The customer may have always been right but now they know it and they are demanding more from companies that sell to them. Hereu2019s what marketers need to know about the customeru2019s 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 feature Expedia poised to take flight with generative AI CTO Rathi Murthy sees the online travel service’s vast troves of data and AI expertise fueling a two-pronged transformation strategy aimed at growing the company by bringing more of the travel industry online. By Paula Rooney Jun 02, 2023 7 mins Travel and Hospitality Industry Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence case study Deoleo doubles down on sustainability through digital transformation The Spanish multinational olive oil processing company is immersed in a digital transformation journey to achieve operational efficiency and contribute to the company's sustainability strategy. By Nuria Cordon Jun 02, 2023 6 mins CIO Supply Chain Digital Transformation brandpost Resilient data backup and recovery is critical to enterprise success As global data volumes rise, business must prioritize their resiliency strategies. By Neal Weinberg Jun 01, 2023 4 mins Security brandpost Democratizing HPC with multicloud to accelerate engineering innovations Cloud for HPC is facilitating broader access to high performance computing and accelerating innovations and opportunities for all types of organizations. By Tanya O'Hara Jun 01, 2023 6 mins Multi Cloud 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