My Composable DXP article is picked up among top 10 of 2022

With 2022 coming to a close, its that time of the year where we look back at the digital experiences stories that resonated the most with our audience.

The digital experience is everything today.

Think of your typical day in the digital landscape — you might work, socialize, order food, seek out entertainment, learn. In fact, around 50% of people polled in the US say they spend most of the day on a screen, be it a laptop, desktop, smartphone, tablet or TV.

CMSWire looked at many facets of the digital experience, including new technology, new companies and industry changes — and you don’t want to miss out on what we’ve shared over the last year.

Have You Recognized the Potential of the Composable Digital Experience Stack?

As competition rises, brands look for ways to cater to each individual customer. One potential solution? The composable digital experience platform (DXP) — an integrated set of technologies that aid the creation, management and delivery of contextualized digital experiences.

What does composable DX look like, and can it meet your customers' expectations?

Check All The Top 10 Articles >

Are You Measuring Your Martech Correctly? Really?

The goal of composable digital experience platforms (DXPs) is to unify the customer and employee digital technology experiences that lead to impact.

“The marketing technology budget in the United States is expected to top $20 billion in 2022, a 14.3% rise from 2021”. – Constantine von Hoffman, martech.

Both big and small businesses are making significant investments in marketing technologies. The martech sector as a whole has grown into a sizable industry. A wide range of tools and technology, including analytics, data management, automation and CRM, are being adopted by many businesses. With the combination of all these technologies, the ecosystem of marketing technology is significantly impacted.

Composable DX is a novel idea that bridges the divides in digital experiences with unified, consistent solutions that are modular and adapted to microservices. This method is cohesive and streamlined, doing away with disconnected user experiences and comprehensive answers.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >

Published on CMSWire.com.

Cracking Tomorrow’s CX Code - A Research Study

Real-time customer intelligence for exceptional experience.

It’s no secret that the last few years have upended the way customers want to interact with companies. Digital engagement has led to higher customer expectations, bigger demands and about a million more choices if one brand doesn’t deliver. Privacy laws and changes by tech companies have marketers scrambling to get the data they need to meet customer expectations.

Chances are your CX strategy is crying out for a modern makeover. Our study found that more than 60% of marketing leaders say the digital customer journey has dramatically changed their CX strategy. Worse, nearly two-thirds aren’t very confident in their CX strategy’s ability to win and retain customers in this new environment.

The challenge is to orchestrate a great customer experience that hits all the right notes, from digital self-service to meaningful personality to privacy and trust to seamless omnichannel, including a “hybrid” blend of physical and digital experiences.

The CMO Council and SAS embarked on an extensive study to understand where CX gaps and opportunities lie. We looked at CX from various perspectives and compared mature CX capabilities between top and bottom performers.

Our findings are based on a survey of more than1,000 marketing leaders and a survey of more than 2,000 consumers across the globe. Additionally, we conducted 10 in-depth interviews with executives from companies such as AT&T, Pfizer, FedEx, Standard Chartered Bank, Hitachi Vantara, Globe Telecom, Red Wing Shoe Company, and Mars Wrigley.

READ THE FULL STUDY >>

Research in collaboration with CMO Council, sponsored by SAS Software.

Are Pseudo Metrics Taking Over and Driving CX Strategies?

Tying metrics to system strategy is a loophole in your organisational architecture. The perils of blindly using it can result not only in unaligned digital experiences, but also damage your brand loyalty.

Simply put, metrics are the building blocks to design your strategy. But, across almost every organisation today, numbers are ruthlessly devising strategies. This has resulted in business leaders and C-suite executives losing sight of their company’s vision. Instead, they focus rigorously on the metrics that are only meant to represent it.

What are pseudo metrics?

Let’s take an example to know what pseudo metrics really are. Think about YouTube video views. Ever wondered how a YouTuber has only ~200 subscribers and got ~1 million views in a fairly short period? Say, within a day of video launch? This happens a lot using virtual viewers, and not organic targeted audience. This is pseudo metrics.

In other words, when you don’t have clear correlation of investment, results (metrics), and actual business outcome (impact on customers), know that you are looking at pseudo metrics. That video might have got only ~100 real organic views. Be aware of pseudo metrics as it does play in all levels of businesses.

How CX should be measured

1. Use CPIs (focusing on outcomes)
2. Aligning KPIs to CX strategy
3. Map your customer’s journey

Effective digital experiences foster invariably when measurement gets smarter, faster, and more workable. This poses a challenge for business leaders to be more strategic and sophisticated in their use of metrics. The focus should be on defining metrics and KPIs that show you patterns, correlation to the reality, and inspire strategic success. Legacy leadership has a cultural bias that overrules the customer intent and focuses on data-driven metrics.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CXM.co.uk.

Silence of the Customer is louder than Voice of the Customer

The silence of your customer is a deadly threat to your business’s future stability. It is an early indicator of their dissatisfaction either with your product or service.

Around 90% of mute consumers will shop around because of their unresolved dissatisfaction. Former CEO and President of Amazon, Jeff Bezos says “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000.”

This is critical to know what your customers are you telling you vs. what they’re doing when they’re interacting with your business touchpoints. Many times, companies go very tactic when it comes to understanding customer insights. They tend to miss the empathic and emotional aspect of customers.

The silence of a customer is the red signal which requires action. 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE > 

Published on CXM.co.uk.

Featured on DIGI Magazine - The Cover Story

I got featured on the cover of DIGI magazine's very first edition in this month of October 2022. This happened after I worked with DigitalConfex at an event where I talked about "Transformation of Digital Landscape" and addressed several questions around data-centricity, voice of customer, and digital strategy for B2B marketers.

Following the event, DigitalConfex opened more opportunities to collaborate and intended to interview me for their very first edition. It has been great experience working with DigitalConfex. 

BTW, I look cool on the cover ;-)

Read the Cover Story >

Visit www.digitalconfex.com

Panel Speaker at #DMWF North America

Conference: #DMWF North America 2022 (Digital Marketing World Forum)

Date: October 5, 2022

Location: Santa Clara Convention Center

Discussion Topic - Exploring the importance of customer-centric approaches to strategies in marketing and remaining relevant to your customers

• How to truly understand your customers with insights & data-driven approaches
• Reviewing the importance for brands to be transparent about data, their processes and how it affects the end-user
• The impact wider afield – marketing, sales, product, and insights departments

Other Panel Speakers:

• Jimmy Newson, Founder, Jimmy Newson Consulting | Moving Forward Small Business
• Brady Renner, Managing Director, Business Development, Meltwater
• Lisa Routel, Marketing Strategy Lead, Verizon
• Sarfraz Nawaz, Supply Chain, Digital Health, J&J

https://www.digitalmarketing-conference.com/northamerica/

Your CX Design Is Not Working. Are You Doing It Right?

What does it take to adopt a well-defined CX design structure? Listening to customers is a good start.

Customer Experience (CX) Design is the overall approach to designing products and services with a focus on the quality and thoughtfulness of the user experience. Although more and more companies are becoming customer-obsessed, designing a CX structure haphazardly will only doom your CX goals. Companies can meaningfully engage with customers at multiple touchpoints of their journey by adopting a well-defined CX design structure. Today, businesses use insights to deep dive and ideate different digital experience solutions to steer along with the UX teams and close the gap in meeting customer expectations. The convergence of CX Design and UX can help in transitioning from qualitatively analyzing consumer insights to proactively designing the customer experience.

You'll get to know on the below key areas:

• Understanding the Relevance of UX in Your CX Design
• What Is Off-Putting in Your CX Design?

My Two Cents: Outside-in Approach to CX Design Matters

Well-defined CX design and operational structure leads to lower acquisition costs, deeper customer loyalty, reduced sales cycles, higher revenues, etc. compared to companies are don’t take it seriously.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >

Published on CMSWire.com.

An ode to the CXO by Nav Thethi

The CXO is the most crucial role within an organization. When unifying customer, employee, and product data, how can CXOs ensure that companies are taking these insights at face value – not just hearing what they want to hear? We also dig into the future of experience in IoT, the metaverse, and how CX will change by 2030.

Listen to the Podcast:

• Spotify: S1E13 • Nav Thethi • An ode to the CXO - Action This | Podcast on Spotify
• ChatterResearch: S1E13 • Nav Thethi • An ode to the CXO - Chatter by Stingray (chatterresearch.com)

Put Your Things Together for an Awesome Customer Experience

Great CX requires customer-centricity in business processes and a lot of great data-driven execution.

“Customer Experience Is Today's Business Benchmark,” as per Forbes.

The art of crafting an awesome customer experience relies mainly on the three touchpoints of the customer journey: people, process and technology. In fact, it all simmers down to your customer's perception of your brand. CX is the sum total of every interaction your customer has with your business, pre/post sales. Materializing this in terms of hard business practices is more complex than it seems.

Prioritize a People-First Culture

Let’s see how different departments in an organization can contribute to improving CX:

• Marketing
• Product Management
• Information Technology
• Human Resources

Building Strategies to Integrate Processes

Once you are able to identify the touchpoints that need rectification depending on customer data, you can modify the CX metrics that will serve you in the process of collecting feedback. 

Adapt Your Tech Stack

• Customer Insights and Data Analytics
• Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)
• CRM
• CX Metrics

Personalizing digital experiences for customers at scale has the potential to transform your CX journey. The magic can only be created when you put all elements together and start experimenting to learn what works.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMSWire.com.

Panel speaker at Digital Confex conference - Beyond Digital

Conference: Beyond Digital
Date: August 30-31 5, 2022

Topic: Transformation of Digital Landscape - Focus on Your AudienceSocial Media and transformation of the digital marketing landscape. 

• LinkedIn and the transformation, with regards to the B2B marketing. 
• Achieve consistency in the delivery of customer experience in both offline and online channels, putting O2O in perspective. 
• Personalization & targeting drives stronger engagement & a higher ROI. 
• Cookieless future.
• Voice of the Customer & the digital Customer experience strategy.
• Voice & personality for optimal customer experience across their marketing channels and touch-points.

Other Panel Speakers:

• Song Ju Stephanie, Area Director Digital Marketing, Loyalty & Partnership, Accor 
• Roberta Canetti, Director Social Media, One Nest Italia 
• Jasylin Qiyu, Head of Client, Digital Channels and Content Marketing, Citibank Singapore 
• Amrita Lal, Senior Client Solutions Manager, LinkedIn 
• Seyla Fontao, Digital Marketing and eCommerce Lead Manager, Mattel

Understand Your Customers & Open Up a Gold Mine

Some modern-day products were well ahead of their time. The personal computer (now branded as desktops) or portable phone (smartphones) are some examples of peerless products that come to our minds. The present versions of these products are nowhere near the original. That is because of the constant evolution of these products, largely due to constant feedback from customers.

Customer feedback is a key element to help companies to improve their product as well as the digital experience for customers. Customer feedback will also enable companies to understand how people view their product and where to plug the gaps in customer satisfaction. In addition, seeking feedback can make customers feel truly valued and possibly help in retaining their loyalty.

Three key aspects of user activity data can help companies strategize their customer-oriented policies:

• Drivers – Elements encourage users to come to your site.
• Barriers – Elements that encourage users to leave and stay on the site.
• Hooks – Perhaps, the most important element in the process, which helps turns a potential visitor into a customer.

Apart from the usual user behavior analytics, the 5Ws will also help companies to understand their potential customer better -

• Who - Understanding who your consumers are?
• What - What is a consumer searching for and what is driving him or her to do so?
• When - Understanding the time pattern when consumer queries reach their peak
• Where - From where are the consumer searches and queries emanating from? It could be smartphones, laptops, or any other medium too.
• Why - This is a complex 'W' to decipher but adds quality to consumer data gathered by a company.

The formula is simple: create a digital persona of customers + provide seamless digital experience + some surprises = higher probability of positive customer satisfaction. Also, keep a data-driven approach at the center of strategy, learn from the metrics, and keep building on top of that.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMOCouncil.org.

Struggling Through Your Digital Transformation? Prioritize Employees

Customer experience is a driving factor which is not possible to achieve without equally strong employee experience.

When it comes to change in society, business, or culture, there’s always been a resistance. It causes businesses to stay behind the rest.

Well, change is the only constant. Currently, the world has been going through a change: digitization, aka digital transformation. This is not only about copying hard paper books into the form of information on computers. The bigger aspect of digitization is redefining customer experience and employee experience. Note, customer experience is a driving factor which is not possible to achieve without equally strong employee experience. It is employees who make your digital transformation to succeed.

Key points covered are:

• How Do Your Employees Perceive Digital Transformation?
• Optimizing Digitalization by Focusing on Employee Experience
• Three Ways to Align Employees' Goals With Your Business
• Empower With Digital skills 
• Preach With Digital Agents
• Measure With Digital KPIs
• Why Every Employee Counts in Digital Transformation

The bottom line is to always create an awesome digital experience focused on customers but keeping employees in the center of your corporate equilibrium.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMSWire.com.

What's Your Future of Work Path With Artificial Intelligence?

Over last few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a very significant part of business operations across all industries. It’s already making an impact as part of our daily lives, from appliances, voice assistants, search, surveillance, marketing, autonomous vehicles, video games, TVs, to large sporting events.

In this ever-evolving market, AI has become super crucial for businesses to upscale workplace infrastructure and improve employee experience. According to Precedence Research, the AI market size is projected to surpass around $1,597.1 billion by 2030 and is expanding growth at a CAGR of 38.1% from 2022 to 2030.

• Will AI Take Jobs From Humans?
• Can Artificial Intelligence Be 100% Reliable?
• What Does a Future With AI Look Like?
• Where AI Has Changed the World?
• How AI Can Improve Employee Experience?

Employees need to know and trust that you have their best interests in mind. The value of AI in human resources is going to be critical to deliver employee experiences along with human connection and values.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMSwire.com.

5 marketing take-aways from the success of Sidhu Moosewala

We recently lost a legendary singer, "Sidhu Moosewala", who from a small village in Punjab, India, in merely 5 years became an international sensation. On May 29th, 2022, he was shot dead at the age of 29. He was listed with multiple songs within top 200 Billboard charts. One of most watched music videos on YouTube, and most listened singer on iTunes, Spotify etc. His growth chart has been through the roof.

I'm writing this blog in his memory. I was and will always be his big fan, who I always admired as an awesome creator and marketer. He was one man army who created brand on himself on his own. 

Why he was so special and successful?
Here are some of the lessons I have acknowledged from him as a marketer:

CLEAR GOAL: HE WAS VERY PARTICULAR ON HIS GOAL AND DETERMINED FROM DAY 1 TO WIN.

His first song launched in 2017 "So High", that tells a lot about his vision, "Jo copycat bane geet kaar saare ne, paad paad sutne ne moosewale ne" (I'm going to destroy all of these copycat music composers around.). He did it within couple of years with his content quality and connection with his audience.

Take-away: Set your goal and go for it. People will talk no matter what. Avoid distractions. Stay consistent. 

Digital Disruption is one of the Greatest Opportunities of the Century

Digital disruption is the renaissance of the 21st century. In the new world, where transformation has transcended life, change is inevitable. Digital forces have transitioned every business model, product development, and innovation. The economic age is the combination of new exponential technologies and value-based services. Basically, it is about making existing concepts and products easier, cheaper, accessible, faster, and more convenient with the use of technology. This creates massive opportunities for businesses to enter existing markets or create new possibilities.

Some of the latest disruptive technologies in the process of innovation are:

• Blockchain
• Cloud Computing Technology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Virtual Reality and Metaverse

Most transitions occur from major disruptions. But when disruptive forces emerge, they tend to revolutionize industries, create impact and add value to the customer experience. The recent introduction of Electric Vehicles to an otherwise saturated automobile market is a good example of digital disruption. Tesla or as many call it “the new iPhone”, is a hi-tech electric car that provides a unique digital experience to riders. It is not the first electric vehicle but the most advanced electric car with lithium batteries which makes it as good as the ICE vehicles (Internal Combustible Engine)

Let's take a look at how disruptive technology has transformed our lives in the past decade:

• Ride-sharing apps
• Online Video Streaming Services
• Email
• Hotel booking

In the 20th century, Kodak cameras were one of the first to monopolize the mainstream market for cameras. But they failed to keep up with the changes and evolving demands of the customer. Slowly, digital cameras came in as the new fun gadget. Brands like Nikon, Sony, and Canon brought in better technology and marketing strategies. They introduced cameras as a need to hold on to life memories rather than a luxury. Kodak’s resistance to transforming and adapting to the changing market trends led to its bankruptcy in 2012.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMO Council eJournal.

Growing Data Privacy Concerns in the Age of Digital Transformation

Data is the new currency in the age of digitization. The exchange of which creates a win-win situation for tech companies to provide personalized experiences for netizens.

After visiting an ecommerce website, you might have noticed platforms like Reddit, Facebook showing you the same products that you were eyeing.

• Balancing Personalization With Privacy

In the digital age, the difference between a profitable and non-profitable company is the way its data is used in enriching customer experience.

• Understand and Focus on Data Principles, Policies

Thorough understanding of data principles and policies is integral to protecting the privacy of customers.

• Data Analysis to Support Customer Intent

One of the ways to create a customer-centric business model is by analyzing the user data and democratizing the access to data analysis reports across departments that frame marketing strategies.

• Balance and Educate, Lower Risk

Data privacy and personalization are two sides of the same coin. But rather than being conflicting, these must be vetted by legal advisors before their application into innovation and business processes.

• Rooting for Customer Trust

User data when used in context helps in maintaining the privacy that establishes trust between customers.

• Allows Ongoing Research

Data sharing not only helps advance research but also points it in the right direction which is beneficial to both the manufacturer and consumer.

• Verification of Results

Feedback and analysis from customer data validate the purpose that the company tries to achieve.

• Product Development and Improvements

Why do you think there are 13 versions of the iPhone? Data exchange is the key to continued growth in the process of creating revolutionary products.

• Promotes Connection and Collaboration

For the purpose of collecting data, companies are more inclined toward promoting collaboration with the users than ever.

• Conclusion: Support Digital Transformation Through Data Sharing

It may come as no surprise that in the age of digital transformation, companies need to consider the security of the data they collect, store and share. Nevertheless, promoting data exchange can increase market transparency and continued growth.

Data privacy must be the foundation of any transformational digital project as without it you might not only be penalized but also lose customer loyalty and trust. Digital transformation through data sharing leverages innovation and the introduction of cutting-edge technology to accelerate business processes.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMSwire.com.

Building Your ‘Digital Castle’ Requires Robust Customer Engagement

The digital experience that a customer gets while interacting with the brand is one of the reasons for any company’s success in the 21st Century. Continuous tracking of user actions and predicting their intent are among key components of digital customer experience so it helps a company to clock higher sales. Now, the pertinent question is - How can a company improve its digital engagement?

Two Rs play a key role in ensuring great customer engagement.

1) Relevant content strategy, wherein a company needs to understand its customers’ preferences. This would entail aligning your content and product options to the needs of the customer.

2) Reliable technology can help companies attract more customers on its platform. As per a PwC report, nearly 80 percent of American consumers say that speed, convenience, knowledgeable help and friendly service are key elements of a positive customer experience. Hence, using technologies that enable customers to spend more on a company’s product.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMO Council eJournal.

Have You Recognized the Potential of the Composable Digital Experience Stack?

As competition between businesses rises, personalized digital experience is the answer to the rising expectations of the customers today. In order to optimize customer experience, companies aim to adopt a digital strategy that is customizable to specific demands and implemented across multiple touch points of the customer journey through a composable digital experience (DX). Composable digital experience platforms (DXPs) aim to bridge the gap between the digital technology experiences of different datasets in an organization like the customer, users and employees.

• What Is Composable DX?

According to Gartner “A DXP is an integrated set of core technologies that support the composition, management, delivery and optimization of contextualized digital experiences.”

• Hopes: Can Composable DX Meet Customer Expectations?

"By 2023, organizations that have adopted an intelligent composable approach will outpace the competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation," Gartner, Inc.

• Promises: What Composable DXP Companies Desire

"Gartner estimates that by 2023, 60% of mainstream organizations will list composable business as a strategic objective and will use an increasing number of packaged business capabilities (PBCs)."

• Composable DXP Promises
• Tailored to specific requirements
• Flexibility to integrate
• Adaptability to customer behavior
• Omnichannel strategy
• Realities: Composable DXP Features
• Microservices based architecture
• Experience over cost
• Answer to risk management
• Faster time-to-market
• Composable DXPs: The Future of CX

Gartner suggests the digital experience strategy to be focused on total experience (TX) that creates superior shared experiences by interlinking the four disciplines; that is, customer experience (CX), user experience (UX), employee experience (EX) and multiexperience (MX).

The different parts of the process should not lack insight into each other's objectives thus providing a disjointed and siloed experience. Rather they must be able to deliver frictionless, personalized, flexible and cohesive digital experiences. Hence, Composable DXPs are the way to meet customer aspirations and expectations for a personalized experience.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMSwire.com.

Providing Seamless Digital Experience Is Secret Behind Brand Loyalty

The Covid-19 pandemic and the increasing push for social distancing has given an unlikely fillip to digitization. This has meant that companies have had to ensure that customers get the best digital experience of their product. In simple terms, digital customer experience is the interactions that a customer has with the company through its digital mediums like website, apps and social media.

A McKinsey global survey of executives noted in 2020 how companies have "accelerated the digitization of customer and supply-chain interactions by three to four years" during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Every company wants to be remembered by customers, mainly for its product. But how can companies cultivate recall value in the digital world?

One potent way is through enriching the digital experience for customers interacting with the company and its product. For enabling and constantly improving a company’s digital experience, feedback - both solicited and unsolicited - plays a huge role. In addition, focusing on the digital touchpoints of customers will help track the bounce rate and apply action items to keep customers digitally engaged.

 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Published on CMO Council eJournal.

Change doesn’t change itself.

10 years is quite a break. A lot have changed in the meantime. 

• Aged another 10 years
• Upgraded to iPhone 13 Pro, writing this on it, previous post was from iPhone 4S, long time
• Earned 13 more professional certifications; some are really tough ones, trust me
• Changed job twice
• Bought a house, sold that, and bought another one
• Faced a layoff and then got retained also within same company for the same role, such things exist
• Blessed with the second child, and he has a website - www.joshvir.com
• Lost 52 lbs and gained back 26 of it, lol
• Have a pet now, a chocolate labrador
• Got Covid vaccine, both
• Started trading in stocks, crypto, and heavily on crypto
• Written for reputed publishers and professional communities online, and still writing

A thing that hasn’t changed is, my curiosity!

These days, I’m curious about customer digital experience. I’m always exploring various ways to learn B2B users' behavior online and how to captivate them for business benefit? They say, “Obsession is not good”. It’s quite opposite when we are talking about customers. Amazon is based on customer-obsessed culture. Steve Jobs preached customer-centric business model. I’m obsessed with customer experience and changing the way how business is done on digital interfaces.

Wait, wait, wait, I welcome back myself to writing!