Can you guess how many vendors who sell some sort of marketing technology?
There is of course no definite answer due to the lack of definition and constant growth of available software. The 2015 Marketing technology landscape doubled its size from 2014, to a staggering 1876 vendors and since its release in January quite a few more will have popped up.
Then there must be a perfect fit for your company out there to delight your customers and turn them into loyal ambassadors of your brand, right?
Probably not. As it turns out, being up to date with personalization, omni-channel, self-service etc. is more about not losing market share, than increasing market share.
The take away message here is to reduce effort, for your customers and yourself. Stop trying to delight your customers, instead make certain it is a quick and effortless experience to get in touch and solve problems with your products or services. Most people do not look for, or reward, exceedingly good customer service, they just want to get on with their day.
Same goes for personalization, omni-channel enablement and low latency responses to customer inquiries, it has become a hygiene factor, not a success factor. And it is probably here that the term digital humanism is formed.
The digital humanist is the puppet master who can make or break your business through the puppets: technology, customer interaction and quality control.
The key points of Digital humanism according to Gartner is:
- Put people at the center
- Embrace unpredictability
- Protect personal space
Thus a Digital humanist would:
- Ensure product designs are people-centered
- Ensure privacy is maintained and data gathering is “opt-in”
- Ensure IT processes treat customers with the Golden Rule.
- Ensure the “human touch” is present in customer interactions
As the new normal will be (is?) a marketing technology arms race, the tools to delight will be brand, quality and people.
Like it used to be in other words. The Digital humanist is the key to transcend the hygiene factor and ensure a holistic approach which strengthen your brand, improve quality through customer feedback and empower the personnel.
The revolution we’ve seen and keep seeing with machine learning, AI and automation will no doubt continue, but leveraging these tools will not be a differentiating factor except in the negative sense. It is not an option.
Learn more about personalization by visiting our Business blog (in Swedish) or read more on customer insight and personalization in our White paper: Kundinsikt skapar lojalitet (in Swedish).
