Today’s brands are living in an in-the-moment, technology-driven, mobile-first world—and so are all their customers. To break out of old habits and transform the way you’re speaking to your customers, you need to take a hard look at the technologies supporting your customer engagement efforts.

One key ingredient you may not be leveraging? A vertical engagement stack built on real-time, streaming data. To help you better understand what a vertical stack makes possible and how to leverage it effectively, we’ve put together a seven-part content series exploring all the ins-and-outs. Enjoy!

It’s no secret that marketing leaders are now spending more on technology than CIOs and that’s because the right investment can lead to the kind of results that take businesses to the next level. To see that in practice, one need only look to the Forbes 2019 list of “100 of the Most Customer-Centric Companies.” What is one thing that many of the brands have in common? They have the technology in place to create seamless experiences for consumers.

Why Brands Are (or Should Be) Investing in Customer Engagement Technology

Companies that offer “superior customer experience” generate nearly six times more revenue, according to Forbes. And when PwC surveyed 15,000 people around the world, they found that 16% of people say they’ll pay a premium for better customer service. The same PwC survey also found that 70% of people say that speed, convenience, and friendly service are among the top differentiators for better customer service and while 73% say customer experiences are a key factor in their ultimate purchase decisions, only 49% of U.S. consumers say companies are meeting their requirements for good customer experience.

To become more customer-centric, nearly all—85%—of decision-makers say they’re planning to invest in a digital transformation within the next two years, or face the consequences of not being able to compete with rival brands, according to IDC.

What Brands Looking for Customer-Centric Technology Need

In today’s drive for establishing a consumer-first orientation for your business, data is essential. Without it, brands will not have the information needed to take action in a timely manner. Finding the right customer engagement stack will be the thing that can bring it all together, and there are critical features that can make a difference. As you begin your search and vetting process, ask:

• Is the solution vertically integrated?
• Will it offer channel-agnostic engagement, with support for in-app messaging, website browser messaging and web push, email marketing, SMS, and other cross-channel support?
• Is it powered by streaming data (i.e. real-time, not batched)?
• Does it offer a data-ingestion layer (with support for SDKs, APIs, and other integrations)?
• Will it offer audience segmentation (and can it pull in segments from other tools)?
• Does it provide solutions for frequency capping (so no individual receives too many messages at once) and send-time optimization?
• Does it offer up-to-the moment personalization?

Taking action

Having the right technology isn’t a panacea—after all, you still need access to the right data and have the right approach to teamwork to reach your customer engagement goals—but it’s a necessary first step. Without a built-for-purpose vertical engagement stack, executing on your marketing strategy and meeting today’s consumer expectations will be a struggle at best.

For marketing and agency leaders looking to ensure they have the customer engagement technology they need to succeed, we’ve got you covered. Head over to the Braze Product page to learn about how you can build out the experiences of your (and, more importantly, your customers’) dreams.