Many pointed to the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for All Urban Customers (CPI-U) was unchanged for July and claimed that the U.S. economy had 0% inflation in the month of July.

Zero percent inflation? Does that seem right?

No, inflation is at roughly 8.5%, the CPI-U statistic only indicates that inflation did not increase in the month of July.

Yes, the CPI-U statistic is accurate but is only part of the story, and more importantly, consumers are experiencing inflation every day at the grocery store, gas stations, etc. What is most important to consumers is what they are experiencing, not a random statistic about the month of July.

The same is true of individuals that engage with your company and the experience that they have. It doesn’t matter what you think about that experience, it only matters what they think of that experience. How does the experience feel to them? Does it feel like zero percent inflation or 8.5%? The bottom line is that a customer wants a seamless experience, especially with their experience between marketing and sales.

The State of Marketing and Sales Alignment study, by the research firm Ascend2 and SharpSpring, found a primary benefit of marketing and sales alignment is a seamless customer experience.

Benefits of Sales and Marketing Alignment

But when you dig deeper into a seamless customer experience, an interesting story unfolds. Those who have full visibility into the customer lifecycle from end to end are significantly more likely to report that a seamless customer experience is the greatest benefit to marketing and sales alignment. 58% compared to just 30% of those who are not able to track the customer lifecycle from end to end.

(Download the 24-page research report, The State of Marketing and Sales Alignment 2022.)

A seamless customer experience is efficient, smooth, and enjoyable. It should be consistent across all channels (email, website, social, etc.) and departments (marketing, sales, customer service, finance, etc.).

For companies to provide a seamless customer experience, they must have the technology to support their strategy.

How SharpSpring Provides a Seamless Customer Experience

The SharpSpring all-in-one platform aligns your marketing automation, sales automation, and CRM to provide a seamless customer experience that you can track and optimize.

What are the benefits of an all-in-one platform? No two buyers are the same. Each has unique needs. They take longer to buy and involve more people in the process.

A cobbled-together set of tools results in siloed data and makes it hard to deliver a seamless customer experience. But with an all-in-one platform, you can unify customer engagements, learn more, and optimize the experience.

Some of the benefits are:

  • Email: Don’t send out email blasts, instead develop automated campaigns with personalized messages that create conversations and engagement. Also, use the platform to track leads “after the click” to improve the customer experience.
  • Dynamic Forms: Collect leads that integrate directly with your marketing CRM software. Build dynamic forms with an easy drag-and-drop editor to improve conversions and develop a comprehensive view of the customer.
  • Marketing Automation: Use a powerful, easy-to-use visual workflow builder to simplify the marketing automation process. Set up buyer personas for your products and services to send targeted messages, nurture campaigns, and more.
  • Landing Pages: Build landing pages and landing page funnels that transform visitors into leads. Use a simple point-and-click editor to create unique landing pages or adapt a template from an extensive library.

Plus, benefit from built-in social media management, a reports tool, a blog tool, build-in and 3rd-party CRM integrations, and more to create a seamless customer experience.

Learn more.

AUTHOR
Rebecca Wentworth