Commentary

Automation Shellout: Marketing Is Key Part Of Customer Experience Spend

Professionals siloed off in marketing may wonder how their automation compares with other parts of the company. 

They’re hardly on top, judging by 2023 State of Automation: Eliminate Application Integration Challenges to Elevate Customer Experiences, a study by Jitterbit.  

Companies are placing emphasis on: 

  1. Information technology 
  2. Customer Experience
  3. Finance/Accounting 
  4. Customer Service
  5. Human Resources
  6. Marketing 
  7. Administrative/General staff  

But that may change: The brands polled plan to invest in integrating these customer experience functions in the next 12 months, and maybe a few dollars will trickle down for email automation: 
  • Marketing — 80% 
  • Ecommerce — 69% 
  • Customer service — 63%
  • Sales — 50% 
  • Fulfillment — 39%
  • Support — 30%

In general, marketing is one of the departments and functions being prioritized for additional automation:

  • Information technology — 58%
  • Human Resources — 50% 
  • Finance/Accounting — 44%
  • Marketing — 40% 
  • Customer Experience — 39% 
  • Customer Service/Client Service — 35%
  • Executive Leadership — 28%
  • Procurement — 27% 
  • Sales/Business Development — 25% 
  • Operations — 23% 

The customer experience ranks high because 60% of firms don’t find it easy to deliver optimal customer experiences.

As to why, the respondents cite:

  • Constantly growing application landscape — 63%
  • IT infrastructure limitations — 56%
  • Manual or legacy point-to-point integrations — 52%
  • Time constraints — 44% 
  • Data silos — 33%
  • Personnel constraints — 33% 

Meanwhile, brands seek to automate these use cases to deliver optimal customer experiences: 

  • Marketing operations — 65%
  • Sales and ordering — 57%
  • Billing and payments — 57%
  • Fulfillment and logistics — 50%
  • Customer support — 40%

The primary drivers of integration within the marketing department are:

  • CRM — 52%
  • ERP — 41% 
  • Ecommerce — 7%

Who’s in charge? Responsibility for data sharing falls on:

  • The department itself — 59%
  • Shared between IT and departments — 56% 
  • Central IT — 44% 
  • Outsourced IT or system integrator — 41%
  • Don’t know — 2% 

In general, companies are seeking these benefits from integrating customer experience applications:

  • Increased customer satisfaction and retention — 33%
  • Increased customer cross-sell/upsell — 20% 
  • 360-degree view of the customer — 19%
  • Improve efficiency of resources — 17% 
  • Reduced costs — 17%

Jitterbit surveyed 167  IT, marketing and HR directors and higher in firms with 100+ employees from February 2 to 10, 2023. The survey was part of a larger research project. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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