Customer Empathy: The Hallmark Of the Post-Digital CMO

Customer Empathy: The Hallmark
Of the Post-Digital CMO
Laura Ramos

3© 2018 FORRESTER. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.
71% B2B buyers
say it is more
convenient to
purchase from a
website.
Source: Q1 2017 Forrester B2B Buying And Selling Online Survey

61% of B2B buyers
use smartphones
to research work
purchases.
Source: Q1 2017 Forrester B2B Buying And Selling Online Survey

5© 2018 FORRESTER. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.Source: Forrester/Internet Retailer Q1 2017 Global B2B Buy-Side Online Survey
68% of B2B
buyers prefer to
research online
on their own –
up from 53% in
2015.

6© 2018 FORRESTER. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.Source: Forrester/Internet Retailer Q1 2017 US B2B Buyer Channel Preferences Online Survey (N = 229)
62% of B2B buyers
say they can now
develop selection
criteria or finalize a
vendor list — based
solely on digital
content.

Empowered customers change purchase dynamics
Source: “Winning in the Age of the Customer” Forrester report.

Which gives rise to the B2B “Consumer”
Source: “The Birth Of The B2B Consumer” Forrester report.

Exceptional
experiences
are now your
best
competitive
advantage.

10© 2017 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Make your
customer the
center of your
operating model.

Customer led
Insights driven
Fast
Connected
FROM
Customer aware
Data rich
Perfect
Siloed
TO
Four operating principles lead to customer obsession

Customer led
Insights driven
Fast
Connected
6 levers impact customer-obsessed operating models

How obsessed are companies today?
Design survey to
test our model and
identify maturity
indicators.
Field with 1,024
B2B and B2C
executives from
US, UK, Germany
Analyzed which
statements
correlated most
with obsession

Most firms are still immature
Base: 1,024 global executives
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2016 Customer-Obsessed Operating Model Online Survey
65% of B2B firms
are in 2 least
mature segments

Opportunity increases with
customer obsession maturity.

Customer-Obsessed firms have happier employees
Base: 468 global B2B executives

Who believe in their products and services

Who help create stronger customer relationships

Which ultimately leads to better revenue performance

Sales enablement
Campaign planning
Customer marketing
Digital marketing
Corporate
communications
Product marketing
Partnership promotions
Lead generation
Market research
Direct marketing
Events
Agency management

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhythmstrip/6181330777

CMOs can’t try to change
everything.

What do
customer-obsessed
CMOs prioritize?

They plan and organize around customers
Source: Forrester’s Q2 2017 B2B Customer-Obsessed Operating Model Online Survey
“We set strategy
collaboratively across all
customer-facing groups.”
Base: 191 B2B marketing professionals
“We organize around
customer segments supported
by centers of expertise.”

They engage across the customer’s entire lifetime
Source: Forrester’s Q2 2017 B2B Customer-Obsessed Operating Model Online Survey Base: 191 B2B marketing professionals
“We allocate sales &
marketing resources to
support customer programs.”
“We use martech to capture
behavior across lifetime and
manage engagement.”

Place a premium on the post-sale experience
Source: Forrester’s Q2 2017 B2B Customer-Obsessed Operating Model Online Survey Base: 191 B2B marketing professionals
“We place as much
importance on retention and
advocacy as acquisition.”
“We use advocacy metrics
such as NPS to evaluate
marketing ROI.”

Customer-Obsession requires a new mindset
Source: The Forrester “Empathy: The Hallmark Of The Customer-Obsessed B2B Marketer” report.

“The ability to understand and
share the feelings of another.”

Empathy

Empathy is the key to engaging content
Insight Understanding Empathy
What we need to do:
Trust Loyalty
How buyers react:
Customer understanding + Empathy = Exceptional CX

Empathy starts your journey to a new marketing mindset

Reinforce
customer
knowledge.

Dow customizes dashboards for internal teams
› Delivers CXIndex™ insight to account
teams, R&D, suppliers, etc.
› Moved from ad hoc to systematic.
› Account-specific feedback and
sentiment analysis.
› Makes the customer central to decision-making.

Demonstrate
you understand
their feelings.

Brocade helps networking pros laugh at frustrations
›Source: Brocade

And drive 3X more engagement with prospects

Curate and
cultivate a
community.

Spiceworks uses advocate community to penetrate
key accounts
Source: Spiceworks

Turn your fans
into advocates.

BrightPearl educators share best practices using
customer voices that buyers trust
Source: BrightPearl (https://www.brightpearl.com/resources/blog/our-customers-top-tips-valentines-day-2016)

Axciom makes advocacy part of every customer’s
experience
Source: Axciom

How do you become customer-obsessed?
› Adopt the new customer-centric mindset.
› Shift from an offering-driven to a customer-led strategy.
› Address data gaps and put all of your data to work.
› Move from striving for perfection to executing nimbly.
› Connect operational silos – and then ecosystems – around creating
transformative customer experiences.

“The secret to getting ahead is
getting started.”
—Mark Twain

Just begin.

Research that will help you begin
› REPORT Winning In The Age Of The Customer
› REPORT Top Five Imperatives To Win In The Age Of The Customer
› REPORT The Operating Model For Customer Obsession
› REPORT The Customer Obsession Assessment
› REPORT Chart Your Course To Customer Obsession
› REPORT The B2B Marketer's Guide To Benchmarking Customer Obsession Maturity
› REPORT Empathy: The Hallmark Of The Customer-Obsessed B2B Marketer

Customer Empathy: The Hallmark Of the Post-Digital CMO

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