"The best experience of the past becomes the norm"

"When brands do things well, things go well for them", declared Josep-Maria Fàbregas , academic director of the Master in Digital Marketing Management at UPF Barcelona School of Management in Next Marketing: the UPF-BSM marketing event.

“That is why #Nextmarketing was born, to make the real impact of marketing on the business visible. Marketing must be repositioned so that our voice is key”, stated the professor. "The customer has to be in the center, put the focus on the consumer, the marketing department has to carry this flag within companies," he added.

Fàbregas: "The customer has to be at the center, put the focus on the consumer, the marketing department has to carry this flag within the companies"

In the second edition of #Nextmarketing we wanted to talk about a topic that groups many topics, the customer experience. That is why the opening conference of the event, Brand Storytelling vs. Customer Experience: analyzing the experience gap , has been in charge of Lau Moyano , currently Experience Strategy Partner of Ogilvy Barcelona, ​​in conversation with Fàbregas.

Moyano has explained what defines the customer experience (CX), for him it is “the sum of interactions that an individual has with a brand or entity over time and through different channels, and if these interactions respond to expectations and needs”. The spokesperson has also differentiated between acronyms, his interpretation is that UX is the interaction design on a platform, when we zoom out and see the interrelation is customer experience. And one level below, what companies do to offer this service (technology, legal, etc.), is service design.

The challenges that the customer experience imposes "are not few, but the prize is great." Moyano believes that on the internal side, companies with more years have the problem of an isolated vision; Another challenge is the short-term vision of looking for quarterly profits: "You have to understand what the return of the CX is."

"One of the things Jeff Bezos did well is to keep investors at bay and make them understand that they were investing in Amazon for the long term," Moyano explained.

Moyano: "The marketing department is in charge of making promises and keeping them"

"The best experience of the past becomes the norm," said Moyano regarding customer expectations regarding the service he wants to receive. And the one in charge of this is "the marketing department, the one in charge of making promises and keeping them, is at the center of the hurricane."

Another great challenge for companies in this area is to adapt to data technology, which is the point of connection with customers through applications or websites: “Data tells us what to prioritize and allows us to customize”.

Speaking about the future of this idea, Moyano anticipates that the CX will tend toward the experience economy, which will link transformative customer experiences.

CX explosion

Then the round table entitled Analyzing the customer experience from a sector perspective has had the contributions of Fernando Sáiz , CMO of Tappx , and Lorna Turnbull , Marketing Manager of Nobu Hotel BCN and has been moderated by Albert García Pujadas , CEO and Co-Founder of Foxize and Jordi Urbea , Senior Vice President at Ogilvy Spain and CEO Ogilvy Barcelona.

Pujadas has kicked off asking if the CX has exploded due to digitization and the pandemic or is it something that has been in the works for a long time: "What has this concept put on the agenda?" Urbea has affirmed that the pandemic has accelerated many processes that were on the starting line in this sector, an attempt has been made to import models from abroad and it has required "adaptation and learning because the market requires it."

Turnbull: "We have adapted to the pandemic, but in the future these technologies have to work in the hotel ecosystem, very much based on face-to-face"

Turnbull spoke about how the pandemic will impact the digitization of the CX in the hotel sector and gave an example of contactless technology: “We have adapted to the pandemic, but in the future these technologies have to function in the hotel ecosystem, very based on face to face, it will have to be downloaded and integrated into the rooms ”. In contrast, the technology and B2B sector has emerged stronger from the pandemic. In this sense, Sáiz explained the jump of Tappx, in the CX digital industry and how they have worked more than ever.

Regarding the explosion of the CX in general and specifically in a pandemic, Urbea affirms that some new customer experiences will remain, such as those offered by Amazon or Glovo, and they will try to clone, while others will disappear.

Looking ahead, the table has wondered if incorporating people will be an added value for the user. "Yes, there will always be customers who love the app, but always and especially in the luxury sector there will be a need for human interaction," said Turnbull.

Sáiz: "One of the things that we find in technology companies and we warn is that the client wants human service, also on the B2B side"

Thus, Sáiz has warned that: "One of the things that we find in technology companies and we warn is that the client wants human service, also on the B2B side"

Regarding the professional skills that the CX currently requires, Turnbull has highlighted for the hotel industry the data analysis in marketing: “We have the revenue analysis, but you have to understand the marketing data. Now, empathy is also necessary, it is always necessary, we are dealing with humans and face to face ”.

Sáiz in this sense has said that the priority competence from his point of view in the technology and B2B sector is "to understand the technology of the points of contact with the client, the technological knowledge to understand why the technology is wanted ”.

Pujadas concluded the session with a great doubt and thinking of SMEs, where the concept of digital marketing does not exist: “Isn't the CX very exaggerated when we have not passed the first exam?”. To which Urbea has responded: "This is the great challenge in companies, the large ones have resources but the small and medium ones have not started basic processes", and has also pointed to the university, in which the digitization of marketing does not reach the postgraduate.