You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.

—Albert Camus

Many strategists realize that the world is only becoming more connected, not less. Yet many executives still wonder when all of these crazy texting, selfie-taking, snapchatting, lunch-tweeting shenanigans are going to finally fizzle out. I don't know about you, but I'm already dusting off my rotary phone and digging out my floppy disk collection just in case we do decide to go backward.

Not really.

You get it. I get it. Do we really need yet another pep rally to celebrate our like-minded perspectives and passion to bring about change? Yes. In fact, we need to ready ourselves to march the significance of the changing customer right on up to the C-suite to drive home the importance of customer-centricity not only for the benefit of people but also for the future of our business as well as our place in the market.

See, customers in all of their connected glory are evolving with or without us. At the same time there's a mind-boggling lack of urgency and a resulting sparsity of support, resources, and budget to understand and engage this rising connected customer.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a customer experience (CX) imperative. But before we go any further, I must press pause for a moment to share something stark yet common-sensical: technology alone isn't the answer. That's right. Even though we're faced with radical changes in customer behaviors, expectations, and preferences as a result of technology, to lead the next generation of customer experience does not begin with technology. It starts with people.

Therefore, the opportunity for customer experience requires elevated discussions where organizations assess current experiences against a vision for what they can and should be. For example, is today's customer experience a by-product of our brand promise? Do we deliver against our stated intentions, and is that experience reinforced at every touch point?

Approaching customer experience in this fashion takes what is typically today a bottom-up approach and shifts decision making to a top-down model. And we all know that true transformation comes from the top. The difference, though, is that implementing customer experience initiatives with both top-down and bottom-up strategies sets the foundation on which customer-centricity can build and flourish. One is directional, the North Star if you will, where customer experience initiatives map against a vision for how brand promises are enlivened and reinforced before, during, and after transactions. It sets the standard for investments in technology, engagement, insights, and pilots. It also sets the standard to follow and the benchmark to measure against for all those who are responsible for the experience, wherever and whenever it's formed or affected.

The result is a brand promise that's measured by the experience that customers have and share. It ladders up the importance of customer experience, transcending it from a functional role to that of an enterprise-wide philosophy.

Good intentions are just the beginning, but they are not enough.

Let's assume that businesses, for the most part, want to do the right thing. After all, they're making increasing investments in customer relationship management (CRM), social, mobile, digital, etc. With spending comes sincerity and intention, right? After all my years of advising executives and researching the evolution of markets, I can honestly say that executives seem to care. I can't say that I've ever heard anything from executives indicating any intention of dethroning the customer as king.

I can't imagine sitting in a boardroom and hearing leadership reveal a new direction of anti-customer-centricity: “Team, we just don't care about our customers. And to be honest, we couldn't care less about their experience. We believe this to be a shorter, sweeter path to profitability and earn-outs.”

Depending on which definition you align with, customer experience is often characterized by the perception a customer has after engaging with a company, brand, product, or service.¹

If customer experience is a critical pillar to build relationships and business outcomes, why is it that we are still fighting the good fight? If so many executives agree that the future of business lies in customer experience, why are we spending this time together right now? What's the point? The answer is that there's a disconnect. The link between aspiration and intention is separated by vision and action.

To my surprise (well, not really), a recent study² found that only 37 percent of executives are actually beginning to move forward with a formal customer experience initiative. Considering that businesses race along with the speed and agility of a cinder block, I'm sure that even this initial group of leading businesses will not make significant progress to establish a competitive edge any day soon. But some companies will aggressively invest in CX and innovation in products, processes, and services, and that will set the stage for disruption.

Why?

The customer landscape is shifting. It always does. This time, however, the door to digital Darwinism has been kicked off its hinges. Technology and society are evolving faster than the ability to adapt. Consumers are becoming more connected. As such, they're more informed. With information comes empowerment. And with newfound connectedness and power, customer expectations begin to shatter current sales, marketing, and support models.

Social, mobile, and real-time connectivity each contribute to a new reality for customer experiences and engagement. This isn't news. In the previously referenced study, researchers found that 81 percent of executives agree that social media is critical for success, yet 35 percent don't support social media for sales or service.

Businesses either adapt or die. Ignoring this fact hastens digital Darwinism. Jumping in without understanding or intention is a moon shot without aiming for the moon.

This isn't just a channel strategy.

This isn't just a technology play.

This is a shift toward a new movement where customer experience now screams for us to “Create experiences!”

Indeed, customer experience happens with or without you.

The customer experience imperative needs you to make the business case.

In your organization, people are talking about customer experience right now. But for some reason it's just not a priority. Actions don't reflect promises. In CX, you must create a sense of urgency to accelerate to match or outpace the speed of market transformation. Without doing so, a sense of urgency will be created from the outside in.

It's not just about the customers you have today; those who are not already your customers represent your future growth.

Connect will help you get ahead in the new marketing revolution. Even though your customers are in control, you don't have to react to them. Lead them. In doing so, you'll learn to transform your customers' experiences, create lifetime connections with your customers, and jump ahead of your competitors.

When you take a new approach to engagement, customers feel the difference, and you feel the difference.

Nothing begins without you…and that is why you are the hero and this is your journey. The future of digital marketing and customer experience is in your hands. Feel it. Design it. Advance it.

If you don't lead it, who will?

Brian Solis
Digital analyst and anthropologist, and
author of the best sellers, What's the Future of Business? (WTF)
and The End of Business as Usual