A customer case

I had a customer case at hand, where I was thinking about such framework: how can we marry on the one hand the content and messaging this customer has (for example, what does a customer need to know when something important in his or hers life change), with the behaviours, signals and intents from prospects and customers on the other hand (for example, when a customer registers a new addition to it’s family), to almost seamlessly and autonomously deliver those value adding experiences. Today, this can obviously be done, but it is often the task of disparate business functions, and what experiences are possible is often related to the creativity and imagination of the marketeer and business owner responsible. My thoughts were that this should not be manual, that this should not be rule based, and that it should not be locked into business functions and silos.

Then my good friend and mentor Kenneth wrote this excellent piece around segment driven experiences, and the rise of data activation, which immediately triggered the following thought:

One of the many million dollar questions: who / what / how is decided that a prospect / customer is eligible? Is that still the marketeers job, who is then in essence building a sentient experience layer that triggers whenever someone qualifies for the triggers? Or will this increasingly be AI driven (likely)?

The Sentient Experience Layer

And here, it landed for me:

with the advancements in technology and AI today, companies should build a ‘sentient experience layer’: one that can marry a prospects’ or customers’ data, signals, behaviours and intentions, with a companies’ content, messaging, and actions to orchestrate and execute the exact right experience, at exactly the right moment, in exactly the right channel. This sentient experience layer, will contain an ever growing set of experiences, either manually created or AI invoked, ready to ‘deploy’, whenever a prospect or customer is eligible for any of such experiences. Eligibility can be determined through a simple rule based trigger (like a renewal journey) or much more advanced AI modelling, or even autonomous agents.

Now you will probably say, the concept of Sentient Marketing, or Sentient Design is not new. True. Forbes wrote about Sentient Marketing back in 2019 already. But since then, the technology has evolved, and AI has evolved so much now that building and operating a sentient experience layer is quickly becoming a reality. I also firmly believe that this is not about Sentient Marketing alone, it is much broader. So how I see the evolution is that we move:

• From Pre-determined, predefined and pre-orchestrated campaigns, journeys and experiences –> to Real time generated, AI determined, and AI informed moments, actions, and responses
• From Communications and experiences driven by Marketing & Communications teams –> to Experiences delivered across all phases of the customer lifecycle, involving all business functions, including sales, commerce, service and even supply chainSilo-ed
• From departments and goals –> to company goals orchestrated around the prospects and customers goals and objectives

Delivering sentient experiences are about how to deliver what is right for the customer, not the departmental silos

Characteristics of the Sentient Experience Layer

Building and operating a sentient experience layer has profound organisational implications:

• First, it becomes much more important to understand how you – as a company – can show up to your prospective customers in a way that suits them, at a moment and channel that is convenient to them. Again my mentor Kenneth beautifully wrote down that 80% of a buying decisions has already been made before a prospect is coming to your doorstep. Google calls this the zero-moment of truth. This implies that marketing and sales is much more reactionary, and driven by a customers initial appetite or intent to which you need to act. Immediately when a customer shows a demand (I am in the market for new running shoes), you need to be there. A strong brand helps in consideration, but this contextual approach to marketing is largely what drives todays communications and sales.
• Second, Building a sentient experience requires a strong, and powerful Experience organization, being able to – again – understand what prospects and customers needs, and how you can show up. This requires an organization not focused on functions, like sales or service, or even channels. It requires an organization where people where together around customer goals and objectives, and lifecycle needs.
• Third, a sentient experience layer requires much more cross departmental and team alignment and collaboration. We can no longer think about experiences living in isolation, and in channels. With the rise of digital labour, and autonomous agents, situations where an email marketing campaign triggers a conversation with an AI agent, who makes a sale, changes a shipping address for delivery, and generates an accessory upsell in a service channel, who then creates a case follow up for a Sales representative to follow up on a specific inquiry, is now a reality.

Conclusion: Who is owning all this?

When the sentient experience layer is becoming thé layer where technology and AI bring together data, signals, triggers and behaviours, and content, messaging an action cross function, cross department and cross channel, The Chief Experience Officer and it’s experience team are the vocal owner of this piece, marrying business and IT to work together delivering these new sentient experiences.

There is much much more to unpack here, and every topic deserves it’s own deepening. I’ll save those for some follow up posts

Het bericht The Sentient Experience Layer – A (new) frame for businesses verscheen eerst op MartinKloos.nl.

Looking at some of the first Agents we have launched with Agentforce one thing became obvious very quickly: Most companies are still very anxious towards releasing autonomous agents to their employees and customers. Let’s be honest. Generative AI, with all it’s security issues and hallucinations have gotten kind of a bad reputation, and the typical lack of proper grounding in public AI platforms make AI in an enterprise practically useless. Agentforce, with it’s trust layer essentially solves this, but it needs to win it’s trust in an enterprise environment.

Hence an Agentforce project isn’t so much about the technology itself. Building an Agentic Enterprise is – as many programs – a transformation program, that really requires you to look differently at how you approach Enterprise AI transformation. So what are the key tenets for an Agentic Enterprise. Let’s take a deeper look:

Empowerment and Autonomy

Picture a workplace where decision-making is decentralised. Employees at all levels have the authority to make choices without waiting for layers of approval. This is the essence of empowerment. an Agentic Enterprise facilitates this by providing the necessary tools and data, fostering a culture where employees feel a sense of ownership and accountability for their roles and contributions, where people are allowed and enabled to launch new agents fast, to install new agentic capabilities in the flow of work.

Agility and Adaptability

In a rapidly changing market, flexibility is crucial. An Agentic Enterprise creates structures that allow employees to easily adapt to new circumstances. Continuous learning is a cornerstone here, with the platform promoting ongoing development to ensure that skills and knowledge remain current and relevant.

Innovation and Creativity

Innovation thrives in environments where experimentation is encouraged. An Agentic Enterprise supports a culture of risk-taking and creativity, allocating resources specifically to innovative projects and innovative agentic solutions to solve day to day problems. This ensures that new ideas are not just welcomed but actively pursued.

Data-Driven Decision Making

In the age of information, data is king. An Agentic Enterprise ensures that employees have appropriate and secure access to the data and analytics tools they need to make informed decisions. Moreover, it invests in improving data literacy across the organization, ensuring that everyone can leverage data effectively.

Collaboration and Communication

Effective collaboration and communication are the lifeblood of any successful agentic enterprise. An Agentic Enterprise promotes cross-functional teams, bringing together diverse perspectives to solve problems and innovate. Open communication channels are maintained to facilitate seamless information sharing.

Customer-Centric Focus

An agentic enterprise is always tuned in to its customers. An Agentic Enterprise implements mechanisms to continuously gather and act on customer feedback, using data to create personalized experiences that delight and engage. A meticolous focus on enhancing Customer Experience and Human Centred Change are one of the main areas for success.

Technology Enablement

Advanced technologies like AI and automation are integral to an agentic enterprise. In an Agentic Enterprise these technologies are adopted effortlessly, ensuring that systems are integrated and work seamlessly together to enhance capabilities.

Resilience and Sustainability

In an unpredictable world, resilience is key. An Agentic Enterprise aids in developing robust risk management strategies to anticipate and mitigate potential disruptions. It also promotes sustainable practices, putting in place efficient guardrails (on the human, data, process, and technology level) ensuring long-term viability and success.

Leadership and Vision

Visionary leadership is at the heart of an agentic enterprise. Leaders must articulate a clear vision and inspire their teams to align with the organization’s goals. An Agentic Enterprise fosters a culture of servant leadership, where leaders focus on serving their teams and removing obstacles to success.

Performance and Accountability

Clear metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential for measuring success. An Agentic Enterprise defines these metrics and conducts regular performance reviews, providing constructive feedback to drive continuous improvement.

By embracing these tenets and leveraging the capabilities of Agentforce, organizations can transform into dynamic, responsive, and successful agentic enterprises. Fair to say, in today’s fast-paced business environment, becoming an agentic enterprise is not just a strategic advantage—it’s a game-changer.

Het bericht Building an Agentic Enterprise verscheen eerst op MartinKloos.nl.

Het bericht Getting Started with Salesforce Data Cloud @ World Tour Amsterdam ’24 verscheen eerst op MartinKloos.nl.

You could say that the above scenario is bad practice, and it is. But you would be surprised how often it still happens. Customer Data Platform projects are often still largely IT driven (which they shouldn’t), with very little business involvement. And even when Business is involved, the creativity and imagination of how to unlock the data and capabilities in a customer data platform, is often lacking.

Imagination and creativity in customer experience are the bedrock of any successful customer data platform project.

With all the rage nowadays with Data and AI empowering marketers it’s easy to overlook the importance of applying imagination and creativity to envisioning a distinctive and differentiating customer experience that is unique for your brand. At Salesforce we do our share in revolutionising the enterprise world with our AI-powered CRM and Data Cloud, unlocking trapped data and providing unprecedented access and ability to marketers and business users in unlocking and activating that data. However, the true power of these technologies lies not just in their ability to unify and analyse data, but in the creative ways marketers can activate this data to create unique and differentiating customer experiences.

Owning (micro) moments that matter

How marketers should think about this is that every data point, every combination, every calculated insight, every AI model can identify, trigger, inform or inspire a small creative idea on how to create a unique and distinctive customer experience at a moment that matters: Multiple visits to an FAQ page on how to end a contract combined with declining use of services? Boom, trigger a customer retention flow. A customer browsing various beauty and clothing products in a category they shop more often? Maybe that’s a trigger to inspire them to find their style. Vehicle IOT data showing an imminent failure? Trigger a service experience.

Once marketers start to grasp this opportunity, they will then start to move beyond a couple of large campaigns and automated journeys annually, to launching dozens and dozens of small experiences, for very specific needs and moments that matter. For sure, in a not so distant future AI will help you identify and surface those ‘segment opportunities’ and support you in creating (the contents for) those experiences. But for the time being, coming up with these ideas is still very much a marketers craft of bringing together what customers uniquely desire from your brand, what is valuable to your business and what is feasible. Although in a world of data and AI, when done right, feasibility should come within reach.

Start with Customer Experience

So with any technology innovation, marketers should start with customer experience. Start with imagining what problems you are solving as a brand, what needs you can fulfil, what moments in a customer lifecycle you want to win, and how you want to uniquely show up. For sure, you can have your data inspire this thinking, because often data points lead to interesting insights and creative ideas on how to activate that data. But it all starts with imagination, and creativity. So as we move into a world dominated by data and AI, let’s not forget the importance of creativity and imagination. After all, it’s not just about the data, it’s about what you do with it.

Het bericht Why a Marketers’ imagination & creativity is a super power in a world dominated by data and AI verscheen eerst op MartinKloos.nl.

My plans for the year that’s now behind me

When I looked back at a similar post I wrote last year, I realised I set myself a couple of ambitious goals for the past year. I won’t list them all, but it came down to:

• Working at the cutting edge of marketing transformation, and maturation.
• Continue to grow and increase success of the customers I work for. Continue to grow and lead larger, and more complex (international) programs and deliver more and better outcomes;
• Increase sales influence and outputs by identifying, shaping and landing larger marketing transformation deals;
• Grow as a mentor to the people in the team, and the practice I am part of; And find me a (new) monitor to spar with about the next stages of career and life;
• Be ‘out there’ more. Working internationally, and working remotely is great but has also limited my f2f time with people. I want to bring that back;
• Explore opportunities outside Salesforce, either through advisory boards or volunteering.

And when I reflect I can to say that I have been largely successful on all of the above goals. Though fair to say, successes has been largely associated to my work. The outside Salesforce opportunities could use work (I’ll take that with me for next year :-)).

This years highlights – a crazy fulfilling and successful ride

What made my year so rewarding? Well I:

• Led the first successfully implementation and go live of a loyalty management implementation in the Netherlands;
• Led a strategic engagement for a global CPG brand prescribing how they can accelerate value realisation with our complete martech stack. This was both insanely challenging and fun as I could apply a lot of my agency / media history into the recommendations;
• Successfully led a proof of value implementation at a Dutch Health Insurer involving our full martech stack. I also led converting this initial project into a multi year partnership;
• Successfully led a Strategic project for one of the largest Finnish companies, laying out the foundations of their next platform for growth with our tech;
• Led a South African bank with their first steps in Marketing Automation;
• Initiated, drove and helped close close a couple of the largest commercial marketing services deals in Benelux and Nordics

Whilst landing at a util attainment of 108%, keeping up with my certs (Hello Data Cloud & AI Associate!) and be there for the team and colleagues I work with on a day to day basis.

Was everything shiny bells and whistles? Well not all. I could have been out there more. Tried to be in the office at least once a week, and had the ‘occasional’ on site customer visit. Though it still consumes a lot of time, face to face have been proven to be undisputed so I want to continue do more of that next year again. But I need to find piece with the idea that I do less on one day :-). Also I want to make steps in the outside Salesforce objectives, and really want to find me a mentor to continue to elevate my career at Salesforce.

Other than that I hope and plan for the coming year to be as exciting and rewarding as this year. To be it more of the same and better things than the previous year. I have experienced a lot of personal growth in the work that I do, and grown the confidence I can handle the Champions League that I am in (I already played it for a while, No I know it :).

But with Baby #3 on the way in just a couple of days / weeks, I am sure the year is already accomplished before it even started…

*ps I write this for my own. To spend time to reflect, document my journey, set goals and hold myself accountable.

Het bericht Reflections on another crazy fulfilling year at Salesforce verscheen eerst op MartinKloos.nl.

• Customer recognition has been amazing. Driving successful implementations leading to tangible outcomes. Designing & Implementing a new operating model for Marketing at one of the largest South African financial services companies: all met with great praise.
• In 2021 I took on formal Sales responsibilities besides my consulting job. I got to apply my knowledge and expertise to drive pre-sales engagements. And my results & contributions are clear: We smashed our target as a team and my involvement in leading successful deals has been measurably significant!
• I smashed my util target by achieving a 119% utilisation in 2021, meaning I billed a lot more hours to customer than was expected from me.
• I learned and grew in new territories: Doing consulting on Operating Models for Modern Marketing organisations, worked in emerging product categories like Interaction Studio & CDP, learning & applying sales tactics in my pre-sales role, Leadership skills. The challenges have been many. And every time I trusted my ability to figure it out….
• Where I was once the first Business Architect hire in Nordic region for Marketing Cloud Professional Services, we are now a team of three, which I get to informally guide and lead!

Lesson learned: when in doubt, zoom out! And don’t dwell on the micro, but celebrate the macro.

Het bericht Don’t dwell on the micro, but celebrate the macro verscheen eerst op MartinKloos.nl.