Brands needs and requirements of their experience management programs have changed radically since SMG launched its first experience management solution in 1991. For context, that same year saw the advent of the world wide web, the GSM mobile network, and the first PowerBook from Apple.
We’ve always understood the connection between good employee experiences and good customer experiences. And we’ve always helped brands turn feedback into action. More recently, we saw an opportunity to create more impactful programs for our clients by asking the question, “What could brands accomplish if we helped them design quality experiences from the start, unifying brand, customer, and employee experience?”
What kind of data infrastructure would we need to support that connection? What kind of tools would clients need?
Our answer? Ignite.
First, what is Ignite?
Ignite is our purpose-built, AI-native platform for Unified Experience Management® (UXM). It delivers deeper, faster insights that brands need to grow in today’s hyper-competitive, rapidly changing world.
Ignite provides a modernized approach with:
- A unified data model, natively built to store, access, and easily retrieve data sets across brand experience (BX), customer experience (CX), and employee experience (EX) programs.
- High-performance computational power for unlimited data ingestion and processing.
- Agent workflows powered by AI and machine learning that are context-sensitive and secure, developed through the lens of our decades of in-depth experience management (XM) expertise.
- Seamless integrations with enterprise systems, making insights instantly actionable.
Here are the five big reasons why we built it.
1. The world has changed—so we did too
Over the past 30+ years, SMG has helped the world’s leading brands make smarter decisions through insights that drive real results.
We’ve seen a great deal of change in that time. The types of data, and the amount, have grown exponentially. Brands want answers earlier and faster. AI tools are prevalent, and they require consistent data to be accurate. We needed new tools to carry our clients into the future.
We spent the last year rearchitecting our underlying systems—moving to a modern, scalable platform that enables brands to move faster, dig deeper, and deliver more value than ever before.
2. Data has exploded, and it’s only getting more complex
For a long time, brands relied on two main sources of experience data: structured surveys delivered via mail or telephone. That has expanded into email, text and in-app or on-site surveys. There are also now feedback buttons, online suggestion boxes, and third-party reviews that can include photos. Video and audio feedback are becoming prevalent.
Today’s brands need to make sense of survey responses, open-text feedback, photos, videos, audio and more. Data sources include different operational systems and cross different platforms. This all creates more complexity than ever.
Ignite gives brands the infrastructure needed to consume, understand, and act on all that data. Its flexible, enterprise-grade data model ingests, processes, and connects complex data types—giving brands a complete, consistent view across their entire experience ecosystem.
3. AI is only as good as its foundation
AI is transforming how brands understand and act on experience data, but it has specific needs to be effective. We purpose-built Ignite to handle those requirements.
To be accurate and trustworthy, AI requires clean, consistent data that can be sorted, compared, contrasted, and summarized, regardless of the format or type of feedback. It requires massive computing power to reference the data and perform complex calculations and analysis. And it requires smart models trained on real industry context.
When these requirements are met, AI equips brands to achieve new levels of impact. It can process and interpret the unstructured data that comes in through comment boxes, social reviews, and elsewhere. It can identify sentiments, key topics, and emotional cues. It can detect patterns and anomalies. It can make predictions and provide recommended actions. It can do this all significantly faster than the human brain can process.
With Ignite, brands can do all the above, with confidence. We took our 30+ years of experience management consulting and embedded it into our AI infrastructure. Our AI agents don’t just crunch numbers—they understand experience management.
4. It gives our clients more analytical power than ever before
With Ignite, brands don’t just get data analysis. They get access to tools anyone can use to access insights and recommendations at any time. We call this “data science you can see.”
AI agents translate complex data into plain-language summaries, actionable alerts and visualizations, and recommendations. The platform empowers every team—from executives to frontline staff—to access the insights they need, when they need them.
SMG is launching a robust portfolio of agents that puts more and more tools in clients’ hands, starting with our launch of Knowledge Agent. Built-in AI tools and predictive insights will help users identify what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what to do next. Organizations will be equipped to go from insight to action in seconds.
5. UXM isn’t possible without it
Brands can increase the impact of their experience management programs by connecting brand, customer, and employee feedback into one holistic strategy. This ensures your experiences are living up to your brand goals and employees are able to and invested in delivering your brand promise.
Unified Experience Management (UXM) brings together brand, customer, and employee feedback into one comprehensive strategy. That’s not possible with siloed systems or bolted-on tools. It requires data standardization across all three programs, and the ability to link the effects of one program on another.
Ignite powers UXM. It integrates every touchpoint, every signal, and every stakeholder—so your entire business can align around experience and drive real, measurable outcomes.
The bottom line
Brands today need more intelligence, speed, and scale. They have exponentially more data at their fingertips, but less time to understand and act on that data. They need to bridge the silos of their experience management data to get complete, real-time visibility across every touchpoint that matters. They need a unified approach built on a trustworthy foundation that equips them with the tools to excel.
Ignite makes that possible. And it’s only the beginning.
See how Ignite can elevate your experience strategy—visit smg.com/contact-us.
