Changing the game:

The new rules of Customer Experience in the 'Intelligent Experience Economy'

The ‘Intelligent Experience Economy’ will force organisations to reimagine the customer experience.

A new era of customer experience ('CX') has arrived. We call it the 'Intelligent Experience Economy'. In the 'Intelligent Experience Economy', the combined impact of mobility, AI, and the Cloud will enable organisations to completely reimagine the relationship between brands and consumers. This goes beyond convenient and accessible experiences to interactions that are radically more valuable to the customer. This new era will be defined not only by the valuable experiences that organisations will create, but also by the speed in which these experiences will be delivered to the market.

In late 2016, PwC commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the state of global CX today and the capabilities required to reimagine and execute the customer experience of the future. In-depth surveys and interviews with 507 global C-suite executives responsible for CX strategy were conducted. Our findings suggest that organisations need to make big changes to thrive in this new reality.

We have long talked about CX being a source of sustainable competitive advantage. CCO's already know this, with 75% telling us that CX is very important to delivering their organisation's overall strategy. Whilst we think organisations 'nod their head' to the notion of customer-centricity, not many have built and embedded the underlying capabilities needed to execute their customer vision. When it comes to CX, talk is cheap - organisations need to take the next step and turn the rhetoric into experiences that customers actually value. However, with almost one third of organisations having no clear roadmap for their CX vision, the question is 'how'?

Our report identifies five rules organisations can follow to reimagine the customer experience in the 'Intelligent Experience Economy'.

These rules are the revolutionary action that organisations need to take if they want to be successful in this new era.

A closer examination of where organisations are today raises serious questions about their ability to reach their ambitious CX goals in the next few years. Our report found that almost 1/3 of respondents say that their organisation lacks a roadmap to their future state and that 26% say they do not have executive buy-in for their vision.

Without a clear roadmap and executive buy-in, it will be nearly impossible to create the real, transformative CX change needed to keep pace with competitors and rising customer expectations.

1. Make the customer journey your new value chain

It’s one thing to know your customer journey. It’s quite another to fundamentally reshape your organisation around it. However that is exactly what is needed to turn the customer journey map from a pretty picture on the wall to a roadmap for CX change. Leading CX organisations are not just investing in creating their enterprise wide-customer journey, they are taking the next step and reorganising their operating model and ways of working around it. Some effective examples of this approach include executive ownership of the customer journey and forming cross-functional teams around journey stages.

2. Embed AI in the customer experience

Our research confirms that businesses understand the critical and still growing importance of ‘big data’ and analytics. However, having an Analytics function with ‘insight’ capabilities is no longer enough to get a seat at the table in the ‘Intelligent Experience Economy’. AI powered by analytics is now required to take customer insights and embed them in the experience. Too many businesses still think AI is ‘on the horizon’. The best CCOs know that AI is here and are adapting by embedding AI as a core competency and creating new roles such as ‘analytics experience architects’.

3. Connect customer experience measurement to real value

Customer metrics are now commonplace in businesses almost everywhere. Of course the metric is important, but too many organisations see it as the end point instead of the starting point. The challenge for CX-leading organisations is to reject ‘fluffy’ CX metrics and actually tie their customer strategy to tangible business value. The best in CX are measuring the journey holistically (rather than just a ‘touchpoint view’) and measuring CVP economic measurement to inform what parts of the journey they should invest in, what investment they should stop and how they can engage partners to help them improve CX efficiently.

4. Let the CCO drive customer experience change

The ‘Intelligence Experience Economy’ is challenging CCOs to not only consider the seismic market forces that they need to face, but to consider the type of role they need to play within their organisations. The CCO can no longer be just a ‘customer evangelist’ or an NPS ‘measurer-in-chief’, they must be responsible for actually delivering the CX. The best CCOs are now mobilising cross-functional teams to execute CX delivery and are aligning the strategic priorities of the business around a consistent and unified customer lens.

5. Ignite the core

Your business has an innovation lab? That’s great, but how will the frontline turn that innovative thinking into real customer value? Successful CX transformation requires the core to be ignited around the customer vision. Each employee must intimately understand how their role impacts the experience of the customer, from back-office staff to the frontline of customer service. They also need to be equipped with the right skills and capabilities to bring the vision to life, including design thinking and agile ‘test and learn’ methodologies.