In this era of artificial intelligence (AI), consumers have become more demanding, requiring a high-quality customer experience that can only be ensured through new paradigms of Organizational Alignment.
This scenario confronts businesses with the question: how can this synergy be guaranteed?
AI is not about cutting costs; it’s about meeting the needs of your target.
A company’s ability to promptly and personally respond to its customers’ needs becomes a crucial factor.
Therefore, complete synchronization among departments becomes not just desirable but essential.
How your target perceives your Brand: the Canoe Parallel.
When your target chooses your Brand, they envision it as a canoe where all the rowers are:
Aligned on a common purpose
Synergistic in their tasks
Synchronized in their actions
Customer Loyalty is maintained on the condition that every department rows in harmony, allowing the company to successfully navigate towards achieving its objectives. This should be the perfect formula for organizational alignment.
Organizational Alignment: the most virtuous companies are doing it, and your target expects it as the standard
To illustrate this, I share a personal case study with disruptive results in my latest podcast. You can hear it at the 1:53 mark.
Action
What I think?
What I would have expected
I search for the purchase date on the eCommerce
It’s not there! Two reference eCommerce sites come to mind that keep my information.
To easily find the purchase date stored on the eCommerce to facilitate the warranty process.
I write to support for the purchase date
Whoever updated the eCommerce software did not correctly evaluate with Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service the impact of zeroing previous purchases.
An effective synchronization and communication between departments to ensure that important information like purchase dates are preserved during system updates.
I activate the warranty procedure and find it stated that I would receive a tracking code for the repair
Good, so I can self-service without depending on the limited time of others.
After 10 days I discover that I don’t have the tracking code
10 days of silence without any way to track it: I start to doubt that my defective product has been lost.
To receive the tracking codes promptly without having to further urge the assistance.
I write back to customer service to get the tracking codes after 14 days
To receive the tracking codes promptly without having to further urge the assistance.
I receive a call from support informing me that the codes are not available for third-party repair centers
None of the departments are synchronized with the others. That other realities are more effective. I lose the customer.
Clear and synchronized communication among all departments, ensuring that the information provided to the customer is accurate and that the promised services are actually available.
What’s not working? The absence of a synergistic approach throws all the tools off calibration
As a result, all tools and technologies are calibrated forgetting the target.
Even though the individual units perform well individually, the absence of a coordinated approach and a deep understanding of the target’s needs prevents collective effectiveness, undermining the customer experience and operational efficiency.
AI Marketing makes your customer aware that “It can be done”. And on the business side, how do you respond?
What is organizational alignment in the age of AI?
It is the complete synchronization among departments that lets a company respond promptly and personally to its customers’ needs. In the AI era consumers have become more demanding, and a high-quality customer experience can only be ensured if every department is aligned, synergistic and synchronized.
Is AI mainly a way to cut costs?
No. AI is not about cutting costs; it is about meeting the needs of your target. AI Marketing makes customers aware that “it can be done”, so on the business side processes and organizational structure must be aligned to meet those rising expectations.
Why can a company lose customers even when its CRM, eCommerce and customer service all work?
Because tools that work individually are not enough. What is missing is synergy among business units and focus on the needs of the target, so every tool is calibrated forgetting the customer. In the case I describe, a software update erased purchase dates and no department could provide repair tracking codes: the customer was lost.
What does the canoe parallel mean for a brand?
When your target chooses your brand, they picture it as a canoe where all the rowers are aligned on a common purpose, synergistic in their tasks and synchronized in their actions. Customer loyalty holds only if every department rows in harmony, allowing the company to reach its objectives.
