Don't Be Ruled by "Rules"

I have seen the future, and for better or worse, it seems to be made of thousands of "rules." For managing customer experiences, for driving how you engage with prospects, for nudging a customer towards a deeper relationship, for managing the flow of an internal process. I have spent the last few weeks getting deeper views at the latest marketing automation software on the market from companies such as Oracle, Adobe, Salesforce.com, IBM, and others, all of which now have very visual tools to help marketers define a strategy for managing a customer based on "rules." Rules are instructions to systems to take certain actions depending on the data inputs it receives.

As marketers scale their efforts to use "big data" to identify and track customers, they will find themselves confronted with the need to populate rules in a wide-variety of systems:

• Program management systems to repeatedly uncover trigger data or behaviors that merit an action by a marketer
• Campaign management systems that define how a multi-channel buy should bring different messages to different segments via different channels
• CRM systems that route leads and manage how a company should help a customer move towards a purchase
• Creative production systems that specify the workflow for who should create, approve, and distribute a collateral creative asset
• Channel specific systems that customize videos, social media contacts, Emails, or SMS messages based on rules
• ...and the lists go on

When I speak with the vendors of these systems, they are quick to tout the ease by which you can set up rules, see how they are working, manage exceptions, and optimize them over time. These systems take in and generate reams of data, simplifying the action flow across millions of marketing, sales, and service transactions.

BUT every vendor talks about how their clients just expect the system to do everything for them, and few are truly getting the value they can provide. There is still a need for critical, human thinking alongside these systems. Rules strategies should be based for the strategy of how you want to manage a customer. Will you let every line of business go for themselves, will you try to coordinate value across lines of business? What is the creative and message someone should get as a result of the rules, and how will it convey the emotional touch that gets someone better connected to the brand? In the case of workflow processes, who lays out the brief? Who approves it? Who is looking at the process and seeing if it is working?

And in a world of rule-based contacts, there is still important space that needs to be made for two people just being allowed to discuss a customer's need and develop a solution. No one likes to sit through a canned set of questions when they agree to enter a chat window on a site or when they call a representative. We want a human, free-flow interaction. Many clients of ours have actually found that they resolve issues faster on the first round, cut call times, and have happier customers when they loosen the rules and give smart reps more leeway (Read: "The secret to delighting customers").

So, as we head into a new age of massive-scaled, "segment -of-one" contacts to every customer based on "big data", let's not let ourselves get caught up in the buzzwords and science of the systems, and instead recognize that rules need logic, competition requires strategy, and people are emotional beings. Getting the most out of the marketing automation to come will still take real work. It is a massive change from the times of fewer, larger-scale campaigns, and simpler search and display programs. But the payoff can be huge, when the scalability of these systems is powered by thoughtful management. In our work, we have seen companies achieve 5x their past online conversion rates, increase their share of wallet from digitally-engaged customers by 25%, and cut their costs of servicing customers by tapping these systems and aligning their operations accordingly.

As I have noted before, we are in a time of upheaval in how marketing gets done. But let's not abandon our core principles of strategy, creativity, and emotion as we embrace rules-based technology support. Are you, as leaders, making sure the customer, the brand, and your real performance goals are informing your operations?

Learn more about marketing and sales topics at the McKinsey on Marketing & Sales site, and follow us on Twitter @McK_MktgSales. And please follow me at @davidedelman.

[Image: ah zut, Flickr]