Thunderhead and MyCustomer Research Investigates Post-Pandemic Rise of Journey Management as a Platform for Customer Engagement

Over 85% of brands grappled with changing customer behaviour and journeys in the last 18 months, leading to a focus on customer engagement and adoption of customer-led operating models.

BOSTON, Nov. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Thunderhead, the global leader in enterprise technology for real-time customer engagement and journey orchestration, and MyCustomer, the leading online resource for customer service, customer experience and marketing professionals, commissioned a study to explore the impact of the pandemic globally on customer behaviour and journeys, and how brands have used technology to overcome the challenges faced.

Surveying 200 Service, CX and Marketing leaders from North America, Europe and Asia Pacific the global study looks at developments in the last 18 months and how brands have turned to customer-led operating models to drive growth in the post pandemic world.

The findings from the research show unequivocally that the pandemic has had a huge impact on customer journeys which has led brands to focus on journey-based technology to deepen their understanding of customer behaviour and to strengthen customer relationships. Some 86% of brands confirmed that their customers' journeys have changed significantly over the last 18 months, with the majority (90%) of brands confirming that these changes had a demonstrable impact on financial and operational business.  The pandemic was a disruptive force which drove brands to rapidly rethink the way they managed customer journeys and the tech they use to support ongoing customer engagement.

The study also confirms the increasingly critical role played by journey insight and management in understanding and serving customer needs, and as a core technology enabler for digital engagement. Two thirds (65%) of respondents felt that understanding and managing their customer journeys was now more important than ever, highlighting the rapid rise in the importance of journey management for many businesses today. As evidenced by the survey findings, next generation technologies such as Journey Analytics, Journey Orchestration and Real Time Interaction Management (RTIM) are quickly becoming vital components of the modern enterprise technology ecosystem.

The findings further demonstrate the need for a new era of customer engagement technologies with a paradigm shift towards what Thunderhead have named the Customer Operating System™, which enables brands to understand and act from the customer's perspective to deliver more meaningful relationships and customer-led growth.

Mike Conley, CIO Cleveland Cavaliers said, "The last 18 months has been an unprecedented time but gave us the time and permission to evaluate our customer-led initiatives and develop more robust strategies to build customer engagement. We were able to stand back and reassess our KPIs to be more customer focussed. Journey analytics and orchestration brings this to life, allowing us to understand omnichannel behaviour at a granular level and then act, in the moment, to ensure that every conversation we have is tailored to each and every individual. Crucially, our culture has undoubtedly shifted, we broke down organisation silos and pulled together as a team, guided by Thunderhead and using their AI-powered technology to coordinate a world class end-to-end experience and develop more meaningful customer and fan relationships."

Glen Manchester, CEO Thunderhead commented, "Our customers are leaders from a broad range of industry sectors, including FS, Telco, Utilities, Pharma, Automotive, Sports, and Hospitality. Like the Cleveland Cavs, they are all looking beyond their legacy customer-facing systems and inside-out marketing tools, towards the new era of autonomous engagement technology. Our unique fusion of Journey orchestration and RTIM, fuelled by AI-based journey analysis, is the core of our Customer Operating System™ (CoS) which provides a holistic engagement layer for all interactions between a brand and its customers, transcending functional silos and orchestrating information flows and journeys across the end-to-end enterprise to serve the needs of the customer and create value for the brand.  Our ONE platform, the result of clean sheet design and substantial engineering investment, makes this concept a reality. We foresaw the importance of autonomous engagement and its disruptive impact, which is today driving convergence across a range of enterprise tech sectors."

About Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Championship in 2016 while also taking the Eastern Conference crown in 2007, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The team plays at, and also operates, the newly transformed, publicly-owned Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavaliers and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse are part of Rock Entertainment Group. The Group also includes the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL, the Cleveland Charge of the NBA G League, Cavs Legion of the NBA 2K League, Legion Lair Lit by TCP home of Cavs Legion in Cleveland, and Cleveland Clinic Courts - the Cavaliers' training and development center in Independence, Ohio. The Cavaliers are regularly recognized for their extensive community support and engagement programs and contributions, workplace diversity and inclusion leadership, and an on-going economic impact that now registers in the billions of dollars locally. Dan Gilbert is Chairman of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Gilbert and his family of companies have now invested over $2.0 billion in Cleveland. Gilbert is also Founder and Chairman of Rocket Mortgage, the nation's largest mortgage lender, and Founder and Chairman of Rock Ventures LLC, the umbrella entity for his portfolio of business and real estate investments. Len Komoroski is the Rock Entertainment Group CEO and Nic Barlage is the Rock Entertainment Group President and Chief Operating Officer. The Cavaliers team is led by General Manager Koby Altman and Head Coach J.B. Bickerstaff. The Cavaliers and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse provide fans the best experience in the NBA with its extensive and stunning array of amenities and technology and signature, electrifying game presentation.

About Thunderhead  

Thunderhead is leading the movement to transform customer engagement. Enabling brands for the first time to understand each customer's intent and orchestrate individualized journeys for millions of customers across billions of touchpoints, seamlessly and in real-time. 

Thunderhead is the recognized global leader in technology for Customer Journey Orchestration, Journey Analytics and Real Time Interaction Management. With its AI-driven ONE Engagement Hub, it's now possible for brands to deliver exceptional engagement for every customer throughout every journey. Across every industry, ONE is driving topline growth, reducing cost-to-serve, increasing customer happiness and building customer lifetime value. 

Thunderhead is the only technology provider that is a leader in both the Forrester Wave™ for Journey Orchestration and The Forrester Wave™ for Real-Time Interaction Management. The company has a global presence with its US headquarters and development lab in Manchester, New Hampshire and its European HQ in London UK.

Thunderhead. Powering growth through customer-led journeys. 

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