A revolution is now underway, a shift in dynamic that has changed the consumer-business relationship forever. This "Customer Experience Revolution" is now the subject of a new book by Jeofrey Bean and Sean Van Tyne. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how businesses are evolving today.
A select group of extraordinary companies have shown us that great ideas, great products and services are not good enough. Not good enough for their customers, not good enough for their business, and not good enough for our future. These exceptional companies include Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks as well as lesser-known small smart businesses like Skinit, EMN8, and Square.
These “experience companies” and their people change lives, transform industries, and cause competitors to scramble to come up with mostly inadequate imitations. They do this purposely with positive and difficult-to-duplicate experiences for their current and future customers.
J.D. Power & Associates confirms our findings: “Delivering extraordinary customer experiences is becoming more and more important. We know from the data that people will pay for it.”
This customer experience revolution is taking place because of several factors including:
The need for companies to find new ways to be different and more valuable to customers
The expansion of the Internet and the mobile devices that access it, and the displacement of traditional ways of shopping
The rise of social interaction technology that allows individuals to instantaneously share their experiences with other people
These factors have changed the playing field. Now companies are not only being judged on their advertising messages (branding) or their interactions with customers (customer service, websites, smartphones, bricks-and-mortar stores) or even their special offers (customer loyalty). The new paradigm that encompasses it all is "customer experience."
Customer experience includes all the interactions people have with or about a company’s messages, processes, people, products or services. It includes:
How customers find out about a company (advertising, social media)
What other customers think about the company and their experience with it (social networking)
How companies present themselves (especially website presence)
How consumers interact with products the companies create (user experience)
All interaction points with the company before, during, and after becoming a customer (promises in messages, transactions, sales, returns, support)
Only if all of customer's interactions with a company are successful will that company prove to be a customer experience leader.
"The Customer Experience Revolution" will show you what the revolution is all about and why the leaders in this revolution are pushing their competitors aside and achieving remarkable financial results.
“The Customer Experience Revolution is a book that everyone who wants to succeed in business must read.”
—Todd Robinson, Founder and Former Chairman, LPL Financial
