Vocus’ Erin Feldman published a fantastic summary of Brian Solis’ latest research report on digital transformation. The article, “Future Proof the Customer Experience: Tips from Brian Solis” shares a roadmap for strategists to take the right steps toward the future…today.

Excerpt…

Digital transformation is upon us, Brian Solis says, and it affects the way we behave and interact with the world. As businesses try to catch up with our ever-increasing digital behavior, they find themselves asking the question, “What would our digital customers do?”

Companies that anticipate the future of marketing and business don’t look at singular tactics like social media, mobile or big data when answering it. Those tactics may be needed, but they consider end goals and strategy first.

They examine the data to understand who their customers are and what they do followed by a consideration of how digital can help them find solutions for how to speak with today’s customer and push them toward making a purchase. Such companies view digital not as an end or of primary importance; they view it as fundamental to the way they do business and to building more meaningful customer experiences.

Solis offers five tips to companies wanting to future proof their customer experiences:

1. Have vision. Businesses have to be able to see what exists now as well as ponder the future.

2. Be a leader. Having vision isn’t enough. It takes leadership to make a vision a reality. While some visions come to fruition because of top-down change as in the case of Starbucks, it’s more likely that change will come from within the organization and from the bottom-up.

3. Shift your perspective on the customer experience. Businesses need to understand the current experience they provide to customers and envision what it could be if they embraced digital and used the tools at their disposal.

They also need to understand that the customer experience is both physical and digital and that it occurs at every stage of the buying path. In addition, they need to consider that the experience differs from person to person. The LEGOs store, for instance, develops customer experiences for the shoppers (parents) and the consumers (kids).

4. Develop a digital transformation team. Being a leader can be isolating, which is why businesses interested in the future need to encourage the people who have dreams and are taking action. They also need to foster support groups for their leaders; without that solidarity, they can lose hope and find their efforts defeated.

5. Recognize that the customer experience belongs to everyone. The customer experience doesn’t belong to marketing. It doesn’t belong to sales. It doesn’t belong to upper management. It belongs to everyone, and if businesses want to create a meaningful one, they will need to work together to create it.

Read the original article over at Vocus.