The #1 Way Your Team is Sabotaging Customers Without Knowing It, How to Get Personalization Right & Unlock Billions in Lost Revenue

In this issue of FRICTIONLESS:

• Is your team unknowingly sabotaging the customer experience?
• How well do you truly know your customer?
• How are business teams uncovering hidden revenue in digital experiences?

Is your team sabotaging your customer experience without even knowing it?

By: Dominick Costa

As Angel Singh , VP of Customer Experience at Petco , recently shared on The Frictionless Experience, "Customer experience can make or break a brand."

But what happens when internal teams unintentionally create friction that undermines the very experience they aim to deliver?

Whether it's a lack of communication between departments or conflicting priorities, the result is a disjointed journey for the customer.

For organizations that aspire to deliver memorable, frictionless customer experiences, breaking down these barriers is essential.

Here are 5 ways teams can eliminate organizational politics and improve their customers' experiences:

1. Establish Shared Customer-Centric KPIs Across All Teams

One of the most effective ways to unite departments is to set common, customer-focused goals rather than letting each team work toward its own isolated metrics.

Companies could focus on three or four business KPIs (such as maximizing conversions and revenue) and customer KPIs that everyone can work toward.

When every department is aligned on what success looks like from the customer's perspective, it encourages a unified effort rather than competition for individual metrics.

2. Create Cross-Functional Teams for Projects That Impact the Customer Journey

When teams only see a piece of the customer’s journey, the big-picture view of what customers actually experience can be lost.?But if members from marketing, product, and business teams work together, they can create solutions that consider the entire customer journey.?

3. Foster Regular Interdepartmental Communication and Collaboration

Frequent communication between teams is essential for a unified approach.

Angel noted that one of the main obstacles in delivering seamless customer experiences is "organizational politics," which can prevent even the best strategies from being implemented smoothly.?

4. Align Technology and Data to Support a Unified Customer View.

Integrating customer data across all departments is one of the biggest challenges in creating a seamless customer experience.

Siloed data makes it difficult for teams to understand the full customer journey. Integrated technology platforms and shared data help every team access a single, accurate view of the customer, ensuring that the entire organization is working from the same playbook.

5. Establish Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement

A feedback loop keeps the organization aligned and ensures that each team contributes to an evolving customer journey.

Creating structured feedback loops, such as identifying and quantifying friction, and resolving the mostly costly friction points, helps companies stay connected to real customer needs and take action quickly.

Angel explained: "That's the fundamental thing that companies forget. There are people on the other side."

Remember: CX is everyone's responsibility. The more aligned your teams are, the more seamless and personalized your customer experience will be—leading to stronger customer loyalty.

Ready to break down those silos? Read my full blog post for more actionable strategies. And tune into the podcast episode here to listen to the full discussion.

How well do you really know your customers?

By: Chuck Moxley

Brands everywhere claim to "know their customers," but how many truly understand them??

On last week's episode of The Frictionless Experience, my co-host Nick Paladino and I discussed this question with Angel Singh, VP of Customer Experience at Petco, and her secrets to doing personalization right.

Personalization is No Longer Optional—It's a Necessity.

?But personalization can mean many different things to different people, even within a single organization. This lack of alignment can lead to disjointed efforts that may not benefit the customer experience.

Successful personalization requires more than just inserting a customer's name into an email—it's about understanding their needs, anticipating their desires, and creating relevant, authentic interactions at every touchpoint.

The Dangers of Assumptions in Personalization

Instead of building a deep, human understanding of their audience, companies often rely on assumptions based on data mining or competitor behavior.

This approach can lead brands down the wrong path, wasting resources on marketing campaigns or product lines that miss the mark.

And as Nick Paladino said: "Not knowing who your customers are, yet assuming they're the same as your competitor's, is a fatal flaw."

When brands make these assumptions, they overlook the unique reasons customers are drawn to their brand in the first place, leading to missed conversion and revenue opportunities.?

Leveraging Data for True Customer Insights

To overcome assumptions, brands need a robust data strategy—but it's not just about collecting data, it's about using it effectively.

The key to using data wisely is to seek understanding rather than confirming pre-existing assumptions. A major part involves unifying data sources to create a comprehensive view of the customer experience.

The Importance of Meeting Generational Expectations

Generational differences also play a significant role in personalization.

"Generations get younger and younger; they have less patience to deal with clunky login and checkout processes," Angel explained, emphasizing that expectations are evolving as quickly as technology.

If a brand doesn't offer a frictionless experience—such as through a simplified checkout process or personalized product recommendations—they risk losing that customer before they even make it to the cart.

The Role of AI in Personalization

AI has emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing personalization at scale. For example, Petco uses AI to generate hyper-targeted recommendations.

"If I'm a cat owner, don't show me a dog product. Show me the products relevant to my cat!" Angel said, emphasizing how AI can make personalization far more meaningful and impactful.

However, there is often resistance to AI, with some fearing that it could replace jobs or that it's simply too complex. Angel addressed this misconception, explaining that AI is a tool designed to assist, not replace.

"AI is a helper," she said. "It helps you think of things that you might not have thought of before."

Rather than seeing AI as a threat, brands should view it as a way to streamline processes and create more personalized experiences, freeing up teams to focus on more strategic, creative work.

Building a Customer-Centric Culture

Ultimately, successful personalization is the result of a customer-centric culture. Angel shared how Petco's team collaborates across departments—marketing, technology, and digital—to ensure a unified, seamless experience. Everyone is working together in service of the customer.?

Personalization Is a Continuous Journey

And lastly, personalization isn't a one-time effort—it's an ongoing journey.

Brands must gather the right data, understand their customers' journey, and always look for ways to improve. It's about meeting the needs of today's customers while laying the groundwork for lasting loyalty in the future.?

Ready to start your personalization journey? Read my full blog post for more personalization strategies.

Why Blue Triangle was recognized by Gartner as the digital experience solution for business teams

By: Chuck Moxley

Big news: Blue Triangle has made it into?the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Monitoring!

We believe our position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant is driven by our ability to show you exactly where customers are getting stuck, how much revenue it's costing you, and what to fix first.

And as stated in Gartner Critical Capabilities for Digital Experience Monitoring:

Overall, this combination of critical capabilities means that it is particularly suited to business-centric stakeholders and use cases, such as line-of-business and application owners where it achieved its highest scores.

"This recognition reflects our commitment to delivering innovative solutions for product and business teams to quantify and maximize their revenue opportunities and create frictionless experiences for their users," said Lance Ullom, our CEO.

For more information about our Gartner ranking and how we've helped business teams uncover $2.7 billion in lost revenue last year, check out this article.

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