Christy Dempster Talks to CX & Marketing Working Together

Welcome to be customer led where we’ll explore how leading experts in customer and employee experience are navigating organizations through their own journey to be customer led and the accidents and behaviors of lawyers and businesses exhibit to get there. And now your host of Bill’s staikos.

She was also nominated for a really special award, this year. And I was in the running, which is kind of really a nice designation and recognition for all the hard work that she’s doing. Christie welcomed the show. So happy to have you on. Thank

I want to talk about sort of the relationship, between CX and marketing and how the two are working together and a lot of organizations, right. more and more we’re seeing CX kind of run through the marketing organization. Others are putting it in other spots across the business. So really curious to kind of get your perspective and get into it here.

my non-traditional career path has, has come up a number of times. So having back in my early career, I thought I wanted to be an actuary. So I got my dream job at an insurance company, working downtown, wearing a suit. After about a year, I realized that the insurance industry, at least at that time was a little old school for me and took a completely different.

And so I didn’t realize at the time what an imprint that made for me to have this full responsibility of cross. That entire process. And when you think about that customer’s journey, I really was the only touch point that they had throughout all of that. And that really impacted me and the trajectory that my career took beyond that.

And w was

when you’re responsible for the upstream and the downstream, you, you can reap what you sow with that. When I came to, to Roche now, I, I had a smaller piece of the pie and a smaller piece of that journey, but that perspective. Unknowingly. Oh, I, you know, it, I really didn’t realize how much until I was reflecting on our conversation, and how much that really influenced that.

And so it’s not just just one piece. And so it’s just been an accumulation of aha moments over the course of the. Undisclosed number of careers where the, where the, and I realize that’s really impacted me. It’s

Seen a couple of different parts of the business or done a couple of things in industry before they get into the role. If they bring a much different view and perspective of someone who’s kind of maybe even come up the ranks on a pure market research or measurement type of role, whether like C-SAT or NPS, that’s my gauge.

That’s my north star versus. Well, I’ve done this and this and this I’ve been on the front lines and I’ve, I’ve been able to kind of blow out my view and also get really deep. And that is really helpful in the role. So don’t disclose the number of changes if you go onto, but I don’t, don’t say it like it’s a bad thing either.

I think it’s a really good thing, particularly in the role that you’re doing, but let’s talk about the role for a second and how you’re approaching it. And you’re focused on CA on customer experience and analytics. You’re part of a more sort of broader customer experience. Organization, like how are you impacting the broader CX agenda where you are?

And, and you’ve, you’ve got this one end where. We want to create these relevant, personalized experiences and the way that you, you have to do that is through data SU the insights that you have. And so, it’s a, it’s a great enabler in order to be able to, to drive those experiences that we want to. The problem is that oftentimes the data is stuck in the different systems in which it’s captured.

And oftentimes these systems are stood up for a single purpose. So you have the data that the call centers using, going into one system. You’ve got data around her email marketing and automation going in a district different system. You’ve got web analytics over here. You have any social over here.

You’ve got here P that has. The financial piece, which is really what we want to tie all of this to. So we can get to that ROI and show that value and the customer lifetime value. And so my role recently is just been around how, what data do we need? Where is it? How do we start pulling it together to tell a story and visualize it in a way that people can then take action.

and so that is the shift from measuring just execution to getting at a point where we can start to measure the impact that.

look, I’ve been in your shoes. Right. And I know that not only is the data in different systems, but nobody has a shortage of data. So even figuring out what’s usable, what format is it usable in? And then. The added layer of complexity of who owns it, and then can we even use it and given sort of the field that you’re in and sort of the industry that you’re in, there’s all sorts of regulatory differences in regulatory sort of frameworks in terms of what you can or cannot use and how you do it.

So that’s, so you’ve got regulatory complexity on top of that. So,

So I give you a lot of credit for that. But thinking about like, you’ve even just from coming from marketing roles within the company that you’re working for, right? Like what drew you to the analytics and was it. An interesting new challenge. Was it, Hey, this is an area I want to explore and just, I want to just develop new muscles, like what really drove you to the,

So I, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said challenge. So I, I love, I love a challenge. I love solving business problems. I love, my whole career in, in regardless of role. There’s been an element of working with people, processes and technology. And so how do I bring that all together to help in such a critical piece of enabling the organization to deliver on something I’m so passionate about from a customer experience perspective.

And so it was a good learning opportunity or continues to still be a good learning opportunity and really a good way to help. Make a difference in enabling the organization to be able to deliver on those things that we want to do to have greater value to our

How far have you seen maybe the discipline from a pure analytics perspective? How far have you seen it come and where do you hope that it starts to evolve and start to have impact down to the customer level? Because then, the last five years. CX analytics wasn’t really a role. I mean, it was starting to be rolled, but now it’s much more prevalent.

it’s embedded even in CX teams, like where you are today, versus it being an analytical group somewhere in a CLR organization or in a data organization, et cetera. Curious to hear your perspective in the industry you’re in, like where have you seen a common look? Where do you think it’s going to go to have even greater impact down

Yeah, I I’ll go back to the, the analytics maturity scale and I think we are, we’re still in this descriptive diagnostic. What happened in Y kind of. State. and we are also leveraging surveys a lot too, to capture that and answer those questions. And so I think, although the analytics has helped, helped raise some awareness to the value that it brings to an organization.

we still have a prolonged way to go in a. And it’s exciting, it’s a long way to go, but it’s exciting. But I think when we look at the impact that we have, if, if we look at there’s a way to close the loop at an individual level, in a way to close the loop at a more systemic and journey level, see where we’ve come today, as far as impacting the customer, as we’ve gotten better at closing it at the individual level, and we’ve gotten better at if there’s a.

So what are they clicking on doing? What are they buying? those pieces layering in the perception level. So how are they thinking and feeling throughout the various stages of those journeys? And then looking at then the business impact and the financials and tying that in and getting to a point where you can do better attribution modeling.

You can do customer lifetime value. You can really understand churn risk and, and, and have more of a, predict.

The multitude of journeys that an organization has at a prior life. We had identified, I think it was 36 different journeys that our customers go through, across five primary experience, six primary experiences from onboarding essentially to exit, which is a lot to manage. There’s a lot. And it’s all different data that would go into it.

But capturing all these signals, operational observed behavior, unsolicited feedback, solicit a feedback. It’s so important because what’s the average response rate in a survey, maybe 10%. So what is the other 90% saying, and feeling and doing is a critical part of that work. Are you, so are you leveraging today journey analytics or even journey orchestration as part of your team?

Or does that not sit in, in, in your

Plug it into these different technologies in order to be able to support that those are, those are, and then to, to take a, and this is where my actuarial friends is out there listening.

Instead of giving them what they need when they needed, how they need it gives them something before they even know they need it, but we know that they will need, or having an intervention in somebody who is trending toward potential churn. And it can really be so powerful. And then you have, like you said, the automation and the work frustration around that to really help support it from an execution.

Perspective, which is it’s an exciting field of view.

In some cases it’s outside, like given your marketing background and what you’re doing today. I’m curious as to hear your perspective on how can customer experience better partner with marketing to drive better customer

And so I think regardless of whether CX and marketing sit together or they sit separately, there’s some important factors to the need to be in place. So I think there needs to be a common understanding and language around journeys. There needs to be an alignment on where there’s prioritization that we can drive the greatest value so that everybody.

Rowing the boat in the same direction, if you will, that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. So if, if there’s CX programs and engagements to drive retention, but marketing is also doing campaigns, that, that we’ve got visibility to that because at the end of the day, the customer doesn’t care who the email’s coming from.

It’s coming from the brain. Hence. So, having that clear communication across that an important third leg of the stool, if you will, is the service organization. And so making sure in the same vein that there’s a connection between what’s happening on that end. Think traditionally marketing focuses more on the, the awareness and acquisition.

That’s a little sexier. with campaigns and media, and then, what happens towards the latter end of the funnel. And we all know from marketing 1 0 1, it it’s a lot more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. And so how do we work together to make sure.

Or just organizationally? Right? Like I have conversations like weekly, not only just through this podcast, but just also give them my role. Right. It seems like there’s three kind of model or operating models that are kind of coming, starting to pop up more and more. And that I’m seeing one is sort of, the more traditional CX is part of marketing and that’s kind of how it evolves.

To is this more like the CXO type role that owns marketing owns digital owns community on your more sort of, core kind of CX capabilities, analytics, VOC, insights, et cetera. And then there’s another one, a third model, which is much newer, but I’m seeing it a lot more, which is interesting is the COC. I don’t need a chief strategy officer and a chief experience officer, but I want them to, to be the same person.

So you’re embedding customer experience in the corporate strategy right off the gate, right out of the gate. I’m curious, just. Do you think there’s another model out there maybe, or where from your experience and just kind of, given your background, like where are you seeing some of the benefits of the way your organization?

They set up.

but, but the difference is the investment. And when you think about. Customer experience, hand the reliance that it has on technology and infrastructure and data that you really need a strong voice and proponent at the table. And I think what. What also shouldn’t fall under, there is the product. So if you’ve got a company that tends to be very product centric, if you’re talking about, if you’ve got $10 million to spend and you’ve got to divide it between the product and some customer experience initiatives.

But I think from a customer experience perspective, it’s more of a longer-term play. And so how do we, how do we have a strong voice in that? I think the biggest question is really because of the technology where it sits. And when we think about, we’ve gone, we’ve we have this pendulum where. The technology dollars, sit in the business and then the swings the other way.

And they all sit in it. heighty oftentimes sits under a finance division, which has different goals and what the business is doing. They’re more cost containment, streamlining. And so how do we get to a point where it is a lever for growth and that there’s investment and growth for the business in order to be able to further support the technology needed to really drive a lot of the customer experience and retention that,

Right. I’m a big believer when you think about it. Broader customer experience management platforms out there is connectivity to whether it’s Adobe or Salesforce, et cetera. Like it’s really fascinating to see, particularly in the last couple of years, the importance of those types of platforms in the work that we do every day and how much you can really scale, impact across the business in so many different ways.

If they’re talking to each other in the right way, Just adds more complexity Christie, for sure. Hey, this has been, this has been a great conversation. I really love your perspective on organizational structure, but also just, just understanding some of the complexities that you’re dealing with in your day to day.

I’m curious, I always ask every guest this cause. The question gives me inspiration, Chrissy, but like where do you, what fields

And so, I love connecting with other people. I love listening to the leveraging, the resources that are out there, like your podcasts, which thank you by the way for doing that. And then I also, a few months ago joined the women in CS. Community. And so I think you just interviewed Claire, right?

She’s awesome. Yeah.

And just, just to continue to learn and grow in this space as it evolves.

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