Three ways to put customer management tools into practice

As a marketer, understanding customer management processes, tools and frameworks is incredibly important. But, as marketing expert David Morgan puts it, you don’t learn tennis by studying a manual. Here are three ways he recommends you put theory into practice.

Imagine some of the world’s biggest financial, consumer goods and technology brands. Chances are David Morgan has worked with most – if not all – of them.

Over the past 30 years, David’s enviable career has taken him to 128 countries across four continents, leading global companies including Nestle, Citibank, Procter & Gamble and Samsung to better connect with customers. He now sits on six boards (including ADMA’s) and runs his own consulting business.

Students enrolled in ADMA’s iconic Digital Marketing Certificate (DMC) had the chance to learn how to put customer management processes and tools into practice, directly from the master himself. During one of 10 tutorials with Australia’s leading CMOs, DMC students got to pick David’s brain, soak up some of his experience – and explore three ways to apply what they’re learning during the course to their roles.

Here’s a snapshot of what they learned.

1. Bring all business functions together through journey mapping

“When customer management breaks down,” David shared, “it’s because the functions within your organisation aren't working together.”

When every function can impact the customer experience, marketing’s role as the guardians of the customer can be challenging. Functional and operational pieces like call centres, packaging, complaints and delivery are outside of marketing’s direct control – but it is the marketer’s to bring them all together.

“And that's where journey mapping becomes really important. Because you can see what happens at each touch point and you can tailor the experience collaboratively as a group to make it come to life,” David said.

But he warned students of focusing on the customer in isolation during the mapping process.

“A lot of the time we think only about what the customer is experiencing. Sometimes that’s enough. But you should also look at what the employee experiences are at the same time and how they match up with customer attitudes.”

Understanding not only what the customer is thinking and feeling, but also how the organisation reacts to this is critical if you want to create great experiences.

2. Always ask the most important question

Data is more important than ever in marketing. But David said the role of a marketer is to look beyond the data and ask ‘why’.

“Why is the most powerful question in understanding how to help customers and understanding how to commercialise businesses,” he said. “Why leads to an understanding of how things work, how customers think, why touchpoints in journey maps are manifesting the way that they do. It gets you to the reasoning and the attitudes and it gets you to understand what to do next.”

So make sure you work through the data and understand what it is telling you.

How do you explain it? And how do you action the explanation of the data?

“When we do journey mapping and personas, I always say data is not the answer. It's the observation. Insight is what the answer really is. And insight is asking the question why,” explained David.

3. Immerse yourself in the customer journey

Processes and analysis help you put frameworks around managing your customers. But to truly understand them, you need to experience their journey first hand – or at least shadow them along the way.

“There’s nothing quite like being with your customers, watching them do what they do and understanding their thoughts and feelings and pain points. Don't wait for these things to be reported in complaints or follow ups or NPS,” David said. “Get yourselves into the scenarios. Get yourself to the touch points. Because that's really what marketing is about. It's the explanation and the insight of what people are doing and why.”

That’s the real difference, he said, that will give marketers greater success in their careers.

Set yourself up for success and learn from marketing masters like David through Australia’s most sought-after Digital Marketing Certificate. In this exclusive 10-week virtual course, the country’s top CMOs will become your personal mentors, helping you supercharge your digital marketing skills.

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