Trying to deliver outstanding customer experiences without technology is like cooking without any seasoning: While the people you serve might be able to stomach the result, they probably won’t be very impressed or come back for a second helping.
In our increasingly digital and virtual world, hitting your CX targets requires advanced technology. That means marketing leaders must have strong relationships with their organizations’ IT departments to excel, according to a thought leadership report released this year by Sprinklr and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. While 2 out of 3 marketing leaders agree that CMOs and CIOs must collaborate to achieve a competitive advantage via CX, only 23 percent of the former say they have an “effective relationship with IT.”
If you want to achieve your marketing objectives in 2024, you must strengthen your relationship with your company’s CIO. Here are a few recommendations for improving CMO-CIO collaboration.
1. Aim for an egalitarian partnership.
The CMO Council has found that the best CMO-CIO relationships are equal in terms of key performance indicators, governance, management, and solution selection. You’re less likely to see your desired results if marketing has more power than IT or vice versa.
2. Understand what CMOs can do for CIOs.
While the IT department might know which technological direction makes the most sense for the organization, they don’t necessarily know how to explain their ideas to non-IT staff members in a way that maximizes buy-in and end-user adoption. That’s where the CMO and their team can help by marketing new tech to the team in a way that makes the value apparent to everyone, according to the TechTarget article “How to build a better CIO-CMO relationship.”
3. Remembering what CIOs can do for CMOs.
A CIO who fully understands the CMO’s goals and pain points can provide the perfect technologies to streamline processes and rein in spending, according to TechTarget. You just need to keep the IT department in the loop.
4. Communicate regularly.
Regular and clear communication is essential if you want to strengthen any relationship. If you’re a CMO who wants a stronger connection with the CIO, meet routinely to discuss pain points, goals, concerns, and joint projects.
5. Define common standards for success.
It’s hard to know if you’ve achieved your objectives if you don’t know how to quantify success. CMOs and CIOs should meet to discuss which metrics matter and define how they’ll measure improvement over time, according to the Forbes article “How The CMO And CIO Can Work Together On Digital Transformation.”
If you want to explore avenues for CX improvement, our technology advisors would be happy to assist you. With 20+ years of IT industry experience and access to niche solutions, the latest market data, and tools for creating comparison matrices, we’ll simplify the process of finding experience-enhancing solutions.
We typically save our clients dozens of hours they would have otherwise spent navigating complex and constantly shifting marketplaces on their own. Additionally, once you select a solution, we can ensure deployment goes as smoothly as possible with our white-glove implementation services.
Advance confidently with Stratosphere today by calling 877-599-3999 or emailing sales@stratospherenetworks.com.
