What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Braze is automation, as I have always been interested in automation. Braze was the tool we used to send customer lifecycle journeys, trigger and run one-off campaign sends, mostly for automation, segmentation, and all the different connected channels it offers.
What is most valuable?
I found the platform excellent for having unified customer profiles, which I believe is one of the biggest selling points of Braze because it allows you to know your customer in a single profile card. The ease with which you can add new attributes and events and neatly package values underneath is impressive. In banking, we pushed clients towards different types of banking rates and tiers, which has me always wanting to return, leading to a lot of qualifications and certificates because I enjoy the platform so much and want to engage with it further down my career.
Braze's best features, for me, are the unified profile cards, along with the ease of connecting different channels, including email as a focus, plus push notifications and extending that to things to in-app messages, content cards, and SMS. That connection is felt immediately upon onboarding with Braze, as the ease of use and the sophisticated UI design allows marketers or automation specialists such as me to do amazing things quickly and intuitively.
Braze's analytics side is another interesting part, as it allows you to slice campaigns and different tests that you were running very easily, unlike other platforms I have used, such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which often requires workarounds for information. With Braze, the friendly UI enables you to download large volumes of data about your customers and understand campaign performance and why people reacted as they did. Braze's campaign feature is also essential for experts using automation or large-scale segmentation, and the campaign execution side is very intuitive, allowing for slick A/B testing and accurate conversion goal setup.
What needs improvement?
I think Braze could probably be improved by having more access options for users who have previously engaged with the platform to keep them invested and wanting to return.
I do not have too much to comment at this point, as my last experience with Braze was purely positive. However, I think it would be great if Braze offered training, certificates, and module training accessible outside the gated community aspect, as I am very interested in new features and AI courses they are developing and want opportunities for warm and engaged Braze users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in my current field for ten years, mostly in various CRM-focused roles across financial services and financial trading, mainly for the past seven or eight years.
I have used Braze for approximately three years in different roles and experiences, and most recently, I was using it just last year at Monument Bank in the banking industry to develop strategies for bankers.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Overall, I think Braze handles data well, with instant connected data observed. There was a slight scaling issue during the initial onboarding of many clients, as some records might have been duplicated due to setup issues, but thereafter I did not notice any problems.
I encountered no noteworthy downtime with Braze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I found Braze's scalability easy to manage, as our user base grew steadily, and our initial deployment aimed to double that number within the first year of my time.
How are customer service and support?
Braze's customer support was helpful and responsive, always within twenty-four hours, often much quicker. They prioritized higher alert cases, and I experienced effective resolutions, such as when they built a complex landing page for us, which was incredible.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Salesforce Marketing Cloud, but I switched because it is a challenging platform for day-to-day users and those not as experienced in the field, leading many to make the switch to Braze.
How was the initial setup?
My last use of Braze was at my last company, where I was hired to migrate to the Braze platform and teach users across the business how to use it. The best impact we had was neatly designing how the banking product infrastructure should look within Braze, including different current accounts, saving accounts, and new products such as ISA accounts and different portfolios. We utilized customized attributes to accurately market products to clients, creating great opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling based on what properties we had in their profiles.
What about the implementation team?
During the migration, a lot of our data streamed from Salesforce Sales Cloud, which was a critical integration at the time. We also had plans to connect to a future data warehouse. Braze mostly hosted the analytics, and there were plans to connect it to Tableau, but I was not around long enough to see the future development.
What was our ROI?
Time saved is a key metric from using Braze, as I was at Monument for a short contract. They trained users quickly under tight time constraints, developing strategic plans to build client bases and convert customers. At the time I left, there were four active users organized into audience segments who could build campaigns, and the time saved was significant during my tenure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Overall, the pricing structure and licensing for Braze were positive, as it is cheaper than some competitors while providing greater value. There was some back and forth around legal sign-off regarding service cancellation, but getting information considered and corrected appeared straightforward.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
In my experience, I had considered other solutions such as Adobe, MoEngage, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud before choosing Braze.
What other advice do I have?
I believe Braze is compliant with regulations such as GDPR, as I remember many privacy questions were asked about PII data during the initial integration to ensure data privacy and protection. Access to personal details was limited, meaning only certain users could see names or emails for testing purposes, with protections in place for client data.
Braze's training programs on display are very intelligent, featuring a learning academy and online certificates I completed. I received feedback from other users that it was easy to pick up compared to Salesforce Marketing Cloud, even for those with less invested time, allowing them to design and create materials effectively.
I recall we ran initial tests on different cross-sell campaigns without a benchmark, as we had never cross-sold or up-sold before in client communications, and the instant conversion results were very promising. Although I was only there for the migration and for some training, the early signs showed we could accurately detail clients' products and banking tiers, pushing them towards more favorable rates to increase their lifetime value, especially around their banking rates' expiration.
I would recommend the Braze platform to other companies, as it seems particularly suited for financial services due to the smart nesting of attributes and customer data, so I am a big fan. I would give this platform a rating of nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other