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I recently stumbled upon the Sitecore Customer Experience Maturity Model. As the name suggests, this framework is a fantastic tool for not only assessing an organisations "digital maturity", but providing a planning roadmap for future innovation and investment.
While it has been designed with users of the Sitecore platform in mind, it has applications relevant to any business with an online presence, and for helping to shape ongoing platform strategy.
The Customer Experience Maturity Model.
Primarily the framework is divided into 7 key levels, starting at launch of a basic brochureware website, moving through to highly personalized and predictive customer engagement. Each level outlines key focus and KPIs, which I will touch on below.
A big note, this is a broad framework for assessment. Each business is unique with its own set of challenges, so this should be factored in when applying this to overall digital planning.
INITIATE
Establish a presence on the web, usually with information about the company and services. Focus on Search Engine Optimization for acquisition. Email primarily used for mass mailing.
KPIs are primarily traffic related - number of visitors, time on site.
RADIATE
Distribute content across channels, where your customers are. Contextual use of content, starting with Mobile sites. Social Integration, allowing customers to Share and Like content. Enable PPC Search programs.
KPIs are again traffic related, but segmented according to traffic sources.
ALIGN
Use digital strategically to grow outcomes. Establish Analytics & Multi Channel Funnels to track all marketing campaigns. Better use of Customer tracking to provide intelligence to customer teams. Enable Display Advertising. Support sales channels by linking to eCommerce services.
KPIs are tied with Strategic Business Objectives.
OPTIMISE
Optimize digital presence to get higher engagement, by using testing to optimize conversion and the experience. Tracking of campaign specific performance (ROMI). Deeper understanding of customer behavior, by profiling content with personas. Introduce rules based personalization. Enable collection of unstructured data. Enable customer communities.
KPIs are tied with Strategic Business Objectives, measured towards specific Marketing Objectives.
NURTURE
Nurture Prospects and Customers on the customer path through Micro to Macro conversions. Move from Multi Channel to Cross Channel dialogue, listening to behavior and responding in the favorite channel. Social more integrated, with behavior and dialogue captured from social channels. Use of automated email marketing like trigger based emails, and establishing dialogue flows for newsletter subscription, cart abandonment etc. Adopt Behavioral Targeting for 1:1 dialogue.
KPIs are tied with the Conversion Funnel.
ENGAGE
Build up Customer profile, with relevant data from online and offline activity. Establishment of a single shared view of the customer in a central data hub from online and offline worlds. Establish processes and governance to manage shared data. Benchmark new initiatives like Call to Actions or promotions to validate the effectiveness of initiatives. Use internal alerts for quick actions when spikes on key KPIs trigger. Automate key conversional elements like Call to Actions based on similar behavior from other Customers.
KPIs are tied with the Customer Lifecycle Funnel, using actual Customer level metrics, segmented using multi channel attribution.
LIFETIME CUSTOMERS
Use predictions and customer intelligence to optimize cross channel Customer Experience. Agility is key - the speed of launching or testing initiatives becomes a competitive advantage. Capability to effectively analyze large data sets. Use cross channel attribution to optimize marketing initiatives. Use customer level data to make every touch point immediate, relevant and predictive. Automated data analysis that provides actionable advice for optimization in Performance activity. Automated content optimization using personalization from outcome based decision engine. Use of Predictive Analytics to steer activities in order to keep funnel aligned with budgets.
KPIs are closely tied with deeper funnel and predicting future outcomes.
ACTIVITY MODELS
The Maturity Model also becomes quite powerful when activities are layered over the framework - key activities feature their own individual roadmaps as the business moves along the maturity pathway.
Customer Experience Maturity Model - Activities.
With customer experience increasingly becoming the key to competitive advantage, the Sitecore Customer Experience Maturity Model is worth checking out if you are in an Agency or Client decision making role.
What position on the framework do the companies you work for sit? How would you utilise this activity framework to aid in platform planning?
This post continues my series on Mental Models.