The customer may have always been right but now they know it and they are demanding more from companies that sell to them. Here’s what marketers need to know about the customer’s digital journey. (Includes infographic.) Credit: Thinkstock Handing off customers, from marketing to sales to customer service, seems a bit jolting in today’s digital world. These days, customers own the online social relationship, and they don’t want to be passed around like a hot potato. They demand one group guide them through the customer journey. More often than not, this group is the digital marketing team. Death of a salesman Already there are signs that marketers are pushing out salespeople. Forrester predicts one million B2B sales jobs will disappear in the coming years, as customers research and purchase goods online. At DEMO Traction in San Francisco last week, many startup tech companies said they don’t even employ salespeople. On the post-sale side, a fight has broken out on social media between marketers and customer service pros over control of the customer relationship. Customers don’t want to pick up a phone and call customer support anymore. They want answers online, where marketers hold sway yet aren’t good at providing customer service. “Initially seen as an outbound channel for marketing, social media soon also saw consumers seeking customer service, something marketing teams were ill-prepared to handle,” writes Forrester analyst Ian Jacobs in a brief entitled Take Social Customer Service Beyond Your Own Walled Garden. Digital marketers need to see clearly As marketers expand their influence along the customer journey, they need to know what this really looks like. The holy grail at the end of customer journey is a customer advocate who wields a social networking bullhorn. How to get there? Bluenose, a customer lifecycle management vendor, has put together an infographic that at least gives marketers a big picture. Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP When natural disasters strike Japan, Ōita University’s EDiSON is ready to act With the technology and assistance of SAP and Zynas Corporation, Ōita University built an emergency-response collaboration tool named EDiSON that helps the Japanese island of Kyushu detect and mitigate natural disasters. By Michael Kure, SAP Contributor Dec 07, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by BMC BMC on BMC: How the company enables IT observability with BMC Helix and AIOps The goals: transform an ocean of data and ultimately provide a stellar user experience and maximum value. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership brandpost Sponsored by BMC The data deluge: The need for IT Operations observability and strategies for achieving it BMC Helix brings thousands of data points together to create a holistic view of the health of a service. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 4 mins IT Leadership how-to How to create an effective business continuity plan A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an By Mary K. Pratt, Ed Tittel, Kim Lindros Dec 07, 2023 11 mins Small and Medium Business IT Skills Backup and Recovery Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe