Interesting presentation by James McCormick, Principal Analyst at Forrester.

The ways customers interact with product and service providers is proliferating at an unceasing pace with increasingly complex digital websites accessbile from multiple devices and the number of digital touchpoints increasing exponentially.

Companies are capturing every piece of data without any plan for what they will do with the data. Hopefully strategy number one will be optimizing the user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX). If you don't have any users or customers, you're not going to be around long enough for it to matter.

This is true whether you're selling B2C or B2B products or services. B2B customers now expect the same level of service and UX as they receive from their personal sites and apps. As such, B2C and B2B has merged into P2P.

We are in the age of the customer and the customer is empowered by digital. As such, everyone needs to think digital first and customer first when developing apps, websites, products, and services.

The opportunity to understand customers is exploding but few companies are taking advantage of the signals customers and prospects are sending. CRM databases are woefully undermanaged. There's little to no integration of social data with CRM data. The opportunity to deliver personalized, relevant content is being missed, as is the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with customers that enhances engagement.

Most companies are taking a siloed, rear-view mirror approach to customers making them reactive versus proactive. The opportunities for companies to use customer data to make customers' lives simpler and easier are myriad.

• Who's going to do it?

• Who's listening to customers and really getting to know their needs and wants?

• What does "success" look like to your customer at each digital touchpoint?

• How do you know, have you asked them?

Digital performance -> customer experience -> customer relationships. 

Forrester looked at the correlation between CX and revenue in seven U.S. industries between 2010 and 2014. Here's what they found:

• On average, the eight CX leaders in each industry had compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of 15% while CX laggards grew at an average rate of 2.5%.

• CX leaders grew revenue at 3X the rate of CX laggards.

• Superior CX drives greater loyalty and purchase intent.

• Companies with superior CX can charge more for their products and services.

Companies do not have to wonder about the ROI of their investment in big data. Improving CX improves customer loyalty and revenue. Do companies have what it takes to analyze the data and begin providing a differentiated, customized, and optimized CX?

We have the opportunity to learn from every moment the customer shares with us and evolve by continuously optimizing interactions, data collection, customer lifecycle, and data use.

Multiple technologies are needed to deliver an outstanding CX; however, they are available if you make digital intelligence a corporate strategy, remain agile and interate.

Are you and your company committed to providing a consistently outstanding UX and CX?

If not you, who in your industry will take the lead and the majority of customers?