Idea Gathering: Customer Experience News: "Holistic"

The Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit provides both B2B and B2C case studies and translating these innovations and insights is a huge part of the value of the conference. Our unique idea gathering wrap-ups between sessions facilitate this translation and were one of our most highly rated features last year.

Here on the blog we're doing a regular series of idea gathering wrap ups, pulling together some of our favorite stories on customer experience, customer experience design, and overall customer-centricity.

One of the biggest terms that we keep seeing as we perform research for the event in June is "holistic." Organizations are increasingly interested in customer experience, but without a holistic solution that covers all aspects of customer experience, it will be difficult to increase long-term customer loyalty.

This recent post on "The Customer Experience Disconnect" highlights some of this data:

The Temkin Group found an "abundance of CX ambition and activity," with most companies employing a customer experience executive (six out of 10 companies), launching significant customer experience activities, and having a staff of six to eight full-time employees focused on customer experience and 28 percent employ more than 20 people in this area. However, the survey found that despite having these customer experience components in place, only 7 percent are "very strong" at customer experience today and 35 percent of companies are in the lowest stage of customer experience maturity. And 59 percent of the respondents state that their company's goal is to become the industry leader in customer experience within three years.

This week, let's look at some expert views on building a holistic customer experience program:

In this Fast Company 30 second MBA video, Motorola Solutions CTO Paul Steinberg explains how to solve problems before users know they have them. As he says "it's not about delivering quick fixes. It's really about delivering a holistic solution to a problem."


1to1media also wrote on "Taking a Holistic Approach to Building Customer Loyalty" this week, saying [customer experience] "initiatives tend to be owned by different departments, often siloed and disconnected from one another.

To realize the full potential of their loyalty endeavors, companies should link them to create one holistic program." One tip that they recommend: Using data to centralize loyalty efforts.

In this post on "Why Brands Need to Go Post-Mobile" Jonathan Gardner, Director of Communications, Vibrant recommends "thinking broadly about consumer perceptions of your product, and communicating about them in a holistic way." The impact of new technology can't be ignored, and it may even be a way to make messaging more holistic. As this piece says, "technology forces businesses to deal with the experiences of their customers."

Forbes also recommends that product marketers "make testing a key phase in their product life cycle." This could apply to anyone interested in the holistic experience: do a small roll-out, test and learn and listen. And ideally, be nimble enough to change.

Of course, as we covered before: creating a customer centric culture from the inside out is also part of the transformation. What would you recommend to those looking to unify their customer experience management for a more holistic view?

Share with us at Total Customer Experience Leader's summit this June in Boston, or Follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook to share with the TCEL family.