Start with customer experience. Walk back to the technology. Not the other way round.
Soizic Sycamore Managing Director, Plan.Net Group
Interviewed by John Horsley
Published
Soizic Sycamore is Managing Director of Plan.Net Group, part of the Serviceplan Group. Her career spans data-driven marketing, CRM, MarTech, and large-scale transformation across agencies, consultancies, startups, and in-house environments. In this conversation she sets out the start with customer experience, walk back to the technology Steve Jobs principle; the 73% of customers see experience as a key purchase decision finding; the middle-to-lower funnel as the growth engine observation; and the next customer is a bot readiness frame.
The Steve Jobs principle: customer experience first
On what successful brands consistently understand.
Steve Jobs put it most beautifully: start with the customer experience and walk back to the technology. The brands successful today put the customer at the heart: understand needs, motivations, intentions, then design the experiences and the technology around that. Humanisation has come up multiple times this week.
On the practical reality.
You need the data and insight to create the experience. You then need the process and the people to enable it and act in real time. Otherwise data sits unconnected, unintegrated, and people struggle to make sense of it. If you do not have the process, it is not utilised and not driving personalisation or customer experience.
The middle-to-lower funnel is the growth engine
On where investment should sit.
Acquisition is still focused on big numbers (brand awareness, driving people to the website). The middle-to-lower funnel is the growth engine and what needs supercharging. Use the data on your consumers to drive next-best-action and deliver the experience they are looking for. 73% of customers see the experience as a key purchase decision.
On the holistic experience.
Silos still exist in organisations, different objectives, different KPIs. Customers do not think in channels or products. They have an intention and want to get from A to B. The most successful brands deliver the frictionless, seamless way.
Brands acquire customers brilliantly, deliver great customer service, then fail to follow up, nurture, or use advocacy. When someone has had a great experience they tell people at the pub. When they have had a bad one, they tell people at the pub. Existing customers like your brand and your products, they are your best advocates, very likely to purchase again, plus the opportunity to expand the account.
Loyalty programmes are moving from points to experiences
On the evolution.
The role of loyalty programmes is fundamentally changing. Point-based tiers are being questioned by brands and customers. Customers expect experience. The move: more emotional, brand-driven dimensions, events, VIP experience, early access. Beyond transactional. Also emotional and loyal.
The next customer is an agent
On the AI move.
We will have agents acting as concierges who know me well enough to recommend the right holiday, hotel, destination, and act on it. Fundamental change for brands: no longer about why should a customer buy from me but how do I make sure I am the top brand the agent recommends to the right customer?
The brands that will win are already thinking about the customer of tomorrow and the product of tomorrow, building around that rather than tweaking what they have today.
On AI readiness.
A lot of noise. Focus currently on efficiencies (faster, cheaper, better). The real value is strategic thinking. We are lacking the governance for ethical use of data and the framework for how bots will connect and communicate. Not where we are today.
Winners will start small, understand case studies, build MVPs, and think strategically about what they are building. Companies will have to control their data, content, and internal knowledge to train agents. Otherwise: shit in, shit out. Craft the right content, ensure the right placements, optimise for today's LLMs and the new customer experience.
Why marketers do not have a board seat
On the structural gap.
Marketers are only on around a third of enterprise-company boards worldwide. Across all companies globally, around 3%. Strikes me as insane. Organisations are still often led by finance. A CTO will be on the board (long-term ROI and business case). Marketing has been seen as cost-based, not a revenue driver.
The change: marketing must be ROI-driven with the business case behind it. Not a nice-to-have idea or pretty pictures any more.
On the advice.
(My daughter is 16 so this one resonates.) Be curious. Be adaptable. Be ready for change. The world I started in and the world we are going to be in over the next five to 10 years are fundamentally different.
The question for the board
If the next customer is an agent, what share of marketing spend organises content for an LLM to recommend us versus targets the human the agent now bypasses?
