Every single experience - how and what people buy, how and where they work, and how they interact with others - has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and these new behaviors are here to stay.
In a recent survey, around 80% of consumers who increased their digital usage in a variety of channels during the pandemic expect to sustain these levels moving forward.
Curbside grocery pickup, virtual doctor visits and connecting with friends or colleagues via video chat are just three behaviors to see a popularity surge this year, but more broadly, an experience renaissance is underway, galvanizing companies to push beyond the basics of customer experience and instead organize the whole business around the delivery of exceptional experiences to stay competitive. The Business of Experience(BX) is not about a limited business function or confined to a single industry; it’s a fundamentally new way of working and a mindset shift that gives entire organizations a north star: creating experiences that make customers’ lives more meaningful and rewarding.
For startups and established businesses alike, this means a change in approach. Literally every industry is undergoing this shift in expectations, as consumers’ experiences in their personal lives color what they’d like to see in the workplace, and vice versa, largely driven by technology. In a recent survey, 77% of CEOs said their company will fundamentally change the way it engages and interacts with its customers. And, our research suggests that BX companies are more likely to grow their profitability year-on-year by six times the rate of their industry peers over one, three, five and seven years.
This spells opportunity for all businesses—whether just starting up or who’ve been in business for a while, whether they directly target consumers or work with other businesses, as experience is paramount for everyone. BX is a significant mindset shift, but companies that embrace this will not only be able to meet their customers’ needs and become an indispensable part of their lives, but also uncover new market opportunities and set themselves up for sustained growth, relevance and durability.
Each of these 4 practices helps businesses transition to becoming a Business of Experience:
1. Become customer-obsessed. Customer needs will likely continue to evolve, often unpredictably, beyond the fallout from the pandemic. Accordingly, companies should invest in ways to uncover customers’ unmet needs, big and small. Recent research found that leading companies are twice as likely as others (55% vs. 26%) to say they have the ability to translate customer data into actions. But many of these same leaders say there are limits to their data and what they can do as a result. That’s why it matters — to be truly customer obsessed, companies need better ways to dig deep and uncover these needs.
2. Make experience innovation an everyday habit. Our research shows that leading companies feel better prepared to take advantage of the opportunity to innovate at scale as they are more than twice as likely to have the agility to shift towards new models that deliver value and relevance to their customers versus their peers.
3. Expand the experience remit across their organization. Experience is everybody’s business. Every person and every part of the business should be interconnected and collaborative, functioning as one cohesive, customer-obsessed unit, with delivering the best customer experience as its north star. For startups, beginning with this in mind sets the stage for future growth.
4. Sync the tech, data and human agenda. Becoming a business of experience is not about investing more but investing differently. Leaders redirect data, tech and people to enable agility that continuously unlocks efficiencies that can be reinvested in new opportunities for performance and growth. Among leaders, 61% said their company has a clear view of which technology platforms they need to leverage to remain competitive and relevant to customers, compared with only 27% of their peers.
By focusing on BX, companies will become customer-obsessed, igniting growth, delivering for their customers, their businesses and their people.
Research shows the available market opportunity; BX provides a roadmap to success to sustain long-term growth.
Article written by Accenture Managing Director Jake Brody