I have recently seen several discussion on LinkedIn, even started some myself that are asking “Where does CEM sit in an organisation” “How can HR and Marketing partner to deliver great customer experiences”. “Should HR associations (CIPD) and Marketing associations (CIM, IDM) be better aligned”

These are all great questions and you would think that they would be simple to answer, bearing in mind that CEM seems to be top of the agenda for most organisations. From what I have seen, just on the more popular social media sites, there is one thing for sure, people have strong views on this subject, but there is not always agreement on what the answers are.

Here are my thoughts

1. One lead, supported by the whole organisation

Because the role of “owning the customer relationship” has historically been the responsibility of sales and marketing, CEM has naturally been picked up by the marketing lead and I believe that its needs 1 person to take the helm, but it is important to recognise that CEM must be supported by all areas of the organisation; HR, Customer Service, Finance and also the external partners, suppliers, and distribution channels.

2. HR and Marketing have to be aligned

It is no good having strong brand messages if your employees do not deliver the brand experiences. An obvious thing to say and many people do say it. But in reality how many organisations make sure this happens? How do you ensure that that every individual who can influence the customer’s experience understands what they need to do on a daily basis? How do you ensure it happens: Training, reward and recognition, coaching? For me this is why it is so crucial that the HR and Marketing teams work together. It brings the internal and the external together to deliver great customer.

3. Change will always happen

Delivering CEM inevitably produces change. If marketers do not know how to manage change themselves or have not been trained to understand how to coach people through change, their goals will not be achieved.

4. CEM – is long term not short term

Traditionally organisations have followed the funnel based approach (Read the Forrester report “It’s time to Bury the Marketing Funnel”) to market their organisations. This short term view of the world put the focus of winning new customer on pre sales activity and the marketing and sales teams. This very short term view has to change if CEM is to work. In particular, Marketeers have to have a longer term view, gathering data over the whole lifecycle to make sure the customer received the experiences that they are expressing in their marketing messages.