Microsoft & Mars: Do Customer Experiences Outweigh Revenue & Profits?

Are customer experiences and trust more important than revenue growth and profits? According to a Microsoft blog post describing its expanded relationship with $40-billion global corporation Mars Inc., the answer is yes.

On my weekly Cloud Wars Top 10 rankings, Microsoft has been #1 for more than 2-1/2 years. On my new Industry Cloud Top 10 list, Microsoft is #6, but I expect it to move up by the end of the year.

As to the relative merits of trusted customer experiences and the traditional financial metrics of revenue and profit, here’s the sentence from a recent Microsoft blog post about the huge deal with Mars that grabbed my attention: 

This digital infrastructure is providing Mars with the business insights needed to accelerate growth, profitability, speed, resiliency, sustainability and, most importantly, build and develop trust with customers and consumers by offering more responsible, transparent and compelling experiences. 

It’s unmistakably clear that companies today are placing an enormous priority on gaining and holding the trust of their customers, and that one of the primary ways to achieve that is by delivering open and consistently great customer experiences.

Mars has been around for more than a century, it’s a globally recognized brand with $40 billion in annual revenue, and its initiative to become a “cloud-first” enterprise underscores its compelling vision for its future.

But I have to say that I’ve never seen a company put trust and customer experiences in such an exalted light. And I say good for Mars for doing that!

In this comment from the Mars’ chief digital officer Sandeep Dadlani, we can see a clear articulation of how a modern corporation—even one born more than a century ago—views its bond with its customers.

“Our relationship with Microsoft is helping transform how data and technology are used to continue ensuring compliant customer solutions and build trusted brand and consumer experiences,” Dadlani says in the blog post.

“It will change the relationship between our brands and consumers, deliver hyper-relevant consumer experiences that include content and media, and fulfill needs and expectations across every touchpoint in the consumer’s journey.” 

With such a vital mission in mind, Mars performed a rigorous review of cloud providers before selecting Microsoft, Dadlani said.

“After evaluating all the platforms on the market, we chose Microsoft as our primary Mars platform because of its rich portfolio of features, engineering partner ecosystem, talent availability, focus on data privacy, and security and similar cultural values and principles.”

We’ll keep an eye out for how other corporations are evaluating their cloud providers along the lines of customer experiences and trust. And if anyone has come across similar stories, please share them with me at bobevans@cloudwars.co.

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