Are you experienced?

By Neil Davey, editor

In the last 18 months or so, any number of experts predicted that 2007 would be the year of customer experience management (CEM). The hype machine went into overdrive as CEM was paraded as the strategy to turn CRM’s promises into reality.

Fierce customer loyalty? Check. Positive word of mouth referrals? Of course! Lower customer service costs? You got it! All in all, CEM has captured the corporate imagination by tying superior customer profitability to customer experience.

To avoid ambiguity, ‘customer experience’ can be neatly summarised as "a blend of an organisation’s physical performance, the senses stimulated and emotions evoked, each intuitively measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact” (BeyondPhilosophy). And so the challenge for firms therefore – according to Peppers & Rogers – is “to provide each customer with a consistent and relevant experience that drives customer advocacy and profitability in a relationship of trust.”

But in the modern business landscape this is no mean feat. Today’s customers are more demanding than ever before and they regularly utilise multiple channels to interact with organisations. Indeed, multi-channel shoppers are now in the majority according to Forrester Research, with 51 percent of consumers classing themselves as active cross-channel shoppers.

Inconsistent and disconnected experiences across multiple channels can have a damaging impact on modern businesses; conversely consistent, positive experiences sow the seeds of enduring and profitable customer relationships.

Customer experience management has been heralded as the pathway to this promised land and it has built up quite a reputation. Whilst there are other hot topics companies are looking to get to grips with in customer management, customer experience management is the one that most requires asbestos gloves.

But is it struggling under the weight of expectation? Although there is no escaping the fact that the field is truly coming to the fore in 2007, it is also the year when the cold light of reality will shine on customer experience management as firms strive to make it work in practice.

As such, August sees us dissect this massive topic. Customer journeys will come under the microscope, both from a strategic and practical standpoint. We’ll also be studying the vastly important domain of online experiences, and discussing what the key customer experience considerations are when designing or redesigning a website. The burgeoning field of experiential marketing will also be tackled by our team, as well as the role that consumer psychology/emotion has to play in CEM.

First out of the blocks though is a strategic overview of this year’s hottest topic by Jennifer Kirkby in ‘Translating customer experience jargon into sense', whilst our resident IT expert Stuart Lauchlan turns his spotlight on related technology matters in ‘Designing the customer experience'. Whether 2007 proves to be the year of customer experience management or not, by the end of August you’ll be up to speed with CEM thanks to MyCustomer.com.

• Translating customer experience jargon into sense - by Jennifer Kirkby
  
• Designing the customer experience - by Stuart Lauchlan

This month's stories:

Customer journeys

Improving the customer experience through customer journey mapping

Customer journeys: mapping out the future

When customer journeys go wrong

Online experiences

How to create a great online customer experience

Usability’s invisible edge: offsite steps for online success

Are firms leaving customers stuck in the web?

Experiential marketing

What art thou experiential marketing?

Experiential: beyond mass marketing

Are these the greatest experiential marketing campaigns ever?

Consumer psychology and emotions

How to use emotions for profit

More than a feeling: measuring customer emotions

Delivering emotional satisfaction in the contact centre