informative and they had a report that showed a strong correlation between a company's customer experience rating and their revenue growth and they they call it experience led growth and they were showing in this report that it can actually double a company's performance.
00:02:10
Speaker
So looking at all this stuff, it just became clear that customer experience is really kind of the new battleground or arena that brands are competing in today. And it's
Challenges in Personalization
00:02:20
Speaker
where they're winning and losing customers. We know from talking to our customers and just staying informed out there that delivering that great customer experience is a lot easier said than done. And especially when you look at how consumers have so many choices today and
00:02:38
Speaker
expectations of brands are super high. We know that they're willing to share their data, but they're also in return expecting that brands are going to use that data to serve up meaningful and relevant experiences for them. And it's a lot of brands are just still struggling with delivering that level of personalization.
00:02:59
Speaker
And we know that loyalty programs are designed to help companies really truly know their customers and tap into what's important to them and what they value. And we've also found that there are just a really great tool for helping brands kind of lean into that more personalized approach. And so it just seemed like this guide was a great way to give companies a good primer where they can just start moving the needle in the right direction.
Common Marketing Pitfalls
00:03:26
Speaker
It's it's so important. I love the stats that you pulled out the McKinsey one. I've seen similar stats to that one. I'm not sure I saw that one exactly. There's also the Fred Reichell book that I have a tendency to talk about a lot winning on purpose and really talks about the customer experience when done well just elevates the brand above
00:03:50
Speaker
competition. And in your point around us as consumers I think we can point unfortunately maybe out our account only on one hand where we have really great customer experiences and then the rest are kind of.
00:04:05
Speaker
Unfortunately, I think a lot of the customer experiences most of us have that maybe are when we're not actually doing the purchasing happen with emails that we can we continue to get on a regular basis I think sometimes daily basis that are personalized and just continue to show up in our inbox and just.
00:04:27
Speaker
in clutter and if anything, you just get more frustrated with the brand versus those kind of opportunities being something where the brand can actually build a stronger relationship. So I think that certainly to your point, there's so many of us have a long way to go. And I did say us. And it's kind of we're working to be more personalized and targeted too. We know it's not easy. But yeah, there's a lot to show in the customer that you know them.
00:04:55
Speaker
And we include in the guide too that some examples of kind of personalization gone wrong because it can be just as damaging if you miss the mark as if
Successful Brands and Market Dynamics
00:05:07
Speaker
you don't do it at all. And we have a couple of those examples in the guide as well. Oh, great. I think maybe we'll talk about this as we continue here.
00:05:16
Speaker
wanted to first kind of talk to you, so you did the research, you checked all the stuff out, then obviously you started to look at different brands. And so you obviously identified, as you just mentioned, some of those that aren't doing things as well. Did you also identify some that were doing things well? And are you seeing how, I guess, changes in the market maybe from like three to five years ago too? Are we making an impact? I think there's some brands that are
00:05:44
Speaker
further than others and we do include some examples. We actually have a spotlight around Target in the piece and just talk about how they really look at a customer experience holistically. Sometimes it's all those little things that a brand can do to just make your customers feel special or seen or known. So we do dive into some of those kinds of examples in the guide.
00:06:13
Speaker
So as you were digging in, Tracy, and looking at getting the research and the different brands out there, what people are doing, and then believe as part of it, you also try to dig in to understand why. So how is a brand attacking this opportunity?
Data Collection Challenges
00:06:30
Speaker
But there are challenges, too, with it. We can't collect data like we used to collect it. And privacy laws are changing. What are you seeing there? And what tips do you have for brands who are
00:06:43
Speaker
who understand yes I need to do this but I don't know where to start and I don't know where some of the landmines might be. Sure. As I as I dug into researching for the guide you know first off is understanding what are the key challenges that are preventing brands from delivering that meaningful customer experience. And you mentioned one big one which is
00:07:05
Speaker
the ability to collect customer data. And as you mentioned, we have stricter privacy laws these days and the third party cookies are going away as well. And a lot of brands were really staking all of their marketing efforts around that.
00:07:22
Speaker
So it's getting tougher and beauty of loyalty programs is that they enable brands to collect that unique zero and first party customer data and they do it with consent and at scale what that does is it provides.
00:07:37
Speaker
Brands with the opportunity to have an ongoing conversation with their customers and in that way they can keep up with evolving preferences and we know as consumers and as individuals our needs are always changing and loyalty programs give brands a way to always stay in tune with what are those changes and how can we adapt and respond to those changes. The other thing too is that.
00:08:01
Speaker
Well, the programs have evolved dramatically. And so some of the modern platforms out there also, it's one thing to just collect the data, but brands need to be able to quickly and easily act on that data and be able to serve up those relevant experiences. Modern loyalty programs allow brands to do that. They have that capability.
00:08:23
Speaker
The other key obstacle that run into continuously is so many companies still have legacy and siloed systems.
Modern Loyalty Programs
00:08:32
Speaker
And just they may have the data, but they're unable to share that customer data across their entire enterprise, especially to their key apps that align with their key customer touch points, such as their email, mobile, point of sale, and e-commerce systems.
00:08:51
Speaker
Modern loyalty solutions like Annex Cloud's loyalty experience platform with the more than 125 integrations that we already have pre-built can really be the heart of an enterprise's tech stack and enable them to push that rich customer data across all of these apps. And what that does is it allows them to consistently recognize and reward customers no matter where they engage or shop at the brand.
00:09:18
Speaker
And today's loyalty program platforms are so much more than just a points engine. They allow you to keep your customers engaged in meaningful ways that really build that experience and they also drive loyalty. And we know from working with our clients that loyalty can do so much more than just
00:09:39
Speaker
again, be a points engine, it can really help bridge that customer experience gap and not only improve their customers' experience, but also allow them to get more strategic as a business to identify which customers they want to invest in and how is the best way to do that. It's an amazing point.
Integrating Loyalty Data
00:10:00
Speaker
I think we hear a lot of times, oh, there's the data's in silos. Certainly, being able to connect with
00:10:09
Speaker
other systems is super important and be able to have that data moving from one system to another is important. There's certainly some challenges I've heard as well where people have bought within the organization, they bought different systems and then they've set up their data models differently.
00:10:26
Speaker
Sometimes that's a bit of a challenge is internally even being able to map the data fields. But once you can get through that, and I'm not saying that's not an easy, that's a tough task, I get that. But then being able to use the data in other places, so customer success side or the customer servicing center of the business, being able to have the loyalty data, being able to know more about the customer and what's happening,
00:10:52
Speaker
You know, I think you talk a lot about CX as an industry, but just as brands, right? And so often CX in many people's heads goes to that customer servicing side of things and doesn't really think about marketing either. So being able to, to your point, really, truly combine the two, I think is super important because on the loyalty side, you want to be able to see, okay, is this customer making a lot of returns or is this customer always calling and complaining?
00:11:17
Speaker
Well, to your point, maybe they're spending a lot, but they may not be as valuable because they're also costing the company a lot more. Whereas somebody that isn't and is being a great advocate for the brand, maybe they can be valued with more. So that connectivity and being able to use the data across all the different systems and have that true 360 view of the customer is how you're going to get to that elevated customer experience.
00:11:45
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. Fabulous point. Obviously dug into this a lot. And I think this now is such a near and dear topic to you.
Link Between Customer Experience and Loyalty
00:11:54
Speaker
Did you have any aha moments as you were going through this and talking to people and learning about what was happening out there?
00:12:04
Speaker
Yeah, probably one of my biggest aha moments was just realizing how intertwined customer experience and loyalty are. I ran across a Forrester stat, again, me and my stats, that said 85% of retailers just lack the capabilities and the processes and the technology to actually improve their customer experience and equally important, monetize the data. And that's just a huge number. And I know that we had
00:12:33
Speaker
A great webinar recently, Richard Schenker from loyalty strategy consulting did a great webinar around how to use your loyalty data to both increase customer experience as well as know how to
00:12:52
Speaker
customize that experience and small changes can make huge improvements in the revenue like moving just as small as one percent of your customers from one tier say to the other is just dramatic in terms of the revenue growth.
00:13:09
Speaker
And it's also delivering that better experience. So they just go hand in hand, they're joined at the hip. And conversations when brands dive into talking about how can we can improve customer experience inevitably loyalty comes up and vice versa.
00:13:27
Speaker
And that makes perfect sense because loyalty programs are at their core designed to build long-term lasting, meaningful customer relationships. And those relationships are built one experience at a time. I love that I want to use that relationships are built one experience at a time. Very well
Unique Value Beyond Transactions
00:13:45
Speaker
said, Tracy. You heard it here.
00:13:49
Speaker
So getting back to the piece itself, it is a large piece. How many chapters were there? Yeah, I don't know. It really just kind of took on a life of its own. There's a new baby for you right now.
00:14:05
Speaker
Okay, so I know there were lots of chapters. There were different things that I certainly had some aha moments when I was reading through it. Lots of breadth and depth on not only what's happening out there, why it's happening, but then what can you do about it? Curious what your favorite chapters or your favorite part of it. So when you look back on it and you go, oh wow, this really excites me. This is really where if I were to point anybody to a section, this is what I'd want them to be reading about.
00:14:36
Speaker
We have a chapter on the six customer experience goals that most enterprises have. And it talks about how brands can add unique value that goes beyond just transactions. And you can look at about any survey today and it will show that today's consumers want more than the transactional relationship with the brands that they do business with.
00:15:03
Speaker
And so we included some really great real life examples of brands like Domino's IKEA and Lowe's and a couple others. And we show how they're effectively using things like gamification convenience. I mean convenience is like a new currency exclusivity you know making them feel special and belong to a kind of an elite group and even
00:15:28
Speaker
paid subscription loyalty programs. So there's a lot of different ways to add value and it helps your brand stand out and customers can't find that anywhere else. So it's a great win-win and I just love all the, I love reading brand examples of what they're doing and some of them are getting really creative today.
00:15:48
Speaker
The other chapter I really like is the one on five steps to a better customer experience. We wanted to provide a lot of education with this piece, but we, at the end of the day, want to give companies an actionable roadmap or to-do list that can help them
00:16:06
Speaker
Start taking simple steps, not trying to, as your favorite phrase, don't want to boil the ocean, but taking those simple steps that could just get them closer to that personalized experience that their customers want. Which is great. It'd be fun. We could probably do a session where we just dig into what all those are.
Convenience as Currency
00:16:27
Speaker
Tracy, I'd like to take a quick step back because one of the things you mentioned was
00:16:31
Speaker
convenience as a currency. And really curious about this for a number of reasons because we talked to Adam Posner at the end of last season and he talked about six different currencies that everyone should be aware of. So I'm not going to get into those now but we've got that reference in that podcast for anyone who wants to see. But I like that the idea that there are different kinds of currencies and different kinds
00:16:53
Speaker
value or create value for a customer. So on the convenience side you share a little bit more about what's happening with that and why you think that is and how people or how brands can tap that. Sure. We do by the way include Adams six currencies in the guide here the customer experience guide.
00:17:14
Speaker
And it is fascinating and really it's a matter of becoming more and more part of a customer's lifestyle and making things easy, convenient, fast, simple. So a lot of these tie to what's known as experiential loyalty. And the great thing about loyalty programs is they collect such rich data and you can do that through surveys,
00:17:43
Speaker
contest, gamification, a lot of different ways to collect that data, but it helps you tap into what types of value add factors your customers value and how you can actually introduce some of that experiential loyalty into their experience.
00:18:04
Speaker
So to circle back to your second favorite part of the guide is the five steps to better CX.
Enhancing Customer Experience
00:18:12
Speaker
Can you tell us what those five are?
00:18:14
Speaker
Sure, I'd be happy to. So number one is making your customer journey priority enterprise-wide. A lot of companies just sort of silo off customer experience or loyalty or customer-centric type projects off into a department, but it's something that really should involve the entire enterprise and every customer-facing team and experience.
00:18:43
Speaker
The second thing is to really focus on your best customers, and that's something that loyalty really is great for, helping brands identify who those best customers are and what's important to them and what they value. Number three is treating data as a strategic asset. Your customer data is really the lifeblood of your organization and your growth plan. So just treating it like the strategic asset that it is,
00:19:11
Speaker
you know, staying compliant with all the privacy regulations, not collecting data that you don't plan on using or are unable to use, just respecting that being a good steward of your customer's data and truly leveraging it to improve their experiences and just
00:19:32
Speaker
treating it strategically. The fourth is making sure you have the right loyalty platform. Like I mentioned, so many of the new platforms really have the ability to, and especially we decided to go with a SaaS-based platform because of the flexibility and the scalability and the ease of being able to immediately take action on data.
00:19:54
Speaker
that's so important because you need the ability to pivot and change and test. You don't always know what promotion is going to work. And SaaS-based programs will give you the ability to do that. So the right technology is really key. And then the fifth is really taking a phased approach. Like I said, you don't have to bite off the whole thing at one time. You can really just
00:20:20
Speaker
Start with a few high impact use cases that you know could really move the needle for your customers. Test those and then experiment before rolling out to your enterprise wide projects. So that's it.
00:20:37
Speaker
I like that, all those, and I think they're all spot on. The last part, and I think it probably taps the other pieces as well, but how do you get going? And as an example, getting going toward stronger customer experience could be launching a loyalty program if you don't have one already.
Basic Loyalty Programs
00:20:56
Speaker
You get the consent from the customer, they have to opt in, they're going to raise their hand, and then they're going to raise their hand every time they're making a purchase or every time they're interacting with you because
00:21:06
Speaker
they know that sharing their data is only going to make their experience better. Of course, I guess you need to make sure that when you launch that you tell them that the experience will be better if you're part of the program. But the point of not boiling the ocean right from the beginning, it's you can do a basic program where it is just that value exchange and the promise of a better experience. It doesn't have to be
00:21:34
Speaker
huge discounts, do this and get these big discounts, do this and get more. I think it made loyalty programs kind of a taboo word with some people, but truly can be the promise of get what you want.
00:21:48
Speaker
Yeah, would you deserve what's most relevant to you? I mean, that's one thing I love about being in the loyalty space. I mean, it's so relatable as a consumer. And we all know the types of experiences that we would love to have. And we really value it when we're on the receiving end of that. So just translating that for your customers.
00:22:09
Speaker
And in the piece I noticed, and you mentioned already too, that Adam Posner, we included some of his great research and insights. We talked to a number of other folks in the industry.
Insights on Personalization and B2B Expectations
00:22:20
Speaker
What did you learn from them and anything in particular that really stood out to you? Again, perhaps some aha moments from talking to these folks.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, I was really overwhelmed by the response from our partners. They provided so many great insights and words of wisdom because they all have so many years of experience in the loyalty space, e-commerce space, and other areas.
00:22:44
Speaker
In particular, Simon Chapman, director at Optimizely, provided a pretty detailed view of personalization from the consumer's perspective, because there really isn't a universal definition of personalization. So that was really helpful. And as businesses, we tend to think of it
00:23:05
Speaker
from a channel perspective, but consumers don't look at it like that at all. They just want to be recognized and known no matter where they engage with the brand. So that was really helpful. And then Paulina Berlin at Spryker shared that B2B buyers really expect the same level of personalization that they experience in their B2C interactions. So I think a lot of times we think
00:23:31
Speaker
And i know everyone's probably aware that the lines been grained between b2b and b2c but and we have some customers that have both types of programs going in both are equally important but more and more b2b buyers
00:23:46
Speaker
want that
00:24:01
Speaker
value proposition, so to speak, for a consumer. And in a similar vein, Jody Roch at Concentric's Catalyst provided a really nice holistic summary of all the ways brands have, and there are many, to provide value to customers, things like partnerships, exclusive or early access.
00:24:20
Speaker
Just simple recognition. It can go a long way and a lot of brands just kind of sometimes forget about that. And there's just so many ways that brands can appeal to consumers, not just their heads, but their hearts as well. And that really builds that lasting emotional connection. So those were all, I think, really, really informative parts of the piece.
Recognition in Building Relationships
00:24:42
Speaker
Thank you. And yes, anybody that listens to this knows that I'm all about recognition. He certainly taught loyalty as rewards and recognition. And I think to your point, we miss recognition a lot. And I think it goes a long way. When you think about your own interpersonal relationships,
00:25:00
Speaker
You're recognizing the other person telling them they've done a good job just acknowledging or what they're doing. That makes the basis of a relationship. And yet when we're trying to build relationships with our customers we just keep throwing more money at them.
00:25:16
Speaker
I mean, I know I'm dating myself, but it's like the Cheers example, you know, when Norm walks into the bar and they know who he is. I mean, everybody wants that feeling. Yeah. That's okay. I was traveling on United and they are showing Cheers episodes. So it's likely that more people are being exposed to that now.
00:25:41
Speaker
Go where everybody knows your name. So as we all know, the world of content never sleeps.
Exploring Experiential Loyalty
00:25:48
Speaker
What's next on your horizon, Tracy? What topics are you gonna cover next?
00:25:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mentioned early on in our conversation about Gartner's Market Guide for Loyalty, and in it they reference that by 2026, customer loyalty programs that offer a mix of transactional and experiential benefits will displace programs that just strictly focus on points.
00:26:13
Speaker
And you know not a surprise after all the stuff we just been talking about about Adam and Jody and them sharing all these ways that brands could add value. And we know that loyalty programs are a great way to differentiate a brand.
00:26:28
Speaker
But the reality is today, most organizations just aren't doing anything super unique with their loyalty programs. In fact, we have a stat in this CX guide that 80% of executives say their loyalty program is similar to others in their industry. So we really want to help educate and arm brands with information about how can they truly stand out and their loyalty program is an ideal way to do that.
00:26:59
Speaker
whether you have a program or not. But particularly the reality is most companies do have some type or level of loyalty program today. But you know they're still struggling with how do they optimize that loyalty program.
00:27:14
Speaker
So we want to do a guide coming up that focuses on things like, you know, what are the key traits of an effective loyalty program? Like what are the foundational elements and do I have those? And we're actually working on a self-assessment around that right now. How do you better leverage your loyalty data to not only improve your customer experience but drive more profitable growth?
00:27:38
Speaker
And then again, since our conversation largely focused on that and it will be sort of the wave of the features, providing tips for how do I move in that experiential direction and expand my customer relationships beyond just purchasing. So I'm excited to dig in.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited to see what you come up with. Certainly we're having a lot of conversations and then the latest buzzword is experiential loyalty. And with every buzzword, personalization is similar to it, as you mentioned earlier. What does that mean? The word can mean so many different things to so many different people. What does that look like? And I was talking to an analyst who was listing out experiential
00:28:24
Speaker
It's rewards. I remember seeing free shipping on it. I'm like, huh, that's experiential.
00:28:32
Speaker
So it's probably debatable. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to you digging in and seeing how through your research year you define what experiential is and what those tips are because I'm sure I'm not the only person sitting here going, okay, sounds great, but what exactly does that mean? Or how do I define what exactly that means for my brand? Because I do suspect doing it right has got to be core to the brand versus
00:28:59
Speaker
to what you're saying, and I guess this example of free shipping, something everybody can do. I believe it's not that interesting or that experiential. Right. Well, and again, this is where your customers are the core of what experiential would mean for your brand because it's really about what they value. So there you go. Things we always forget. It's all about them.
00:29:26
Speaker
Oh, thanks Tracy so
Driving Loyalty and Business Growth
00:29:28
Speaker
much. As we wrap up this conversation, is there anything else you'd like to share about the importance of delivering positive, consistent experiences in general? Yeah, I guess to come full circle, just reinforcing that it's not enough to just rely on pushing out great products or services anymore. It really is about the
00:29:50
Speaker
Experiences and consumers are making their decisions about where to spend their money based on the experience that they have with your brand and at the very core.
00:30:02
Speaker
delivering a great experience is all about really knowing your customers, you know, what they value, what kind of lifestyle that they have, you know, maybe their family members, you know, for a grocery store, it might be, you know, what, uh, what are their dietary restrictions? You know, what are their favorite foods? Um, and again, that's their lifestyle comes into play in terms of, you know, do they work? Do they not have a lot of time? Are they a gourmet cook?
00:30:29
Speaker
just all of those details, pulling those all together. And even just knowing where they prefer to shop and engage so that you can serve things up the way and where they prefer to see them. So that personalization just makes great experiences, just drives loyalty and it drives growth for the business. That's a great way to end.
00:30:56
Speaker
Great customer experience is drive, loyalty, and growth. Thank you. So if people are intrigued about the guide, want to know what's coming up next, want to be quoted in what comes up next, how do they contact you, Tracy? Sure.
00:31:17
Speaker
You can connect with me on LinkedIn or you can email me at T Gaddis. That's T G A T T I S at annexcloud.com and I'd love to hear from you. Great, thank you so much Tracy. This is a lot of fun. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I it's I always love having a conversation with you and you know how I I just love the research and the stats and I love the loyalty space so happy to do it.
00:31:45
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode