Brian Solis's Blog, page 95

Customer Experience is the Sum of Emotional Reactions

 

As 2015 drew to a close, I flew to Düsseldorf from London to close out NEOCOM, an annual event for multichannel retail and commerce. There I spoke about “retail re-imagined,” redesigning the online and offline shopping experience based on the incredible technology and behavioral trends playing out now and over the next few years.

Following the event, I met with the NEOCOM team to shoot a short three-minute video that I would love for you to see.

Topics/Questions:

 

– Iteration vs. Iteration

– My message to German and retailers everywhere

– The most important homework retailers should do around CX

– The major differences between the German and American startup scenes

Connect with Brian on Social Media

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Experience is everything…my new book is finally available!

 

 

 

Top 10 Retail Banking Trends and Predictions for 2016

I’ve been spending an increasing amount of time studying the state and future of finance, banking and retail. Behind the scenes, I’ve spent time with several national and global finance companies/banks as well as several retailers all looking to understand the connected customer and their expectations and preferences when it comes to money, banking and shopping.

When Jim Marcus, co-publisher of The Financial Brand reached out to talk about the 2016 trends and predictions in retail banking, I was ready to jump in. He asked for two-to-three sentences but I was ready to write the entire article! The future of banking, finance and retail is so important that I’m presenting to and meeting with senior executives including CEOs in a few bleeding edge cases.

All in all, The Financial Brand organized expert commentary from 100 global financial service leaders into 10 categories…

— Top 10 Retail Banking Trends and Predictions for 2016 —

1. The ‘Platformification’ of Banking

2. Removing Friction from the Customer Journey

3. Making Big Data Actionable

4. Introduction of ‘Optichannel’ Delivery

5. Expansion of Digital Payments

6. Executing on Innovation

7. Exploring Advanced Technologies

8. Emergence of a New Breeds of Banks

9. Mining New Talent

10. Responding to Regulatory and Rate Changes

My contribution was tied to Trend No. 2, but my work in one way or another is distributed across the board.

“In 2016, and over the years to come, retail banking will lean on UX (user experience) to design more than a ‘mobile first’ experience. Experience architects will rethink what a bank is and what it means to digital-first and mobile-only customers, designing an entirely new set of products that will lead to new types of relationships. It’s innovation and disruption over iteration. The ‘uber of banking’ is imminent.”

Each of the 10 trends however are shaped to something more than technology, they’re affected by the evolution in customer behavior, expectations and values. They’re learning that services and products can come to them, that with each “swipe right,” they can simply find or get what they need in the moment, any moment, all on the small screen.

Yet, most companies, in almost every sector, are struggling with innovation and transformation because they can and cannot see the actual problems they’re trying to solve or the opportunities that will earn greater relevance in the future. From the products and services they offer, to the systems and processes they use and follow, to the philosophy of what customer-centricity actually means at a time when many executives can’t appreciate this new generation of connected consumers and employees, executives have to unlearn to learn. They do not live their businesses the way their customers do and there is no excuse for that heading into an experience economy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about 2016 trends and predictions…

Connect with Brian on Social Media

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Experience is everything…my new book is finally available!

Hello Flexon: I Can See Clearly Now the Strain is Gone

This is a personal story…

After a successful GDOL event in Istanbul a few years ago, my friends and I enjoyed cocktails overlooking the Bosphorus. I believe it was TechCrunch’s Mike Butcher who made a comment about an advertisement on a building across the water. I couldn’t read it at all but I could see that there was something there. I also remember questioning whether he could read it or if he was just playing around. So I borrowed his glasses and sure enough, I could actually read the message. I was blown away, suddenly feeling “old” but more so, questioning what I had been missing all this time. It was then that I realized that I would need to eventually wear glasses. It was just a matter of when.

That was 2012. And since then, I did nothing. Perhaps, it was just my way of avoiding the inevitable. To borrow from Thomas Jefferson with a bit of a modification, “ [Avoiding the inevitable or what’s necessary] is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”

Then a few weeks ago, out of nowhere, I met the team at Flexon, a brand developed in 1988 that makes innovative eyewear using a “memory” metal developed in the early 60s as part of scientific naval studies on missile heat shields. The special titanium composite used in Flexon frames is unlike other metals in that it’s much lighter and will “remember” and return to its original shape, even when bent.

I shared my story and admitted that I was stalling the unavoidable need to wear glasses. That’s when things took an interesting turn. I was offered a pair of Flexon frames from the brand’s new Pivotal Force collection to take for a test spin. If I wanted to identify objects farther away, why wouldn’t I see the benefit in this opportunity?

You Can’t See What You Can’t See

The next thing I knew, I was set up with an appointment at Dr. Gold and Associates, a VSP Premier Program provider in Sunnyvale, California. There I met Jessica, Rich and the team who were very flexible and welcoming. A few moments later, I was introduced to Dr. Gold, who led me through a series of high-tech tests that took all of a few minutes. And like that, he had an pretty close idea of my prescription range. Seriously, in this moment, I was wondering why it took me this long to get to this point. This was too fast and too easy. It was also eye-opening in that the simple tests I had to undergo next only made it that much more obvious that I had been missing out on an entirely new dimension or, should I say, depth of view.

Oh, my results revealed that I am nearsighted.

As Dr. Gold was entering the results of our test, he asked if I had any previous conditions or surgery in the past. I had forgotten to mention that when I was a child, I did in fact have surgery to correct Strabismus (aka lazy eye). I was so young, yet I remember it like yesterday. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to visit an eye doctor. I guess that’s for a psychiatrist to answer.

Will You Be A Part of Change Or A Victim Of It? An Interview with @TheYoungTurks

Right before everyone left for the Christmas/Holiday break, I flew down to Los Angeles to visit the The Young Turks studio. My good friend Francis Maxwell invited me to sit down with Cenk Uygar, host and co-founder of TYT to talk about the story of X and upcoming trends affecting business and society.

While we did talk about those things, we got there via a conversation I don’t usually have, which is the story of (me) and how I got to where I am today. Perhaps it was the location of the studio and its proximity to where I grew up that was interesting to Cenk. Maybe it was also the crazy indirect path over the years to my current work. To be honest, it’s a story I rarely get to tell.

If you have some time, please do watch as it’s a rare glimpse into my past. And, give it a “thumbs up” on Youtube and/or leave a comment there please. Appeasing the Youtube crowd isn’t easy!

TYT Interviews

Futurist and “X: The Experience When Business Meets Design” author Brian Solis sits down with The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur to talk about the past, present and future and how more and faster change is coming, and the only question is whether you’re going to be a part of that change or a victim of it.

Along the way, the two discuss how disruptive technologies and changing cultural standards will affect the news business, city planning, transportation and nearly every other aspect of how we live our lives.

Specifically, Uygur and Solis address:

– Why it’s not so terrible that people engage with their phones more than with one another face-to-face

– Why Apple, a company that never designed a remote control, will soon revolutionize what a remote control can do.

– How legacy-based decision making is killing both the taxi and TV news businesses

– Why Cenk says he’s more afraid of a random kid in Nebraska than all the cable news organizations in the world.

The Miss Universe Design Fail and the Importance of Design

A short story on the importance of design.

Following the Miss Universe debacle, conversations continue to focus on Steve Harvey and his incredible mistake announcing “Miss Colombia” as the winner, then correcting himself two minutes later, saying Miss Philippines was the rightful winner. Aside from whether or not beauty pageants should still be a thing and why was it that Steve Harvey missed a good portion of the rehearsal, I wanted to turn the spotlight over to the importance of design.

Shortly after the incident, I published my thoughts on the UI of the cue card with an alternative proposed by Steve Garfield. Interestingly, it lead to an interesting series of news articles. I’m sharing here to document the event and also open up the conversations to your thoughts on design in our work, business, etc.

The Miss Universe Design Fail

This isn’t Steve Harvey ’s fault alone. Design is often underestimated and underappreciated. I think about how design in everything we do can change the future of everything.

It just starts with a shift in perspective and the courage to stand up and exclaim that yesterday’s standards hold us back from imagining or re-imagining tomorrow’s possibilities. Just think about parking signs, airline tickets, and ketchup bottles!

Everything and everyone can benefit from experience design

Connect with Brian on Social Media

Twitter: @briansolis

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Experience is everything…my new book is finally available!

Disruption as an Ecosystem

I miss Paris. Just as I was thinking this, I discovered an interview I did with EuroNews while in Paris in 2014 for LeWeb. I watched it for the first time and immediately I was sent back to that moment, in a small media room a few floors above the conference. It’s a glimpse into hot new tech trends and a conversation into iterations, innovation and disruption based on my presentation at the event. We explore the differences with each, the promise of new technologies and the supporting ecosystems I hope to see emerge.

Curated Trends:

With the onslaught of IoT devices, Shared Economy services, and DIY systems, things are getting more chaotic for users. Brian’s session will focus on disruption as an ecosystem and explore how to apply a combination of systems and design thinking to build an integrated platform of solutions around your vision.

Connect with Brian on Social Media

Twitter: @briansolis

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Experience is everything…my new book is finally available!

Digital Transformation and the Questions I Never Hear

Following my presentation at LeWeb about the nuances between iteration, innovation and disruption (and the impact of each), I was invited to the business pavilion to share my views on digital transformation. The host for the conversation was my dear friend Benjamin Costantini. Before we could get settled, Ben brought a bottle of champagne on stage, two glasses, we toasted and the discussion started…on the right foot, or taste, I should say.

I know he knows my passion for champagne. But perhaps he did so to ease the array of questions aiming to dig deep into digital transformation, why it’s important and also the challenges people face as they pursue it. The first question he fired off was one that I rarely hear, and honestly, I wasn’t prepared for it…but that’s a good thing, “What are your views on digital transformation and what people never ask you.”

From there, the conversation focused on those struggling with bringing about change and what to do, not only then, but in the years ahead.

Oh, and about that bottle, we brought out extra glasses for people in the audience to enjoy along with us. Santé. Cheers. Here’s to you and all you will do in the future!

Connect with Brian on Social Media

Twitter: @briansolis

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Facebook: TheBrianSolis

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Youtube: BrianSolisTV

Experience is everything…my new book is finally available!

The A.R.T. of Engagement and the Gift of Attention

After I presented at the ClickZ Live event in Chicago, I went back stage to share highlights of my talk with those who couldn’t be there. Among the many different topics I speak about at conferences, ClickZ asked me to focus on the future of marketing.

At the time, I was still writing X and wanted to share complete concepts that served as its foundation. In this short 2 minute video, I share my ideas around experience architecture, the A.R.T. of engagement and the role of you and me in the future of marketing.

“Attention is a precious commodity. Once I have it, what do I want to do with it in a way where you and I feel better throughout the process.”

Connect with Brian on Social Media

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Experience is everything…

Speaking Topics for 2016: Business (R)evolution, Culture 2.0, Innovation, Experience, Digital, WTF

I’ve been speaking professionally for just over 10 years and I’ve learned many things along the way. One lesson though stands at the top, which is no matter how much I think I know, I must always keep learning.  Like everyone and everything, I must compete for relevance now and in the future by re-thinking and re-imagining my purpose and the value I hope offer others. So, once a year, I take time to reflect on what’s important and also what’s stirring ahead. This time of year is perfect to assess my platform for the year ahead and I wanted to share it with you here.

While I still talk about topics that helped get me to where I am today, I continue to add chapters to the portfolio of expertise. In fact, for those who don’t know, I have a new book out and it will be part of my program for years to come. This helps me think through topics that help those who work in event planning for conferences, meetings or festivals, those looking for speakers to engage executives employees or anyone seeking a fresh, human, and rousing voice to push people out of the comfort zones.

If you need a speaker or want to work with me, please contact me here.

Cheers!

Bio

Brian Solis is a leading digital analyst, anthropologist, and futurist. He studies disruptive technology and its impact on business and society. Through his reports, articles and books, he humanizes technology’s short and long-term effect to help see people and markets differently and understand what to do about it. Brian’s work covers topics including digital transformation, customer experience digital marketing, culture 2.0 and “the future of” industries, trends and behavior. His site, briansolis.com, is recognized as one of the top destinations for business leaders around the world. He actively contributes to AdAge, Wired and Forbes. And, he’s followed by over 500,000 people on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook.

His new book, X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, explores the importance of experiences and how to design them for customers, employees and human beings everywhere. Solis also designed the book to be an experience as a physical example of what’s possible when you take a step back to rethink products, services and models in a new economy (and world).

Topics
Business (R)evolution

Digital Darwinism: How incumbent companies are making mistakes that are sealing their fates and how to do to survive and thrive in an era of digital Darwinism.

Digital Transformation: The State and future of digital transformation and how it’s changing businesses at the very core.

Leadership Comes from The Top and Anywhere: Change agents and business mavericks and how they inspire change and what it takes to identify, empower and lead them.

Experience Design

From CX to DCX to X: How the digital customer experience is inspiring change for the entire customer experience.

Introducing Generation-C: Meet Generation C, your connected customer and why Millennials and kids aren’t the only customers changing the world.

Experience Design as the New Brand: An experience divide exists between your brand promise and what people experience and share. Learn how to create experiences that engender fans and builds wildly successful relationships throughout the customer lifecycle.

The Four Moments of Truth: How micro-moments are reshaping the new customer journey in each of the four moments of truth.

Mobile is Eating the World: In a world where customers in every industry want you to look and feel like their favorite apps, learn how to design customer experiences in a mobile first and mobile only world.

The Future of Retail/Shopping: Brian re-imagines the world of shopping, payments and retail/e-tail.

 Silicon Valley and Innovation

Silicon Valley and Future Technology: What is it about Silicon Valley that drives innovation and disruption, what’s the hot new tech and what’s the next big thing?!

The Rise of Corporate Innovation Centers: in Silicon Valley and around the world, businesses are opening up innovation centers. What can these efforts teach you about the future of business? Find out.

Culture Shift: Technology is impacting business and society. See the world through the eyes of your customers and employees to feel a little empathy to drive human-centered innovation and compete for relevance.

Act Like a Startup: Disruption can come from anywhere and it takes a new approach to compete against threats large and small. Here’s how to think and act like startups to innovate differently.

Culture 2.0

The Engagement Gap: Employee engagement and morale are at record lows. Get introduced to the engagement gap and take steps to boost happiness and productivity by engaging Millennials and all employees with a new philosophy and infrastructure for work.

Leadership vs. Management: Shifting from a rut of management to that of leadership. See examples of how executives learn how to lead in roles from the top to bottom to inspire a more passionate, loyal and profitable workforce.

Culture of Innovation: Learn about the 12 pillars of innovation and how companies are investing in new cultures to nurture innovation internally.

Humans Need Not Apply: Digital literacy is everything now. Executives don’t live life as their customers do. Workforces and intellectual capital are aging. New expertise is in demand. Learn how to identify and train/hire for the jobs of the future.

Digital/Omni/Mobile/Social Marketing

R.S.: The future of marketing is tied to a thoughtful approach of R.R.S. (Relevance. Resonance. Significance.). Develop marketing strategies and campaigns that matter in a real-time, always-on, mobile-first world.

Responsive Storytelling and Engagement: Social, mobile, real-time changed the game for marketing, advertising and content strategies. Learn how to think of marketing as “social objects” that talk to and through people, shifting from a world of impressions to expressions.

R.T. of Engagement: Marketing breaks down to actions, reactions and transaction. Design engaging marketing programs that handhold people through the funnel and the new customer journey.

Digital Influence and The New Influencer: From Twitter to Instagram to Youtube and everything in between, meet the new influencers and how to engage them.
Hey, Mr. Futurist, What’s The Future of…

– Business

– Retail and e-Commerce

– Marketing

– Music

– Consumerism

– Learning

– Finance

– Insurance

– Silicon Valley/Innovation

– Society

Connect with Brian on Social Media

Twitter: @briansolis

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LinkedIn: BrianSolis

Youtube: BrianSolisTV

Experience is everything…

Experience as a Competitive Advantage

There’s this wonderful magazine, yes a print magazine, in France called INfluencia. While it’s also equally lovely online, I thoroughly enjoy the intricate design work that goes into each page. When INfluencia reached out to talk about X and the future of experience design, I jumped at the chance. If you speak French, it’s online here. Below is the translated version if you prefer English.

INFluencia: Les start-up, l’avenir de l’expérience client ?

When I read the pitch of the book, that future of brand is tied to meaningful and shareable experiences, I’m tempted to say that there’s nothing new under the sun. You don’t think brands have already adjusted?

I suppose you’re right. Every brand believes in delivering meaningful and shareable experiences. After all, no executive has ever said that they don’t really care about customers.  Yet, some studies show that only 7% of companies are truly customer-centric.  However, if executives actively invested in experiences, then the entire state of business would be in a much better position.

Just spend time studying the disruptive forces that cause the Fortune 500 to turn over so dramatically over the years and you’ll see that in the end, the need to innovate and compete at new levels is accelerating.

More and more, incumbent businesses and even industries are being disrupted by startups around the world because, technology aside, they’re finding new ways to deliver products and services packaged as value-added experiences. These new companies are catering to a new generation of customers and building new businesses and technology models to do so. At the same time, they’re setting new standards for expectations, conditioning customers to think differently and thus forcing incumbent businesses to react and catch up….even though they may not actually do so from a truly customer-centric core.

Don’t you think that a service can be an experience?

Yes.

CX is heralded as the new competitive frontier, which means either you compete at the customer experience level or you compete for smaller and less significant market share. In fact, most customers (85%) have said that they would pay up to 25% more for a superior experience. That alone should serve as a catalyst to change. Businesses tend to think about CX though as improving technology and processes based on existing models for engagement. That’s partly true, although this is iteration rather than innovation at best. Disruption though must happen inside and out, starting with philosophy and perspective about what’s broken today and more so, what’s possible tomorrow.

Ultimately (and inevitably) companies need a new approach to customer experience to compete against outside disruption and evolving customer behaviors and expectations. But while technology is accelerating many changes, the core of the problems plaguing “service as an experience” isn’t new. Study after study find that customers (89%) will switch brands because of a negative customer experience. At the same time, only 37% of executives were motivated to start formal CX initiatives. That’s not all though. 95% of customers of taken action as a result of a bad experience. And, 79% have told others about their negative experiences.

Everything is different now. Your digital customers are accidental narcissists…and that’s a good thing. There’s no going back. Now in a connected society where people’s expectations are soaring, they’re far more connected and informed than any customer before them. Every app and digital channel they adopt teaches them that they’re the center of their own universe.

Companies that focus on a higher purpose historically outperform those that don’t. Customer experience and the services that define engagement in all moments of truth have demonstrated time and time again that they are the source of growth and loyalty.

What do you exactly call experience and I guess you also refer to the emerging trends of VR and AR?

VR and AR are technologies that introduce new channels and platforms for experiences. No matter how advanced or futuristic they are, innovation is only an enabler for delivering experiences (good, inconsequential or bad). Experience design takes vision and architecture to use technology, channels and all touch points as catalysts to deliver and reinforce desired experiences. These experiences can be designed as whole worlds or as part of thoughtful and connected ecosystems.

To the extent you know and care about people and their aspirations, challenges, and goals, you can be inspired to use VR/AR as well as traditional and emergent platforms for much more meaningful engagement.

What is an experience?

Before we get into tech, perhaps one place to start is define what an experience is and why it matters.

Quite simply, an experience is an emotion, observation or reaction. Experiences add up over time as a result of each engagement throughout the lifecycle, thus forming “the” experience. Customer experience isn’t just one thing. It’s everything.

Today, businesses are famously siloed as each group is responsible for a portion of the funnel. And, each operate independently of one another with different objectives, standards and metrics that often compete or distract from others leading customers toward a chaotic or confusing customer experience.

Before we can rethink channels or invest in new tech and touch points, businesses need to think holistically, aligning teams, work, and goals around a united experience. With experience architecture, groups have a standard toward which to collaborate. In the best examples, companies that invest in CX learn how to work differently with new models, processes, teams and supporting systems forming as a result.

Is experience a better tool for ad or marketing?

In an era of experience, one where how they are felt and shared, count for everything, experience is the new brand, the new marketing and the new catalyst for customer relationship management. If you think about it, that means that marketing plays a more important role than ever before. It’s no longer something to solely invest in for branding, top of the funnel or First Moment of Truth (FMOT) engagement. Experience architecture is now responsible for delivering, managing and strengthening the brand and the customer relationship in every moment of truth, throughout the customer lifecycle. From product design to advertising and marketing campaigns to sales to service and support through to loyalty and advocacy, experience design can unite, optimize and enhance every stage of the customer journey. By investing in experiences, businesses not only increase retention, but experiences that people have and share complement customer acquisition as well.

Experience is everything…

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