Technology key to delivering best customer experience: Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen

Digital businesses that want to earn the trust and loyalty of customers must remember that they cannot deliver cutting-edge experiences with an antiquated technology infrastructure, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has said.

Saying that people buy “experiences,” not products,” Narayen in his keynote address to the first-ever global and all-digital Adobe Summit recently said that the only way to earn trust and loyalty of customers is to provide them with personalised, efficient, context-aware experiences.

And the key to achieving that is merging content, data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver these types of experiences in real time, said Narayen, who filmed his keynote address in his home office.

The Adobe CEO added that the industry must come together to share best practices, given that digitally engaging with customers matters more than ever before.

“Everyone is having to rethink how they operate, including us at Adobe,” Narayen said. “One thing is for certain,” he said. “Digital is growing in importance. … [It’s] revolutionizing how we interact with each other.”

In the past, he said, the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) brought in marketing and communication expertise with a strong knowledge of the customer journey, while Chief Information Officers (CIOs) understood what it takes to architect systems, unite data, and keep the businesses running. But their interactions were somewhat limited.

Today, he said, all of that is changing. “IT is becoming more customer-centric and marketing is becoming more data-driven,” Narayen said, adding, “And leaders are working closer than ever before.”

In fact, he said, the best CMO-CIO partnerships enable enterprises to deliver compelling customer experiences at scale.

It’s critical to align the C-suite on customer-centricity, Narayen said, adding that Adobe has created a blueprint for the industry on how to effectively manage customer experiences: the “CXM Playbook.”

The “CXM Playbook” helps companies build a customised plan to become a data-driven experience business.

Adobe has identified six key areas of focus, around which the “CXM Playbook” provides customised and personalised best practices: digital first; data and insights; scalable content; optimised personalisation; customer journey management; and pervasive commerce.

“Taken together, these six areas of the ”CXM Playbook” provide you with a comprehensive blueprint to become an experience business,” said Anil Chakravarthy, Adobe’s new Executive Vice President and General Manager, who drives the vision and operations for the company’s Digital Experience business.