How CX Is Shaping the Future of Business Now

This week on Funnel Frontier: The future is customer experience, according to new ISG report; plus Pipedrive reveals tools SMBs need to thrive

This week:

• The future is customer experience, according to new ISG report

• Pipedrive brings the smol to small business week

• The pitfalls of measuring B2B marketing (via Forrester)

• Zoho vs Pipedrive

• Ideal customer profiles 101 (via EngageBay)

Stat of the Week 

57% of CRM automation is used for lead nurturing. (Pipeline)

The future is customer experience, according to ServiceNow

The corpo-sphere is buzzing with news that customer experience is the new black. 

Feeding the zeitgeist, new research from ServiceNow indicates that better EX (employee experience) maketh better CX.

Yes, the cloud computing automation vendor finds that successful customer-centric businesses require good morale from your crew. 

Some stats:

• 90% of consumers across EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) believe it’s important that companies treat employees well.

• 63% of consumers would be less likely to have dealings with a company that had unhappy employees.

But how do you prevent mutiny on the HMS Startup? Why, by zapping the daily drudgery with AI efficiency. 

Freeing human agents from lengthy, manual tasks increases workplace satisfaction. Moving away from multiple applications towards a streamlined work platform saves hours, and also prevents employee disengagement.  

Beyond the cyber, employees also valued flexible working (40%), opportunities for learning and development (30%), and career progression (29%).

So next time a tiny, evil voice says “just cut the corners on employee experience,” remember Goethe’s Faust and all those other cautionary tales. Your penny-pinch play may rip a black hole, sucking your customer satisfaction down into the nethersphere. 

By the way, ServiceNow’s research release coincided suspiciously close to their annual conference, Knowledge 2024, which runs May 7th to 9th in Vegas (i.e. right now).

The Week @ CRM.org

18 Key Benefits of CRM. A flow of abstract awesomeness distilled into 18 tangibles.

Best CRM Marketing Software. A marketing CRM is like your business's GPS (i.e. it better work). 

Bitrix 24 CRM Review. A solid option for SMBs who need to juggle customers, projects, and team chat, without breaking the bank.

Weekly Bloom

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. You may remember this one from High School. Our deep dive into the pyramid—from lunch to launch, from good hair to eternity.

Pipedrive croons for the wee ones at small business week

Last week was National Small Business Week, and where were you? 

CRM stalwart Pipedrive was out there buzzing on its commitment to intrepid yet itty-bitty enterprise.

Sean Evers, VP at Pipedrive, championed these mini-powerhouses as the backbone of the economy, implying that if they go down, we all do. 

“In the United States alone, over 33.2 million small businesses employ almost half of the American workforce, accounting for 43.5 percent of GDP.”

Yet it’s also a tough spot, “building brand recognition and earning consumer trust while also competing for market share, funding and employees means that over 20% of small businesses fail in their first year, 50% fail within five years and around 65% don’t make it to ten,” said Evers.

Of course, Pipedrive is all-too-happy to note that CRM tools are a way for even the smallest biz to punch above its weight, and that goes for the sustainability racket too.

Integrating eco-friendly actions with business operations, contemporary CRM users can reduce product return and waste while honing sales strategies.

Because as with any Starcraft zergling rush, resource allocation is key.

Stellar Strategies: Tips & Tricks for Sales, Marketing & Service

The pitfalls of measuring B2B marketing (Forrester)

Put that cup down, lest you spill your Kenyan single origin pour-over. 

Okay, here it is. According to Forrester’s 2024 Marketing Survey, 64% of B2B marketing leaders admitted they don’t trust their organization's marketing measurements.

Shocking stuff. In a universe of genAI, big data, and analytics, two-thirds of leaders are more-or-less navigating by the stars.

Here’s the black hole in the plot: While 73% of B2B revenues are generated from ye olde loyal customers in renewals and upsells, marketing efforts remain laser-focused on getting newbies.

59% of CMO dashboards are still tuned to sourcing metrics, eagerly scanning the horizon for new biz, like a broken radar mistaking space junk for Litecoin.

Ross Graber at Forrester says it’s time to lose that ethos. More scandalous expose here.

Zoho vs Pipedrive

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack. And you may also find yourself judiciously weighing Zoho against Pipedrive. 

Both systems offer streamlined escapes from the heavy world of SAP and Salesforce. But which will teleport you to the next level?

Zoho has a vast star system of apps—everything from project management to marketing. It's a whole ecosystem unto itself, praised for intuitive design and broad functionality.

On the other side of the telescreen, Pipedrive is more focused. Like some kind of comet blazing through the sales and email sectors with CRM tools hitching a ride. It's celebrated for its user-friendly interface and email marketing automation.

Get into the nitty gritty detail here.

Profiling the ideal customer (via EngageBay)

In an ideal world, your customer would be… ideal.

In the real world, advanced CRM and analytics tools are clutch for dreaming up your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). They really help sieve that extensive customer data to refine customer segmentation.

A good CRM offers AI to analyze patterns and insights, enabling you to craft marketing strategies that cause hooting and hollering among your target segments.

Predictive lead scoring can help you identify and focus on leads that not only show potential but perfectly align with your ICP. This ensures that your marketing resources are invested where they're most likely to yield returns.

That’s a mere taste. For a main course of ICP templates and tips, drift on over to EngageBay’s blog article.

Galactic Gourmet

CRM blips from around the web

Iterable announces winners of 2024 Expie Awards. The customer communication software vendor named the victors at Active Summit, their annual conference. 

Phenom releases new HR tech tools. The new tools for talent acquisition and management were announced at IAMPHENOM’s Product Innovation keynote.

Merge grows presence in Europe. The API vendor for B2B SaaS has a new team based in Berlin, with an eye towards GDPR compliance.

Astronomical Assets

Significant Stock Moves from Last Week

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