Challenge

Consumer attention has become the most precious and evasive commodity in business sectors across the board. In light of this, Market Revolution and Trend Watching came together to organise their first event in Milan: “The Future of Customer Experience”, which was open to 100 managers & professionals that wanted to learn how to seize the attention of their customers.

Vision

Living in a state of constant distraction, today’s consumers are capable of processing the equivalent of 174 newspapers a day - 6 times our capacity just 30 years ago. Overwhelmingly exposed and consistently influenced, their needs, wants and expectations are formed by a paradoxical swirl of immensely complex and unforeseeably simple experiences. To help our audience orientate this transient state, we decided on creating for them an arsenal of actionable strategic tools to create future-proof customer experiences.

Process

In order to work succinctly with Trend Watching’s content, we conducted a brainstorm on how best to provide added value surrounding the theme. Once we had decided on focusing on a business perspective, we elaborated upon the areas where we saw the possibility of actionable change. In order to validate our initial hypotheses, we conducted a comprehensive research phase, following which we consolidated our findings and modified accordingly. The resulting product was our Future of Customer Experience Business ToolKit.

Result

Our ToolKit focused on 5 main business areas: Strategy, Technology, Design, Organizational Culture and People. Each of our hypotheses were elaborated upon through evocative and explanatory case studies and supported by a toolset of “Pro Tips”.

Strategy

Know your customer & build accordingly: Understand what your customer values from your offering. Define a vision that best serves that customer. Construct an experience that best fulfills your vision.

Pro Tip: Great customer experience ≠ Premium customer experience.

Technology

Wisely, you must use technology: Technology is deeply imbedded in everything we do. The challenge for today’s generation of businesses is to not abuse technological innovations, instead to leverage technology appropriately so as to best serve their customers.

Pro Tip: (1) Do not be fooled by the hype. (2) Sometimes, the best technology is that which goes unseen.

Design

Design for putting the user at the center: Is it trivial yet to say that what we buy is not the product, but rather the experience that it gives us? Design is more than a process of beautifying ugly things, but moreso an approach to create experiences that are meaningful to someone.

Pro Tip: Every now and then forget about your alibi as a manager and instead, live your brand’s experience in the shoes of your customer.

Organization Culture

Collaborative culture for optimal obsession: Break down the silos and reinforce by dispersing a culture of sharing and collaboration. In the end the only way to win is by creating an organization that is open, fast and rewarding.

Pro Tip: Customer experience is a team sport. Ask yourself, what is your role?

People

Integrate people with wildly heterogeneous competencies: We need to bring in competencies that will keep you in touch with the evolution of your customers. Open up to the “extremes”, so as to grasp the unexpected and delight your customers.

Pro Tip: (1) Hire boldly. (2) Look for people that challenge your view. (3) Meet the complexity of your customer with the competencies of your employees.

My Role

I worked on this project side by side my senior Stefano Daelli. Together, we conceptualised our ToolKit and made rough estimates at the hypotheses that we wanted to communicate. I then was put to work at developing the presentation itself, this involved generating cases, making drawing further conclusions and visualizing our concepts. On the day of the event itself, I facilitated small interactive experiences with the participants, which we conducted at various stages throughout the evening.

Achievements

The moment I was most proud of was seeing high level business exec’s taking photos of the slides that I had produced. It was great to work with Trend Watching, who’s work is a great inspiration to me. Additionally, to present in an important location such as Accenture’s ACIN was a great honor.