Marketing & CX: Different Worlds, Same Customer

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most marketing teams don’t have a reliable line of sight into the actual customer experience. They have personas. Surveys. Maybe a Net Promoter Score. But the insights from real, lived customer interactions? Often siloed in support tickets, service calls, and post-purchase feedback that never makes it upstream.

If marketing is responsible for shaping perception, building loyalty, and driving growth, then how can it do that without being tuned into the realities of what customers are experiencing?

This disconnect between Marketing and Customer Experience (CX) is more than a communication breakdown. It’s an operational issue that creates friction, erodes trust, and ultimately weakens business outcomes.

The Problem: Different Worlds, Same Customer

Let’s look at how this typically plays out:

  • Marketing builds campaigns, crafts messaging, runs ads, and creates content meant to influence perception and behavior.

  • CX/Support/Service teams are on the front lines, handling complaints, resolving issues, and trying to retain frustrated customers.

Too often, the feedback loop is broken. The support team sees rising complaints about a specific feature, but marketing is still promoting it as a hero differentiator. Messaging speaks to ease and simplicity, but onboarding data and customer calls say otherwise. This isn’t just tone-deaf,  it’s damaging.

And the customer? They see one brand. They don’t care that your org chart is fragmented.

What’s Getting in the Way

Several structural and cultural barriers often keep Marketing and CX apart:

  • Siloed ownership: Different departments, different KPIs.

  • Tech stack misalignment: Customer feedback is trapped in systems that marketers rarely access.

  • Lack of shared language: CX talks in CSAT and ticket deflection. Marketing talks in MQLs and engagement rates.

  • Time and pressure: When everyone is busy, operational listening is the first thing to get cut.

But perhaps the biggest barrier is assumption. Marketing assumes it knows the customer, because it once conducted research, built a persona, or ran a focus group. CX lives the customer reality every day. That misalignment is often invisible until something breaks.

What Happens When Marketing Does Listen

The upside to bridging this gap is huge. When Marketing and CX are aligned:

  • Messaging improves. It’s clearer, more authentic, and reflective of actual customer sentiment.

  • Campaigns perform better. Because they’re rooted in the truths customers are already living.

  • Retention improves. Marketing isn’t just driving acquisition, it’s reinforcing loyalty.

  • Teams collaborate. Shared goals create better internal culture and external consistency.

What to Do About It

Real alignment doesn’t happen from a single meeting or by sharing a dashboard. It requires intention and operational structure. Here are a few ways to start:

  1. Build a feedback loop
    Create a regular cadence for sharing customer insights between CX and Marketing. This could be a monthly insights sync or a shared Slack channel that flags key trends.

  2. Integrate customer data across systems
    Break the wall between CX tools (like Zendesk, HubSpot Service, etc.) and marketing platforms. Even qualitative insights can be gold.

  3. Map the full journey together
    Collaboratively map the buyer-to-customer journey. And update it quarterly. It’s not static.

  4. Review messaging quarterly
    Audit your marketing language and value props against real customer conversations. Do they still hold up?

  5. Give marketing a seat at CX reviews
    Invite marketing leads to support team meetings or ticket reviews. Better yet, have them listen in on live or recorded customer calls.

Final Thought: The Brands That Win Are Listening

In a noisy market, listening is your strategic advantage. It’s how you align teams, build trust, and create consistency across every customer touchpoint.

Because if you’re not listening, you’re not marketing. You're just broadcasting.

 

→ For a deeper dive, read our full Perspective: Marketing without Listening is Just Promotion

 

Feel free to share this with your social networks! 

Clint Allen