Salesforce talks a lot about Customer 360, or the ability to see a complete picture of everything your customer does, a 360 degree view. This is important for your business so you can better predict your customer’s next move, and meet them where they will be, with an irresistible offer in hand.

And yet, when you dig deep into this holistic view, you will discover that it’s something way bigger than just CRM. You’ll discover you need to automate your customer’s buying experience to properly orchestrate everything with precision and leave you time for more important tasks.

You’ll discover your need for Customer Experience Automation.

What is Customer Experience Automation, or CXA? 

Customer experience automation isn’t just the ability to personalize an email with the recipient’s first name. How many of you have received an email addressed like this: Hello <F_Name>?

That’s happened to me countless times, and usually I snap a photo of it and tweet something snarky about a customer success failure and then delete the email without even reading it all the way through. I suspect many of you have had similar experiences, and similar reactions.

So what is CXA, really? Simply put, it’s treating every customer like they are your only customer, regardless of if you have 10 customers or 10 million customers. Great! But why is the customer experience so important? 

Here’s the top 4 reasons why:

  1. A great product is no longer enough to keep customers coming back. Customers have come to expect a great experience, and really, they deserve a great experience, right? We all know bad news travels faster and good news. (I refer you back to my Hello <F_Name> comments above.) How many of us use social media and share a great customer experience? I can think of one really rock-star case of that: Peter Shankman’s experience with Morton’s Steakhouse. And even though it’s now nearly 10 years since that happened, it’s still The Greatest Service Story Ever Told, in my opinion.
  2. Buyers are looking for more personal connections. This is why craft, bespoke, and small-batch everything is so successful. Think about your hometown, what are some of your favorite places to eat? For me, in Evansville, Indiana, it’s the “Mom & Pop” restaurants (not the franchises) that are run by locals, your friends and neighbors. Like Kite and Key Cafe on Franklin. Sure it’s owned by a good friend and former co-worker of mine, but that cinnamon roll french toast and the corned beef hash are both to die for. And if you’re like me, bacon is made from pork and it’s served crispy, or it’s going back to the kitchen – I’ve never had to send bacon back at Kite and Key! Their staff knows the names of all the regulars. I should know, I’m in there at least once a week. Since Covid-19 hit, it’s been carry-out most times.
  3. Time is the biggest barrier to a great customer experience. When there aren’t enough hours in the day, relationships fall through the cracks. That’s true with business relationships, just as much as it is with personal relationships, only you can’t automate personalized experiences in your personal life. If I’m wrong there, someone please enlighten me! ActiveCampaign has over 500 prebuilt automation recipes you can use today!
  4. An “okay” customer experience is not okay. The difference between a 4.6 review and a 4.3 review is much more than 0.3 points. It’s the difference between a new customer and a lost customer. Competition for customers is fierce, and if you want customers for life, you better be giving them a top-notch experience. One that leaves no doubt in their mind who they need to visit for the products & services you provide. Check out all the great things that ActiveCampaign did for our customers during 2020!

You’re already using Salesforce: Why do I need ActiveCampaign?

Remember, Salesforce started out as just a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application, and that’s still their core product today. They’ve grown into a platform that can almost do everything any business would ever need. Almost everything. But that doesn’t mean they are the right tool for every business.

Just like ActiveCampaign understands that it’s always better to use the best-in-class tools for everything, rather than trying to find one tool that does it all (because they don’t really exist.)

What? You’re not an ActiveCampaign customer yet? Start your free trial today!