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Building a holistic customer communication ecosystem with Mobius
If you ask any company what its most important asset is, the vast majority will say it’s its customers. The holistic customer communication ecosystem is developed with one overall purpose: to better understand, communicate with, and help your customers. The holistic approach is a different way of looking at a company's communication strategy, one that focuses on all the parts being interconnected.
Effective customer communication doesn’t only accomplish the obvious, which is increasing customer satisfaction and retention, but it also aids in quick problem and query resolution, brings in higher conversion rates, and drives brand value through consistent messaging.
This article will explore the importance of the holistic customer ecosystem and how you can leverage sales by improving communication.
What is a customer communication ecosystem?
The term ‘customer communication ecosystem’ can be defined as a map depicting the flow of all the creative deliverables throughout a campaign.
In simple terms, it suggests that customer communication is no longer a linear journey with a beginning and an end but rather a nonlinear process that relies on various forms of engagement with the customer. An ecosystem combines the starting point of the communication, what action should be taken as a result, and where the customer should end up.
One should never underestimate the importance of effective customer communication. As a business, the first and last steps of providing customer service are always communicating with your clients. Regardless of your industry, your customers are always the ones driving your business’ growth.
Gone are the days of putting the product first and relying on production and distribution to set a business up for success. As industries evolve and automation takes over, organizations must recognize the importance of prioritizing the customer experience above all else.
What is a P2P/funnel ecosystem?
A path-to-purchase (P2P) ecosystem demonstrates how all of the campaign's techniques interact to move the customer from awareness to purchase.
The benefit of tracking a P2P journey, both holistically and on a granular level, is that it will help you understand how your marketing generates new leads and sales. You can understand the part your channels and campaigns play in the beginning, middle, and end of the client journey if you have effective tracking in place.
We all know users don’t convert immediately after landing on a website. Therefore by tracking your P2P, you will be able to determine what exactly is influencing your bottom line.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that tracking isn’t always easy. Three factors contribute to this:
1. The customer journey keeps getting longer
The road to purchasing is not a straightforward or quick customer journey. Just turning a user into a customer requires three steps. The number of touchpoints at each of those stages could be in the tens or even hundreds. With so much data available, it can be challenging for marketers to accurately determine what is and isn't working.
2. Difficulties monitoring lead quality
When customers communicate via phone calls, live chat, or form fills, it is difficult to track lead quality. You might be able to count the leads you're producing, but how can you precisely identify the marketing channel from which they came? Making clear connections between sales and marketing can be difficult when so many channels are at play during your paths to purchase.
3. Ad platforms use last-click attribution
Many ad platforms use last-click attribution models, which give full credit to the channels that were used later in the customer journey or path to purchase. The last-click model type is useful for determining how channels are closing paths to purchase, but it overlooks the influence of everything else you're doing.
Overall, getting data on your customers’ paths to purchase has its difficulties, but ultimately, the insight you gain about how your marketing generates leads and sales is invaluable.
When does a P2P funnel come into play?
The campaign ecosystem should be the final output of the communications plan, which comes after the communications framework, blueprint, and tactical brief, respectively. It can be as straightforward as demonstrating how a campaign can lead customers from awareness tactics to the store or something more complex, like looking at how every bit of communication affects the overall campaign.
When creating your P2P funnel, your customers and their needs should always be at the center of the ecosystem. Your customers' expectations should affect how your entire ecosystem functions rather than pushing them to adapt to your ecosystem. Customers will not hesitate to switch to another business that is more receptive to their demands and more eager to listen to them because they have virtually endless possibilities.
To identify your customers and understand their expectations, use data from website analytics, purchase history, social media, and market research. This data will influence the goals and expectations of every other component in your ecosystem.
How do I create a P2P/Funnel Ecosystem?
Creating your funnel can be done by following these three steps:
1. Start at the end and work backward. Map out the final destination you want to send your customers to.
2. Decide on your core destinations, considering there could be multiple. Although some companies may establish a microsite specifically for a campaign, their ultimate goal may be to direct visitors to their website or physical store.
3. Then, list all of the deliverables that your campaign requires. Start with the indirect drivers, such as SEO and social media, and then map out the direct drivers, such as banner ads.
It is important to remember that ecosystems work together as one unit, with customers and clients coming in in a nonlinear way. With an ecosystem in place, you can effectively attract both the clients who are ready to buy right now and those who will be in three to six months. Not everyone who enters your environment immediately is prepared to make a purchase. They could have entered your ecosystem organically or as a result of paid advertising. Before they are ready to buy, they usually need time to be exposed to your organic marketing and the entire environment. To attract customers who will take longer in the sales cycle, you need an ecosystem.
Create a customer communication ecosystem with Mobius
Take into account that customer communication systems are living, breathing documents that are ever-evolving. As a result, some strategies might change to match the communications framework better, or they might stop altogether.
The first version of an ecosystem can even point out a significant communication gap inside a particular stage of the client journey. If you discover that your work falls short in one or more areas of the framework, try to come up with an alternative.
Partnering with Mobius can provide your team with the latest, most complete service platform and the best solution to your communication ecosystem needs.
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