The one thing about CRM is that it often has very little to do with “customers” or “relationships” and more to do with the “management” of dated perspectives, systems and processes. So many executives these days are chasing technology and recruiting new expertise to track customers, analyze their data, map journeys and push the most relevant content, messages, promo on the right device at the right time. You’re probably asking, “what’s wrong with that?” In many ways, it is exactly the…
The Key to Creativity and Innovation is Empathy
Growing up in Los Angeles and living in Silicon Valley for 20-plus years has plugged me into a unique network of creativity and innovation. Although many would say that I technically live in a bubble, I have practiced the art of participation and observation to earn a balanced perspective when it comes to ideation and design. While I am surrounded by some of the most amazing minds, I am also inspired by those shaping innovation hubs. If it’s one thing I’ve learned,…
Digital Darwinism: Evolve with Your Customers or Regress Toward Irrelevance
I recently had the pleasure of speaking at Unite host by Satmetrix in New Orleans. Customer experience, IT and management executives from around the world met in the “Big Easy” to learn from one another, share experiences and envision a new future for customer engagement. Prior to the event, I met with the Satmetrix team to discuss my presentation so that we could share the message for those that could not be there live. The conversation was summarized over at…
What is Influence 2.0 and why is it important in the future of CX?
Before social media, before modern digital marketing and before DCX and digital transformation, I spent much of the late 90s and early 2000s studying and experimenting with online influence. In February of 1999, I opened a lab to test and learn and in the process, was one of the many contributors to shape the future of digital marketing and customer engagement. Shortly after joining Altimeter Group in 2012, I shared all of the research I had collected and more and published…
The Definition of Digital Transformation
The definition of digital transformation is… 2019: Digital transformation is the evolving pursuit of innovative and agile business and operational models — fueled by evolving technologies, processes, analytics, and talent — to create new value and experiences for customers, employees, and stakeholders. 2014 – 2019: The realignment of, or new investment in, technology, business models, and processes to drive new value for customers and employees and more effectively compete in an ever-changing digital economy. This is how I define digital…
Experiences Become Brands and Great Brands Become Experiences
These days, it seems that I travel to events overseas more than in the United States. While many companies around the world believe they are behind U.S. companies, I can say that from first hand experience, any company pursuing the future of customer experience, innovation, and brand is ahead of the game…regardless of where it’s based. When I receive an invitation to present, it exemplifies, at least to me, that those attending the event are keen on learning about how to…
This is a Time for New Leadership – Building Bridges Between People Who Think Differently
At the end or beginning of each year, smart folks ask other smart folks to contribute their thoughts about the year ahead. Then everyone promotes their participation and the host benefits from a landslide of new traffic and followers. I usually don’t participate. But my friend Tom Goodwin had a different take on the assemblage idea. He asked, “what’s the one thing you learned in 2016?” He had me at “learned.” The post is now live at Forbes but I wanted to…
Experiences are The Core Pillars of Any Brand.
This is for my Danish friends and anyone who believes that the future of business lies in experience design. Via Markedsføringdagen, I juni 2016 havde Dansk Markedsføring besøg af Brian Solis fra Altimeter ved markedsføringsdagen. Vi fik lejlighed til at tale både med ham og med deltagere, som havde fornøjelsen af at høre ham på dagen I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately in Copenhagen. To be honest, I already miss it. There are three recurring topics that…
Sharing a Personal Story – A Rare Glimpse into What Inspires Me and How I Got Here
Believe it or not, I’m a private person. I know it seems ironic. After all, I was one of the early group that worked to bring social media to the forefront in the early 2000s. But, I still tend to not share personal information online. I do however, share my work freely with everyone in the hopes of creating a community of betterment in business, government and society. There are rare occasions however when I do open up to share stories that…
4 Keys to Designing New Customer Experiences
On a cold and rainy day in Minneapolis before year’s end, I joined my Prophet colleagues at Le Meridien Chambers where we hosted a breakfast of brand champions. It was the second time this year that I was invited to speak to some of the city’s (and the country’s) most prominent companies and this time I had even more new research and ideas to share. During the two hours that we were together, I presented findings from “The 6 Stages of Digital…
