Thunderhead ONE Answers Questions

The problem:

If you've been involved in marketing or selling software in the digital marketing / customer engagement / customer journey / {insert your buzzword here} market, you know one thing:  IT'S CROWDED.  If you've been tasked with evaluating these tools and platforms, you know another thing:  IT'S CONFUSING.  Why does everyone say the same thing?  Where does one platform begin and the next one end?  How many of these different things do I need and how in the world are they going to stitch together?

After all, you've been tasked with gaining insight, improving your customers' experience and engagement with your brand.  You didn't know you signed up for this.

The solution:

I wish I could write one article to clear it up for you.  I won't fully, but I'll start.  My goal here is to describe very simply why Thunderhead ONE is something different, something that is going to change your career, something that will allow you to skip writing that 17th RFP questionnaire, something that will start to answer your questions.

The "3" things:

So that we can leverage the power of 3, here's a way of thinking about what Thunderhead ONE helps you accomplish:

1. Listen across all your systems (really! non-invasively) so that you can start to understand your customer journey, appreciating all the places you and your customers interact.
2. As you're listening, watch as your customers assemble into Audiences based on a combination of things you might know about them (CRM, attributes you already store), and journey-context behavioral flows.
3. Have the Next Best Conversation with that customer wherever and whenever it happens, with the authority that you've listened to and reacted to your customer's needs.  You've earned the right to cater the next message or offer.

OK, so why is that different?

I wanted this article to tee things up...now, in follow-up articles we can tackle very specific questions about your customer journey and see how Thunderhead ONE can answer them.  To start to consider why ONE is different, and as you evaluate the barrage of messaging coming at you, I'll leave you with some bullet points to consider:

• Your overall digital strategy will not be covered by one platform.  Don't lock yourself in to something that promises it's best of breed at everything.  The landscape is too rich, the channels too broad, the future too uncertain.
• Find platforms and groups that represent them who talk about future flexibility, about the ability to be nimble, to react.  We all know we don't know what's next.
• Relax about the mess of systems you have in place!  Embrace it!  There's a reason for it...you have lots of different groups in house with different needs and skill sets.  There's inertia.  Beware the vendor who tells you it's all going to be different with this one last (massive) change.
• Find platforms and groups that represent them who talk about the fact that insights are all around.  You need something flexible and non-invasive to collect lots of small insights that lead to greater understanding.

My first-hand experience with a broken customer journey

Disclaimer

All individual and brand names will be changed or omitted to protect the guilty....

'Twas the night before Christmas (or so):

It was just before Christmas and I was in a cheerful, buying mood.  I was remembering back to how happy I made my wife when I bought her a car for her birthday a couple years back...red bow on the hood, surprised her with it in the parking lot of a restaurant we just had dinner at...the whole thing.  Since then, I've had a particular fondness for that brand of car (guilty name omitted) and my wife has said again and again that this is the only kind of car she is ever going to own.  This December, the novelty of my awesome-husband-gesture was starting fade amongst the bright lights of the season.  I had the hopeful, almost-New-Year positivism that could drive me to buy a car I really shouldn't have.  Let's just say I was an incredibly hot prospect.

The mailer (the ultimate offline channel):

So everything was lining up quite nicely for this car brand as I walked out to the mailbox that day.  Bunch of Christmas cards.  A few letters telling me about everything that happened in the last year from folks I worked with ten years ago.  Way too many way too thick catalogs for last minute deals and free shipping.  Then, there it was.  A concisely written offer on a conveniently sized postcard.  I was already due a $10 gift card to an electronics superstore from aforementioned famous car company I'm already fond of.  Just go online and register.  I can type a URL with the best of 'em (that QR code is nice and all, but I never really bought into them), so let's go online and do this.  It's all upside from here, and I can just picture my wife's smile at the thought of this particular customer engagement.

Registering online (um, the Web channel):

OK, URL typed into browser...nice landing page...welcomed me by name (OK, the URL had my name in it, but still...nice).  Easy registration form (yeah, it could have been better since I pay on their site.  They should know my car model and year.  But, I like this brand...cut 'em some slack).  Easy form to fill out...bam!...check this out...if I have a chance to swing by the dealership this next Saturday from 1PM to 5PM, I immediately increase my reward to aforementioned electronics superstore to $20.  (That's a 100% increase if you're keeping track).

A swing by the dealership (the on-premise channel)

I was pretty sure I was going to rest on my laurels and just cash in my $10.  I had paid off the birthday present car already and really didn't want to incur a new debt for such a irrational investment.  I didn't want to deal with the typical pressure of a car lot.  So I was as surprised as anyone when I veered right last minute to enter the car lot that Saturday.  I was in the area doing last minute shopping anyway, and it would be nice to picture my wife's face as the new 2016 model appeared under the tree (I wasn't going to buy anything anyway, so the fantasy could include this impossible present placement).

The 10 things that happened at the dealership:

1. I walk into a showroom that is absolutely buzzing with activity (wow they must be busy, no one even approached me as I looked at the new models out on the lot).
2. First guy I see looks at the promotional print out in my hand, tries to muster a smile, forces a "welcome someone will be right with you", and hurries off to more important matters.
3. I see the woman (let's call her Susan) who sold me the aforementioned birthday present a couple years ago....we exchange polite smiles and she hurries to more important matters.
4. I am guided to a closet-sized back room where a friendly-enough intern-aged young woman sits staring at a tablet.  She welcomes me exactly according to script, hands me my first $10 gift card (I already earned that one), and invites me to sit.
5. Without ever really looking up from said tablet (it's a generational thing), she asks me a number of questions:  am I happy with my current car, what would it take me to upgrade, what do I look for in a car.
6. Survey done, she slides the second $10 gift card my way, thanks me and tells me to go back to the waiting room where a salesperson will see me.
7. I ask about the woman who sold me the original birthday present car (a.k.a Susan) and if I could see her specifically.  I repeat.  I asked to see a specific salesperson who I enjoyed doing business with THE LAST TIME I BOUGHT A CAR FROM THIS DEALERSHIP.  Sorry, needed to relay the emphasis.
8. I sit in the waiting room....5 minutes....10 minutes....ask again specifically for Susan....15 minutes.
9. I leave.  Hey, I already have my $20.
10. Somewhere back at home my wife's smile turns in the other direction.  And she has no idea why.

Here's the crazy thing:

I never heard from the car company on this matter again.  No follow up.  None.  No call from Susan, no email checking in to see if I was able to find something at the electronics superstore....nothing.  Not only did they already have my information from my account, they now had the additional data around my intent, my timeframe, my hopes to make my wife so happy again with an upgrade.  If I was presented with the right offer that day, I would have driven out of there in that new model, anxious to wrap it up with a bow.  But, of course, time kills all deals....and without any follow up, I'm deciding to do the right financial thing this season and opt for the Wok and knife set.

Some summary thoughts about my experience:

The sad thing is, I bet no one at this really great car company knows how easily they lost someone who was so very ready to buy a new car that day.  Worse, I bet there is a PowerPoint presentation slide showing the success of the electronics superstore campaign.

• The marketing team that developed the mailer and QR code campaign must have been really proud of the response.  More people visited the landing page then they predicted.
• I guarantee the Web team and their agency celebrated on New Year's Eve as they congratulated each other on the landing page visits that converted into registration form completions.
• As the folks in the showroom cleaned up confetti and broke down balloons, they hugged and glowed in their job well done.  They had THOUSANDS of people through those doors.  And they gave away LOTS of gift cards.

An Enormous Opportunity.

It's great when experience meets opportunity.  As I started my new year (in my older car), I joined Thunderhead, a company with a product called ONE Engagement Hub that is built with my exact experience in mind.

ONE appreciates that I really don't care that my car company has an email campaign team, an online/Web team, various agencies and digital strategists, multiple CRM and call center applications, survey applications and on-premise systems...it knows and that I just  want a seamless experience with my brand.

ONE knows that I trust this brand--that I'm willing to pay online, download their app, answer their annoying survey questions in the showroom that day.  I want to interact with this brand wherever and whenever I want to, and I don't want to have to re-explain my relationship with them.

ONE could give my car company insights into all my interactions with them, across all of the places I choose to talk to them.  With these insights, I guarantee Susan would have been ready for my visit.  At the very least, she could have saved the sale with a very informed call soon after my leaving the showroom.

The Customer Journey in Thunderhead ONE Engagement Hub

After all, it's the simple things.  I just wanted Susan to be reminded of the time we worked out that great birthday present for my wife and have her put together an informed offer for us to upgrade to an even better Christmas present.

C'mon aforementioned great car company that I'm really fond of.  Valentine's Day is right around the corner....

Thunderhead ONE and your Content Management project: Better Together

Background

With full disclosure that I've spent most of the last decade in web content management discussions, what follows is my belief that your content management / digital marketing platform strategy will benefit from a much needed breath of fresh air with the Thunderhead ONE Engagement Hub.

Web Content Management Systems are central and fundamental to successful digital marketing.  They provide the backbone of an effective online communications strategy and are critical to the create-->validate-->review-->publish workflow needs of today’s dynamic site projects.  Many systems also offer add-on or additional capabilities that cover the range of digital marketing expectations--personalization, analytics, multivariate testing, outbound communication and campaigns.

While Content Management Systems accomplish their core duties admirably, they often struggle when trying to apply their disciplined, structured, procedural approach to the ever-changing and dynamic conversations that you want to have with your customers across the various channels you want to communicate on.

Where does ONE fit?

Conversations are free-flowing, not structured.  They need to pick up effortlessly where they left off (often in a different place than they started in).  Conversations need to be valuable to both sides...or they end abruptly.

You or your customer likely have multiple CMS systems--off-the-shelf varieties combined with internal custom applications--multiple CRM systems, on premise and ecommerce systems and more.  While some days it might seem like a good idea to “start from scratch” with one new system, you know that is not realistic, cost-effective or timely…and you know it is foolish to believe that all of the stakeholders in your customer engagement efforts (after all, this should be everyone), will agree on a single tool for their part of such a significant undertaking.

This is where Thunderhead's ONE Engagement Hub comes in.  ONE was created with this omni-channel reality in mind from day one.  It appreciates that you will continue to leverage multiple systems to gain insights.  ONE becomes a thin and lightweight layer over those systems, listening for insight, showing you opportunities, helping you make the right decisions.

Architecturally and strategically, ONE never tries to be something it's not--in this case ONE fully appreciates the great content management systems out there (including those that you currently leverage or are looking at), and fully appreciates their role as the content system of record.  The job of content management systems in an overall digital strategy is generally clear, well-understood and at the very least underway (and more likely firmly entrenched after years of development).  You (or your customers) don't want to hear that the next step of optimization is going to take a restart, a rip-out, a re-learn.

Let's get specific:

Three quick areas to consider as you start to understand where your CMS project and ONE complement each other:

1)  Personalization, started or improved TODAY across any number of systems

Leveraging SAAS and using an easy to apply javascript tag and browser plugin, ONE allows you to start immediately previewing and activating personalization across any of your digital properties.  Doesn't matter what system or technology lies beneath...if you're serving pages, you can start personalizing with ONE immediately.  Of course speed is nice...but more important are the insights that drive a great personalization strategy.  Those insights are rich in ONE as it listens across all of your customer conversations and touchpoints.  Don't let speed and the effortless start up fool you--this is heavyweight decisioning and automation that you'll never grow out of.

2)  Deliver your managed content across all customer conversations

As I mentioned, ONE is not trying to be or to replace your CMS.  Our brilliant technologists, developers and architects shudder at the thought of your duplicating content or data to achieve better engagement with your customers.  Instead, ONE introduces an "Action" concept which allows you to consider the message to the customer first, then act on sending that message to the appropriate endpoint to continue your conversation with your customer--whether that be a web page, a mobile app screen, a CRM call agent screen, a point-of-sale system....wherever.  The content and assets used in these actions can be pulled directly from your CMS so that there's no duplication or questioning of where the approved assets belong.

3)  Truly understand your customer's journey

ONE is able to take action based on data gathered across all channels, all customer touchpoints.  It is able to make efficient decisions without duplicating (or even storing) these data.  It honors all systems of record and their ability to effectively manage data for their purposes, and is able to surface that data, in the moment, to help you make the decisions that drive the next best conversation with your customer.

ONE is a Hub.  It's in the name.  Rather than assuming the only insights you want and need will be driven by or tied to your CMS, ONE recognizes that those insights will be available in all kinds of places in the enterprise--CMS, CRM, on-premise / point-of-sale, mobile apps, social, email and campaign management.  ONE provides a beautifully designed visualization of your customer's journey, showing you any obstacles in their path to complete excitement with your brand, ensuring you're providing them with the seamless, contextual conversation they expect, wherever and whenever they expect it.


I look forward to our next conversation and truly diving into your successful project that marries the power of your CMS and the agility and insights of ONE.

A new year, and an exciting new adventure with Thunderhead ONE Engagement Hub

After just a couple months with the Thunderhead ONE team, I am incredibly excited about the ONE Engagement Hub and its capabilities to provide customer journey insights to marketing and business process teams.  I have talked to countless customers and partners about the ever-elusive omni-channel insight and actionability problem.  At this early stage in my new adventure, I already truly believe in ONE's ability to help solve this problem.

Why?  Let's be honest.  There is no single system for customer insight within the enterprise, and there shouldn't be.  There will always be tools for different organizations that cater to the specific user interface, reporting and functional needs of that organization.  Trying to suggest that any single system will completely satisfy all will only lead to frustration, workarounds, skunkworks projects, duplication.  With strategic leadership, a business unit should make choices that balance the specific needs of that business unit with the loftier goals of consolidated insights.

The end customer doesn't care about your systems. about your definition of "channels", about your organizational structure.  The customer is going to interact with a brand at any available entry point that any business unit within that brand makes available to them.  It is then a brand's responsibility to somehow aggregate (then reduce) the data derived at those touch points so that efficient marketing strategies and business outcomes fall out.

In most realities, each business unit is doing OK.  Each channel is doing OK.  But the higher level insights have lagged, leading to disjointed, ineffective, inconsistent customer experiences as that customer takes advantage of the growing set of access points that have been made available to them (and that they now expect).

That's where ONE Engagement Hub comes in.  ONE was built from the very beginning with this realization firmly in place--that insights will be derived across systems, across customer touch points, across online and on premise.  Its core tenets hold firmly in place towards this goal--non-invasive, intuitive and usable interfaces (really), awareness of different channels without being beholden to them, rapidly available insights that become a lightweight layer over an incredible depth in power, scale and decisioning intelligence.

I am so excited to be in this zone.  I have joined a team that represents a perfect balance of professionals that I have succeeded with before and folks I'm just getting the pleasure to meet that have unbelievable skill sets, backgrounds and experiences.

We are looking for an additional handful of partners to join us in this journey--digital agencies and system integrators who appreciate the vision of omni-channel insights and have struggled to date with systems that have fallen short of that promise.  We are ready to be true partners in this, to be there every step of the way as we train and enable your organization around ONE's ability to fulfill the omni-channel customer journey promise that is fundamental to your strategy.