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Breathtaking speed. Continuous, hard-to-predict evolutions in customer behavior. Customer crowds
inserted into your innovation process. Customers ruling your brand reputation. Sky-high customer
expectations. Unfathomably large datasets capturing their every interaction. And did we mention the
breathtaking speed?
Ive probably already fallen behind in the time weve taken
to have this conversation, says Lucille DeHart, CMO of
Maidenform Brands.
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Welcome to the brave new world of digital customer
experience. Senior marketers from around the globe are
acting fast in the face of digital transformations sweeping
through industry after industry transformations that have
blown up the classic marketing funnel.
But wait. Hasnt the customer always been king or,
at least, right? In truth, customers voices have been
somewhat muffed in the past fltered through layers
of focus groups, departmental agendas, time and space
compared to whats possible today.
Four digital-era technologies have changed the customer
experience game: smart mobility, social networks, big data
analytics and cloud computing:
Smart mobile devices empower customers with wherever instant information while also
making them always accessible to marketers.
Social networks empower customers to infuence brand reputation, and provide marketers with a
lightning-fast channel for message delivery.
Big data analytics offer the opportunity to make sense of (and act based on) all these digital
customer interactions.
And cloud services provide the agile IT infrastructure from corporate marketing and eCommerce
website hosting to big data services that brands need to nimbly and confdently evolve at the
speed of customer behavior.
Fast and Furious:
Digital Customer Experience in Overdrive
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Lucille DeHart interview Courtesy of Argyle Journal, November 26, 2013. Click here for the complete interview.
Challenge: Build 100% digital frst
marketing strategies.
At stake: Four digital technologies mobile,
social, big data and cloud are rapidly driving
change from make and sell business models
to new digital-era models in which companies
must sense and respond to changing
customer behavior.
Solution: Sense customer behavior changes
across all customer touch points, especially
mobile and social and turbo-charge
deployment and evolution of digital customer
experience technologies with the speed and
agility of cloud and managed services.
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The big winners in the digital customer experience era will be those companies that can tap into all
four of these technologies to help them sense and respond to rapidly changing customer behaviors.
But moving from traditional make and sell models to an approach that requires instantaneous
measurement of, and reaction to, multiple customer touch points is no mean feat. Companies need
to develop the skill sets and processes to integrate customers into their innovation. They must
gather, analyze and apply customer insights across all customer touch points (i.e., omni-channel)
with unprecedented speed and intelligence, in order to rapidly innovate on a continuous fow of
new customer insights.
100 Percent Digital First
Marketers at brands that are leading digital customer experience transformations say they have
already re-engineered their marketing plans and budgets to be 100 percent digital frst.
We have put a digital shift frst and foremost on all of our
marketing efforts...
Lucille DeHart | CMO | Maidenform Brands
We have put a digital shift frst and foremost on all of our marketing efforts, rather than taking
an in-store or print-frst approach, says Maidenforms DeHart. The digital content and the
digital feed become much more of an omni-channel fuel point that will eventually work across
all of our retail partner wholesale sites, as well as on third-party digital platforms, on our social
media platforms, on our own eCommerce site, and in some of the interactive efforts were
putting forth on our collateral, tags and outlet stores, she explains.
At Marriott, The marketing spend is pretty much 100 percent digital, notes Wendy Hoekwater,
Vice President, Marketing and eCommerce.
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A digital transformation is occurring within the
pre-stay, stay, and post-stay experience. We want to be able to track room rates and revenue
and apply attribution models to understand what is the true incremental value of our efforts,
says Hoekwater.
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Wendy Hoekwater interview Courtesy of Argyle Journal, February 11, 2014. Click here for the complete interview.

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For some, digital frst actually means mobile frst; for others, it means social frst.
But Andrew Markowitz, Director, Global Digital Strategy for General Electric, has a mantra
that sums it up: We here at GE say all marketing is mobile; all marketing is social,
says Markowitz.
Importantly, Markowitz also notes that digital marketing needs to be omni-channel, in order to
intersect with different customers wherever they are with the information they need, in the
moment. Digital has blown up how we think about the marketing funnel, because everyone is
evolving their own personal funnel, notes Markowitz. With all of the places you can go to get
information, online and offine, its rapidly evolving that no two people will have the same funnel.
Digital has blown up how we think about the marketing funnel,
because With all of the places you can go to get information,
online and offine, its rapidly evolving that no two people will
have the same funnel.
Andrew Markowitz | Director, Global Digital Strategy | General Electric
Mobile Means Always-On, Always-Connected, Always-Relevant
A smartphone in every pocket and ubiquitous wireless have combined to change the
way consumers do pretty much everything from researching to shopping to buying to
communicating about the entire experience in the moment, and over time.
According to an article in the McKinsey Quarterly, mobile devices add a wherever dimension
to the digital environment that has empowered consumers. Executives encounter this
empowerment daily when, for example, cable customers push for video programming on
any device at any time or travelers expect a few taps on a smartphone app to deliver a full
complement of airline services, say article authors Peter Dahlstrm and David Edelman.
Marketers, therefore, need to keep mobile top-of-mind when developing and evolving their
branding, engagement and promotional strategies. Brands are using mobile technologies to:
Enhance the shopping experience including in-store
Ease the buying experience
Communicate and engage with customers
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The challenge is in developing engagement opportunities that make sense on the mobile
platform, and that can generate information optimized for refning both the customer
experience and companies offerings on an ongoing basis. Its a feat easier said than done.
Consumers expect the mobile experience to
be a little bit different, but theyre getting less
and less patient with those differences
especially when a smartphone or tablet is
likely the frst device they will use to interact
with a companys website, notes Becky Carr,
CMO at CenturyLink Technology Solutions, a
global provider of managed services on virtual,
dedicated and colocation platforms.
To combat the issue Carr raises, some
leading marketers pursue a mobile frst
digital customer experience strategy. Says
Maidenforms DeHart: We make sure that
any of the microsites and content that we put out in the market are adaptable and optimized
for all [mobile] devices because, as Ive said, digital comes frst. Were not creating a print
version and then fguring out how to convert it to ft within the ratio of the different formats
and screens. From the beginning, we develop it so that its nimble enough to work across
screens, and then we take it back to traditional media.
Companies recognize that they need a mobile solution, but that brings many more issues to
decide, notes Carr. Are we going to create a mobile version of our website using responsive
design? Or will we develop a mobile app, to deliver a very different user experience? How
will we incorporate the in-store experience? What about integration with location services to
increase relevance of messages?
Not only must messages be relevant, they have to be concise to ft a small screen and
integrate well across channels.
DeHart describes a powerful example of mobile-led, omni-channel integration. The company
knows that products in its Shapewear category tend to be particularly confusing due to the
FAST AND FURIOUS:
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The challenge is in developing engagement
opportunities that make sense on the
mobile platform, and that can generate
information optimized for refning both
the customer experience and companies
offerings on an ongoing basis.
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large variety of options for women of different sizes and shapes. As a customer, youre not
really sure what youre looking for or what the proper ft is for your body type, says DeHart.
To resolve that, weve developed a navigational system that exists on our physical tags with
a subtle color code. More importantly, we know that upwards of 60 percent of consumers,
particularly in our department and chain stores, are shopping with a smartphone, so weve
created a microsite where customers can scan and interface for product information. The
microsite shows all of the different types of silhouettes and control levels; it functions almost
like a shopping escort to help customers navigate our assortment of options, DeHart explains.
In addition to providing customers with the information they need, when and where they need
it, mobile is making companies more responsive. GE, for example, has deployed quotation
tools on smartphones and tablets to hand customers immediate quotes. In the past, it took
30 to 45 days to develop and generate a quote. But now a quote can be done, and handed to
the customer, right at the point of interest. So mobile apps and access to data on a mobile
device has allowed us to be much more responsive to our customers, says Markowitz.
Social: Listen to the Customer and Respond in Real-Time
If mobile is the technology at the heart of the digital customer experience, social is the bullhorn
through which the customers voice is heard. Brands are using social technologies to:
Invite customers into their innovation processes
Engage customers
Spread infuence
Manage reputation
Improve customer service
With a proliferation of social technologies, people are
increasingly providing inputs into the innovation process
in a more spontaneous, real-time, and participatory way.
Hatkesh Nagar | Capgemini
With a proliferation of social technologies, people are increasingly providing inputs into the
innovation process in a more spontaneous, real-time, and participatory way, Hatkesh Nagar, a
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Capgemini analyst, notes in this post. Successful innovative companies are actively involving
their customers to facilitate the ideas and embrace them in implementing open innovation
strategies, according to Nagar.
Nagar notes the example of Ford, whose FordSocial Your Ideas website invites people to
submit ideas on how to make Ford and its vehicles better. Others can then vote on the
ideas. GE provides another example: Markowitz notes the companys ongoing Ecomagination
Challenge, in which anyone can propose energy and environmental ideas, with GE providing
seed funding for the best ideas.
At Marriott, customer engagement strategy has evolved to be social frst. When you think
about travelers and how theyre infuenced in terms of considering where to stay, whether
its for leisure or business, its through social media sites like TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, and
Expedia.com. Those are the top three sources that infuence travelers decisions on where to
stay from a leisure perspective, says Hoekwater. Note that Hoekwater didnt call those travel
sites the top three online sources; they are the topmost infuencers, period.
Further, Marriott also monitors and manages customers perception of its brand via social.
Weve developed a social media platform that provides listening tools for every single one
of our hotels. My team listens to each one of those hotels to learn what is happening from a
customer perspective that could infuence our reputation, Hoekwater explains.
Weve developed a social media platform that provides listening
tools for every single one of our hotels. My team listens to each
one of those hotels to learn what is happening from a customer
perspective that could infuence our reputation.
Wendy Hoekwater | Vice President, Marketing and eCommerce | Marriott
At Maidenform, DeHart is thinking about how to merge social sites, eCommerce and
digital marketing.
We need to be at the forefront of identifying how to merge those platforms. Our IT and
marketing teams have to respond quickly both internally and externally to what consumers are
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telling us. Even though were already embracing technology, we need to embrace it in a way
that makes us smarter, faster, and better across traditional platforms, she says.
Maidenforms social approach involves four phases developing relevant, sustainable
content; acquiring audience; integrating with partners and across platforms and networks;
and listening. That fnal phase is the most critical, DeHart says. Where social becomes
most important is monitoring and understanding customer feedback so that we can keep this
cycle very organic and nimble. Customers are constantly going to change the demands of
what theyre looking for, and we have to stay current. So the path that we set out on is not
necessarily the path well maintain, but the process should stay the same, she says.
As in other aspects of digital customer experience, senior marketing executives agree speed
is of the essence in social. Says DeHart: The biggest success is how quickly you respond
because once that Facebook status feed moves down, youve lost the opportunity. People
dont often fip through their phone long enough to get to your comments if youre not acting
in real-time.
Big Data Brings Big Opportunities
Of all the technologies explored in this report, big data is the newest, the least understood
and may be the most important differentiator.
Big data can come from anywhere: a CRM system, chatter on social networks, the location
of a mobile user when she buys a product, or the temperature fuctuations on a thermostat.
It combines structured and unstructured data, and therefore requires fairly sophisticated and
robust data processing and storage systems not to mention data scientists to effectively
make use of it. It also requires a data-driven company culture (See our related report, Big Data
Culture Clash: Unlock The Promise of Data Before Its Too Late!)
Big data, properly mined, can provide huge competitive advantage. Having the best data that
we can and optimizing it in a precise and targeted way is key, says Marriotts Hoekwater.
Weve developed a consumer insight department within Marriott, at the head of which is
analytics. That department is focused on how we can best allocate our marketing dollars so
that they are reaching the consumer at the right time at the right place with the right message.
We are at the forefront of that, and its exciting to be able to have predictive analytics that will
help us change our media planning and digital strategy to accommodate what we need to do to
reach customers.
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Companies see that big data has big potential, but to get to the point that Marriott is at with
the technology takes time, know-how and signifcant resources.
Companies are also challenged by the fact that they have a lot of
disparate systems gathering data that arent integrated together ...
they need to fgure out a way to correlate all of that data. Its a
massive consolidation effort, and its not just a matter of bringing
in data but bringing in the right, most relevant data.
Kevin Conway | Global Director of eCommerce and Content Management Solutions | CenturyLink Technology Solutions
Companies are challenged by the fact that they have a lot of disparate systems gathering
data that arent integrated together, says Kevin Conway, Global Director of eCommerce and
Content Management Solutions at CenturyLink. Companies have 30 or 40 places that they
have data stored in today, and they need to fgure out a way to correlate all of that data. Its
a massive consolidation effort, and its not just a matter of bringing in data but bringing in the
right, most relevant data.
Maidenform is starting to perform that kind of consolidation, with the goal of creating a
universal view across all of its sales channels. Our IT team is really focused on using a
combination of wholesale as well as retail data, which would give us a new, consolidated
view across those two different channels, says DeHart. That will be critical for brands,
particularly ones that sell across a variety of different retail partners.
Maidenforms ultimate goal is a 360-degree profle of customers. If you have the ability to
connect to someone through Facebook or partner with them somehow through content like
Instagram, and you know that theyre shopping your brand across various channels, then you
have that Holy Grail of a holistic view of the customer, DeHart says.
Cloud Computing: Digital Customer Experience Game-Changer
When it comes to digital customer experience, cloud computing can be a game-changer
literally, and metaphorically.
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The example for which cloud was a literal game-changer comes from the videogame industry.
According to EYs Sustaining Digital Leadership report, Game developers are diminishing
reliance on shrink-wrapped products tied to specifc consoles, or no longer sell them; instead,
theyre using the cloud to provide anywhere/anytime access to users via smartphones and
tablets, along with PCs.

The same report quotes Michael Parlapiano, Thomson Reuters Global Head of Strategy & Business
Development, Financial, saying, Our goal is to move as much as possible of our infrastructure
into our cloud, so that we can create a continuous experience across users devices.
A little less literal but no less impactful was the clouds role in turning around sagging
sales of physical movie discs. A cloud-based technology called UltraViolet, which enables
access to a digital version of a movie or other content, caused combined DVD and Blu-ray
sales to climb last year for the frst time in years. UltraViolet changed the digital customer
experience of DVD and Blu-ray by letting consumers create movie and TV show libraries in
the cloud, including from previously purchased discs. UltraViolet also lets users view those
libraries on any device.
Brands are now reliant on information technology in a way
that they werent before. With that comes an expectation of
100 percent uptime of those systems, great performance of
those systems, and security of those systems.
Becky Carr | CMO | CenturyLink Technology Solutions
Another signifcant cloud beneft is that as more and more customer interactions come to be
mediated by IT systems, cloud technology puts responsibility for uptime into the hands of
professionals who focus on nothing else. Whether its your website, a mobile shopping app,
customer support or predictive analytics, brands are now reliant on information technology in
a way that they werent before, notes CenturyLinks Carr. With that comes an expectation
of 100 percent uptime of those systems, great performance of those systems, and security of
those systems.
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Whats Next: New Digital Experiences, Evolving Faster and Faster
When asked about whats next in digital customer experience, the senior marketers frst
talk about how new-generation customers coming into their own, now, will cause their
organizations innovation engines to continually rev faster and faster. Then they dream big.
Not only the Gen Y but the Gen X traveler will drive about 76 percent of the business per
night in the next seven years, says Hoekwater. This generation is extremely tech-enabled.
Ensuring that our hotels are delivering that experience and have the amenities theyre seeking,
such as digital check-in and the ability to send alerts, is incredibly important. Adds DeHart:
Digital natives will take up close to 60 percent of our overall consumer base within the next
few years not only are they savvy with technology, but they move at a much quicker pace
and adapt to newness very quickly.
Digital natives will take up close to 60 percent of our overall
consumer base within the next few years not only are they
savvy with technology, but they move at a much quicker pace
and adapt to newness very quickly.
Lucille DeHart | CMO | Maidenform Brands

Among the new digital customer experiences DeHart sees arising in the near future is an idea
she coins social direct response. Says DeHart: Over the course of the next two or three
years, between smart TVs and the consumption of content through mobile devices and other
on-demand devices, well start to see the integration of entertainment, social technology and
platforms, and some type of recommendation platform for infuencers to infuence peers
and a broader base. Video is the new content; [its] the best way to demonstrate products and
sell services. Layer on the impact of recommendations and reviews, put two and two together,
and you get social direct response.
In addition, DeHart says, Well start to see this engagement between virtual reality and
physical reality, mostly through the mobile device. Its not too far into the future that there will
be holograms and projected imagery and content with geo-targeted triggers based on where
you are and company direction.
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Eventually, when you walk into a store, a digital salesperson will pop up in front of our
Maidenform fxture. It will be able to talk to you as if its introducing you to the product, and
these digital projections will go in your ftting room to help you fnd the right ft. They can
follow up with you by asking, Did you like your experience? That data will be transported
into monitoring services. So its my vision that marketing execution will become much more
holistic in an almost science fction way, concludes DeHart.
Technology is evolving rapidly toward these visions. For example, Microsoft has patented
a system capable of transforming a room into a Star Trek-style holodeck, and released
a related promotional video. Google Glass and Oculus Rift (whose maker, Oculus VR, was
acquired by Facebook in March 2014 for $2 billion in cash and stock) are currently available
eyewear that offer augmented reality and immersive
virtual reality experiences, respectively.
Conclusion: Even Faster
and More Furious
Marketers are accelerating their pivot toward digital
customer experience, as digital transformation continues
to sweep away old customer interaction paradigms in all
industries. As that happens, brands are becoming more
reliant on IT systems as, more and more, those systems
become the mediators of all customer interaction.
Consequently, marketers and their IT partners are striving
to master the four key digital experience technologies:
mobile, social, big data and cloud.
Of the four, one stands out. Cloud and related managed
services have the potential to turbo-charge the speed and
agility with which an organization can deploy and evolve
the other three technologies thus turbo-charging
digital customer experience itself. Managed services,
in particular, do this not only by enabling greater IT
agility for such things as quick spin-up of websites
and eCommerce sites, but also by freeing IT talent to
partner with marketing on more strategic, higher-level capabilities which continue advancing
at breakneck speed. Finally, managed service providers offer specialized expertise to support
digital marketing initiatives that companies may lack in house.
FAST AND FURIOUS:
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FOUR KEY DIGITAL CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE TECHNOLOGY USE CASES:
Use mobile: to enhance online and
in-store shopping experiences, and
deliver engaging content.
Use social: to engage and infuence
customers, manage brand reputation,
improve customer service, and crowd-
source innovation.
Use big data: to build 360-degree customer
profles to propel insights that drive continuous
digital customer experience innovation.
Use cloud: to turbo-charge the IT
infrastructure agility you need to drive
continuous evolution of the digital
customer experience.
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FAST AND FURIOUS:
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DIGITAL
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE:
KEY ISSUES &
ACTIONS
Mobile, social, big data and cloud technologies are
igniting digital transformations across all industries.
To succeed, companies must embrace sense and
respond business models, eschewing the old make
and sell paradigm.
That means drawing customers into company innovation
processes and developing new marketing and IT skill
sets and processes to do so.
Success demands a 100 percent digital frst customer
engagement strategy.
2014 CenturyLink. All Rights Reserved. The CenturyLink mark, pathways logo and certain
CenturyLink product names are the property of CenturyLink. All other marks are the property
of their respective owners. 72041714
About Digital Customer Experience Solutions from
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