Finding businesses to be struggling in managing the customer journey effectively, the executive team of customer relationship management (CRM) software provider Insightly thought it would help organizations address the changing customer landscape by offering some tips to help businesses succeed as the new year got started.

San Francisco-based Insightly said its recent study of more than 450 business leaders that assessed the top pain points of their sales and marketing organizations revealed three key challenges: lack of customer transparency, difficulty in building and maintaining integrations, and the need to cope with a rapidly evolving toolset.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way customers interact with companies, and as a result, the customer journey, which was undergoing a pre-pandemic transformation, is now evolving at a much faster rate,” said Anthony Smith, CEO and founder of Insightly. Smith added that the customer journey was already undergoing a transformation prior to the onset of COVID-19, but the pandemic accelerated the pace of change. As a result, the customer journey is now evolving at a much faster rate.

“Businesses that want to build long-standing relationships with customers must ensure each touchpoint is fully integrated so that conversations are fruitful and that connections are made,” Smith pointed out. “In 2022, the customer journey revolution will take center stage for every department and every business.”

The rest of the Insightly leadership team weighed in as well, as noted below:

David Osborne, Insightly chief sales officer, said all aspects of the sales process—from marketing, to sales, to post-sales—must be unified to deliver “white glove” CX.

Chip House, the company’s chief marketing officer, said the relationship between brand and customer has forever changed and that businesses must follow suit. “In 2022, businesses should focus on thoughtful, authentic content, and the integration of sales and marketing should be seamless at every touchpoint to ensure a consistent, holistic experience for the customer,” House remarked.

For Karl Laughton, president and chief operating officer (COO) at Insightly, organizational alignment will be critical as remote work teams strive to meet higher-than-ever customer expectations.

And Elena Doudoukalova, Insightly vice president of people operations, stressed the need for businesses in the current era of the Great Resignation to focus on employee morale in order to retain or attract the best talent.

Insightly executives said the company launched various updates to its platform last year, including a customer service and support-ticketing product integrated with CRM and marketing called Insightly Service, as well as the workflow automation application known as AppConnect, for users to integrate finance, IT, marketing, human resources, and other business-critical apps with the Insightly platform.