CMOs should be the biggest advocates of digitalization in the company //

Marketers are responsible for seeing the glass half-full in business. Marketers are expected to look at a product or service in its entirety and craft a compelling, transformative message regardless of the offering.

This is a strategic way to connect a target audience with the company’s products or services. It’s not a ruse. The company provides the steak and marketing the sauce.

However, there is a disconnect between corporate expectations of their customers and the actual, quantifiable marketing goals that digital transformation can achieve. Companies across industries must offer positive digital experiences to their customers in order to bring business into the 21st century. Many have not accepted this reality and others are “making do” with obsolete tech to their disadvantage.

Consider Southwest Airlines’ most recent system failure. It is well-known that thousands of customers were affected by the company’s IT failure. Many people were left stranded by the numerous cancelled and delayed flights, which caused some to cancel their holiday plans. The airline’s bad reputation and poor customer service are still a problem for PR professionals and marketers.

What should marketers do if a company doesn’t deliver the service promised?

Customers trust brands that offer products and services that meet their expectations. Consumers expect companies to be relevant and digitally-advanced. Marketers must advocate for innovation and modernization in our companies.

Modern business experiences are dominated by tech

Every company, regardless of the service or product offered, is digital. Marketers need to encourage the adoption of digital-first identities and tie them to the customer and employee experience.

Customers want a seamless digital experience. Customers will not accept that a company can’t deliver because of computer problems. Customers expect the best from tech stacks that are based on outdated legacy systems.

Industries all feel this disconnect between prioritizing digital experiences and sticking with legacy platforms. ExpertusONE CEO Ramesh Ramani says that failures such as those at Southwest come down to a flawed core belief. (Disclosure: ExpertusONE clients Zen Media.

Ramani stated that corporate leaders still believe that technology is nice and necessary. Therefore, it’s possible to delay investing in the tech stack. Tech isn’t a desirable feature. It is the only way for companies to build relationships with stakeholders and stay competitive in their markets. Neglecting to invest in the tech stack can be detrimental.”

The customer experience chain is incomplete without tech. Tech is a major concern for marketers in these days of Yelp reviews and Google. All business leaders, marketing or not, must be open to digital acceleration. Technology breakdowns can have a ripple effect.

Production and business operations are affected by downtime. Employee engagement is reduced and morale negatively affected by poor digital experiences. A system failure like that of Southwest can cause customers to lose trust in a brand and decimate its customer base.

Your company must meet their expectations when it comes digital experiences. Otherwise, they could lose customers’ interest and cause them to flee to more innovative companies.

To maintain customer trust, a strong tech stack is crucial

Strong tech stacks are the first step to preventing customer trust breaches. Marketers must advocate for a digital-first brand image.

Southwest’s failure shows how tech issues can seriously damage brand reputation.

Marketers need to understand the importance of technology beyond marketing-specific technology. It is important to understand the impact of our entire tech stack on customer experience, from L&D software to operational workflow tools to IT management and HR tools.

Marketing can’t deliver the steak without the digital experience. Your marketing efforts won’t be successful if your customer experience is poor.

Let’s suppose that you are able to reach your target audience via social media content marketing but that your website is often down due back-end IT problems. Your customer will quickly move to another brand, most likely one of your competitors. If your website isn’t reliable, then why should customers trust your brand?

It’s non-negotiable. It is now the expectation that tech be updated. Customers will not trust companies that fail to meet this expectation. This is not something that can be quickly recovered.

Marketers can’t be reactive only. If the primary message of a brand is to control damage, it won’t be able to reach customers effectively. You need a tech stack that consistently delivers on customer expectations in order to succeed.

We can connect our brand identity with customers’ digital experiences while interacting with us, allowing us to make a compelling case to support tech innovation. We have to hold our companies accountable and make sure the products we market are relevant in today’s marketplace.

The post Why CMOs should be the company’s greatest advocates for digitalization was first published on MarTech.