About the Episode

The following episode was recorded at PegaWorld Inspire in Las Vegas, and I’m looking forward to this topic as well as sharing the conversation with my guest today.

Today we’re going to talk about optimizing the B2B customer experience with AI, automation, cross-channel personalization, all while doing it at scale for the enterprise. 

To help me discuss this topic, I am joined by Tommi Marsans, Marketing Technology Strategist at Verizon Business Group.

About Tommi Marsans

Tommi has over three decades of marketing technology experience, with a focus on enabling marketing through alignment of technology and strategy.

She is highly skilled in effectively collaborating across the organization to drive transformation and innovation by leveraging marketing technology to drive marketing and sales business strategies.

She is currently the lead for Pega decisioning for Verizon Business Group and has developed a dynamic customer responsive solution called Compass for customer retention and My Solutions for customer growth across digital, sales, and retail channels. She has won several awards for innovative uses of technology including Best in Class and B2B Customer Loyalty awards from The Loyalty 360 group, a SAMMY for User Experience Optimization in 2022 and 2023, and finally the PegaWorld iNspire Impact award. In addition, she has been asked to speak several times to the marketing industry on subjects as diverse as leveraging Big Data to ethical use of AI &ML.

Previously Tommi has held executive roles as a VP of Marketing at a regional marketing company and Executive Director of Marketing Operations at Sallie Mae.

She is also founder of the Force Multiplier Foundation, a charity dedicated to bringing help to those in need. Recently Tommi was selected to be a Crew Captain for the Pre-Leader Academy at Verizon to develop emerging leaders across the organization.

She is also an avid fan of Sci-Fi (Marvel and Star Wars primarily) and has a vast collection of movie memorabilia.

Resources

Verizon Business Group: https://www.verizon.com/business/

Pega: https://www.pega.com

The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast

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For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Synopsis

The episode delves into the impact of technology on managing the customer journey, from awareness to retention with sales. The speaker emphasizes that technology has revolutionized marketing by enabling companies to seamlessly connect different components of their marketing efforts and share relevant information in real-time. This real-time understanding of customer behavior and intent has led to the development of a customer journey, now owned by the marketing science department. While the concept of the customer journey existed before technology, it was primarily focused on determining when to send mail or emails. However, in today's data-rich environment, the effective management of the customer journey and the delivery of personalized experiences require the right technology. Technology plays a crucial role in helping companies achieve their marketing goals by enabling them to manage the customer journey effectively.

The episode also addresses the issue of data science silos, where teams or individuals work independently without collaborating or communicating with other departments. The speaker emphasizes the importance of breaking down these silos and enabling different components to communicate and share information in real-time.

The speaker highlights that the current environment is data-rich but information-poor without the right technology in place. They stress the need for different components to communicate and share information to gain insights into customer behavior and intent. This is made possible through technology that facilitates real-time data sharing and analysis.

The creation of a customer journey is presented as an example of how technology facilitates the sharing of information. The speaker explains that technology enables companies to manage the customer journey from awareness to retention, with sales involvement, by ensuring the right information is shared at the right time.

Overall, the episode underscores the importance of breaking down data science silos and enabling effective communication and information sharing in real-time. This approach allows for a better understanding of customer behavior and enables companies to effectively manage the customer journey.

In addition, the episode explores the idea that B2B customers have B2C expectations. The speaker points out that B2B customers are also B2C customers for the majority of their day, bringing the same expectations and experiences to their work life. Recognizing and addressing these expectations in the B2B world is crucial.

The guest explains that although B2B may be perceived as more complex than B2C, they have found ways to overcome this complexity and meet B2C expectations. They have focused on identifying the right person and point of contact within the organization, which can be challenging in the B2B context. While acknowledging that product complexity can be a factor, they believe that understanding the customer and ensuring effective communication can simplify this complexity.

Overall, the episode emphasizes the need to approach B2B customers with an understanding of their B2C expectations and find ways to meet those expectations in the B2B world.