Al Nugent is CEO at Mzinga, a social software vendor. He is widely recognized as an industry visionary and innovator in introducing emerging technology solutions for business to the market. We asked him about customer experience management and how social networking has changed the vendor-customer dynamic.

FierceContentManagement: There is a lot of talk about customer experience from a marketing perspective. Is this just a buzz word or are we seeing a new way of dealing with customers?

Al Nugent: Customer service and customer support aren't new, but what we're seeing is a change in how organizations are approaching their relationships with their customers. Rather than focusing on merely supporting customers after the point of sale, organizations are now trying to build relationships and enhance the entire customer lifecycle. We see customer experience (CX) as a multi-step process including:

1. Acquisition, to enable direct interactions and reduce sales cycles
2. Engagement, to develop interactive relationships with customers to improve satisfaction and retention
3. Support, to reduce costs and improve customer response times by making support teams responsive to customer needs in real time

FCM: What does it mean for marketers to engage in customer experience management?

AN: It's pretty simple--focusing on customer experience increases your differentiation and makes you more competitive. You need to have a customer experience strategy in place, and if you don't, you risk losing customers to a more engaged competitor. The most successful marketers and organizations will be those that implement a full CX program and view it as an integral part of both their improvement processes and the customer lifecycle. 

FCM: How has social networking changed the way companies deal with customers?

AN: Customers are having conversations whether you like it or not, so it's better to be involved and actively respond and engage. There's an old statistic that satisfied customers tell nine people how happy they are, while unhappy customers tell 22 people. With social media, it's not just 22 people anymore-unhappy customers have Twitter, blogs and online forums at their fingertips to share their experiences and voice their opinions. By being involved and responsive, you have the power to not only change their perception but to gain goodwill and even brand advocates.

FCM: What impact is the smart phone having on companies marketing and social strategies?

AN: We've seen mobility have a tremendous impact on the way we work (case in point, I'm writing this from the road) and do business. Mobility is affecting not only marketing and social strategies, but our personal lives. I think that as companies market and continue to expand their use of social technologies, they have to always assume that their audiences are viewing content on tablets and smart phones--and really try to make their content useful for that device. I don't think one device or operating system will win. Sure, some will be more popular than others, but devising an overarching mobile strategy is the best way to look at this.

FCM: What impact is customer experience and social media having on enterprises from a content management perspective?

AN: I think what will really start to influence the market is reporting and analytics-basically, gaining intelligence and providing relevant content to participants based on social interactions. And most people don't have the data analytics necessary to do all this seamlessly.

As more and more people interact, the greater the need for content management and data analytics so that we're not overwhelmed by data or missing opportunities. We'll see that changing over the next year, which will have a huge impact on things the user sees like ratings, reviews, recommendations and the like. The best part is that the market is still in its infancy with this, and over the coming year, we'll see greater value placed on data analytics and social intelligence. This is what gets me excited.

Related Articles:
Attensity brings sophisticated analytics to customer experience management 
New Sitecore release aims for intimate customer engagement  
FatWire updates Online Engagement component