Is Customer Experience Dying? The Three Pioneers of The Movement Debate

Back in 1994, Steve Jobs introduced a concept at an Apple conference: that the design of their products should begin at the desired Customer Experience and work backward from there. 

Not long after that, Joe Pine co-authored a book called The Experience Economy, that changed the way at looked at the future of business. 

In 2002, I began my global Customer Experience consultancy, Beyond Philosophy, a term a bandied about long before anyone even knew what it was. By 2005, I had undertaken research to determine the 20 emotions that drive or destroy value, to prove that incorporating customer emotions into experiences provides an ROI. 

Meanwhile, Lewis Carbone was championing Customer Experience and founding his consultancy and philosophy in ExpereinceEngineering™.

Now, 2021, Customer Experience as we know it is dying. 

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the concepts behind it live on and are developing into a new variant: Customer Science. 

In this episode, Pine, Carbone, and I discuss whether Customer Experience is dying and the future of experiences from our point of view. 

Key Ideas to Improve your Customer Experience

It is essential to explain that none of us think that putting the customer at the center of your experience at an organization is an idea that will never die. However, we all think that the original concept of Customer Experience from over 25 years ago has changed and morphed into new areas. What differentiated you at the turn of the 21st century and what does it today are two very different things. Perhaps, more importantly, we discuss what Customer Experience needs to be in the future and what Customer Experience champions can do to ensure that it happens. 

Here are a few key moments in our LinkedIn live discussion:

• 05:34   Colin explains why he thinks CX is dying as we know it and Pine weighs in, too.
• 13:56     Carbone explains why he thinks it is impossible for CX to die.    
• 25:05     Colin explains what he thinks the future of CX will be, Customer Science.   
• 40:47.    Pine shares what he thinks the future of CX will be, which is focusing on providing value to customers.    
• 42:42     Carbone explains what happened with Capital One as they moved from fixing what was broken to transformative experience that changed the way they do business.
• 46:29.   Pine explains how he thinks experiences can contribute to happiness, and how it isn’t about having more things to buy. 
• 49:18    Carbone explains how CX of the future can augment the voice of the customer with the mind of the customer.

 

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Customer Experience Information & Resources

LinkedIn recognizes Colin Shaw as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers.' As a result, he has 289,000 followers of his work. Shaw is Founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, which helps organizations unlock growth by discovering customers' hidden, unmet needs that drive value ($). The Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years. Follow Colin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University. 

Why Customers Buy: As an official "Influencer" on LinkedIn, Colin writes a regular newsletter on all things Customer Experience. Click here to join the other 22,000 subscribers. 

Experience Health Check: You already have an experience, even if you weren't deliberate about it. Our Experience Health Check can help you understand what you have today. Colin or one of our team can assess your digital or physical Customer Experience, interacting with your organization as a customer to define what is good and what needs improving. Then, they will provide a list of recommendations for critical next steps for your organization. Click here to learn more. 

How can we help?

Click here to learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services.