CX: Create the Experience. Deliver the Results.

There’s no doubt that the digital landscape looks very different these days. When we talk about an organization's digital presence we are talking about a whole lot more than websites or content management systems.  

At DrupalCon Nashville, we got down to business with our Drupal community, partners and clients to discuss where Drupal fits into this new digital ecosystem, customer experience trends, Drupal 8 best practices, and how to maintain a competitive digital experience platform in this fast-moving, ever-changing market.

The Customer Experience Landscape

61% think that chatbots allow for faster resolution for customer service answers.

Source: Aspect Software Study

Almost 3⁄4 of regular voice technology users believe brands should have unique voices and personalities for their apps.

Source: SONARTM, J. Walter Thompson's proprietary in-house research tool

In short, audiences want to engage with brands on the channels they are already using. These customer experience (CX) expectations are driving channel explosion. With the proliferation of channels and new digital touchpoints, organizations are forced to undergo digital transformation to stay relevant and competitive. Our own Jeff Walpole addressed these market trends in his Drupalcon session: Beyond Websites: The Digital Experience Platform

Massive Discrepancy Between Brands and Consumers

A recent eConsultancy report indicated that 81% of consumer brands believe they have a holistic view of their customers. Conversely, only 37% of consumers feel that they are actually understood by their favorite brands.

It’s clear that understanding the customer and their experience with your brand is essential to developing a competitive presence.  This year, our Drupalcon booth theme addressed this directly with the rallying cry: “Create the experience. Deliver the results.” We asked Drupalcon attendees to engage with our interactive data visualization board to crowd-source the community’s thoughts on the impact of customer experience.

As we explained in our booth, leveraging engagement data is essential to successful customer experience. We took the booth experience further by creating a digital experience that seamlessly flowed from the in-person experience to our attendees' phones using Acquia Journey, a customer journey orchestration tool allowing us to serve up a personalized experience for each attendee.

The Need for Drupal to Evolve

Just as brands need to evolve to meet the demands of their customers, Drupal needs to evolve to engage the right audience and compete with digital experience platforms like Adobe. We were thrilled to participate in the Drupal Associations marketing fundraiser to raise funds to support more marketing material for Drupal.

As we grow and transform with the market, culture becomes more important than ever. Our own culture expert, Nicole Lind was a featured speaker this year discussing Why Building Awesome Culture is Essential, Not Just a Nice-to-Have

Drupalcon is always an inspirational and energizing event, with a week full of great sessions, critical discussions and perhaps too much hot chicken. We look forward to our continuing work with the community building the impactful digital experience platforms with Drupal.