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In my previous article, I explained how siloed thinking and working can prevent your company from making critical connections with customers. But how do you transition from traditional siloed thinking to synergized, customer-centric strategies? VML can walk you through the process, step by step, and show you the keys to outstanding customer experiences. Here’s a hint: it’ll take more than just great tech.
For many VML clients, it’s a surprise to learn that our first step is to get to know your company, inside and out. We talk to a variety of your stakeholders and team members to learn what the real issues are. And, in 80-90% of the cases, a significant organizational alignment between teams and departments is needed. After careful research and effective strategizing, we help you break down the silos and learn to work together as a single brand, across all channels. We show you how to collaborate with each other in new ways, keep track of what other teams are doing, and work together to build campaigns and strategies that really work, build incremental loyalty and customer lifetime value.
There’s a good reason why so many companies work in silos. It is, after all, the way business was done before omnichannel existed. Silos reduce complexity and draw clear lines as to which team is responsible for what part of the business. Team members may have expertise that only applies to one part of the business. Or to specific marketing activities in a certain channel. But multi-national, omnichannel organizations can no longer afford to stay comfortable. Every day you work in silos is another day you’re giving customers a fragmented experience that will impact their loyalty to you.
Breaking down the silos will take more than just a strong data platform. Although the right technology is important, it is only an enabler. Creating an effective customer experience requires the right people, the right process, and the right technology. VML can guide your company through the milestones needed to achieve alignment across all three.
How do we know it works? Because we’ve been doing it for decades, and we’ve made all the possible mistakes, so you don’t have to. Getting your teams aligned on shared objectives and KPIs? We will help them build one, unified framework. Are there roadblocks in the customer journey you struggle to resolve? We’ll find them and eliminate them, one by one. And best of all, we’ll prepare your teams to not only optimize today, but also to prepare for tomorrow. So, long after we’re gone, you can continue to grow and evolve your strategy to changing customer needs. Feel things starting to stagnate after a year? We’ll come back for a refresher and get you back on track.
A major, international home electronics company came to us to boost repurchases and loyalty from existing customers in EMEA and North America. They aimed to build the ultimate customer lifecycle across two regions and 27 markets. We helped them create and operate a CRM Marketing Center of Excellence (CoE), and roll out best practice use cases with localization where needed. At the heart of the solution was a centralized, agile development and deployment process.
Within 12 months, we helped them roll out 8 marketing automation campaign journeys across 18 markets. And 80% of the localization effort required only translation. This led to an 18% increase in purchases attributable to CRM, and a 23% increase in customer engagement.
Or take the international home appliance giant. In 2023, they asked us to support their direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecommerce journey in EMEA. While they knew that marketing automation was a key to their success, they had no idea how to activate direct marketing activities. Again, a CoE was the answer. Using VML’s ‘build once, deploy many’ approach, we scaled SalesForce Marketing Cloud journeys across brands and markets. In the first year, we helped them deploy and localize 14 use cases, and scale their D2C program to 6 markets with 3 brands. The result was a significant uplift in D2C’s contribution to CRM Balance of Sales. This resulted in a 15% increase in sales attributed to CRM.
It may be tough to hear, but at the end of the day, your company’s challenges aren’t quite as unique as they may seem to be. In all of the thousands of projects we’ve done over the years, we’ve seen every challenge and experienced every roadblock. We’ve made mistakes, and we’ve learned from every one of them. What is unique is where your company stands today, and where it’s prepared to go in the future. You may think you’re being customer-centric, but I’m willing to bet you’re not even close. Yet. But we can help you get there.
The most important thing to starting your journey to a better customer experience is an open mind and a collective effort. After all, chances are your C-Suite is siloed, too. But if your CMO, CTO, and COO aren’t on the same page, your teams will likely not be either. Entering into this process is a commitment and an investment. But at the end of it all, you’ll have the tools, teams, and strategies in place to ensure real success.
It’s not a recipe or a checklist. It’s not a matter of following some prescribed steps. You must allow VML to become intimately familiar with your teams and your stakeholders. To dive deeply into your company’s people and processes. To examine your tech and your resources. It requires your commitment and your patience. But when it’s all over, you’ll have a system that helps you achieve customer loyalty beyond anything you can imagine today.
Senior Business Consultant at VML Netherlands
