The level of connectedness today is unprecedented

•Today, over 2.4 billion people are online. 45% are in Asia.
•Experts predict that there will be more than 2.1 billion smartphones by 2015
•Twitter claims to have over 140 million active users.

And, with that connectedness comes power.

•70% of online consumers trust peer recommendations and trust what their peers say more than what businesses claim
•And the trend is not unique to consumers. 77% of business buyers check with their peers before buying

 This is Generation C: Connected and in control!!!

Here is how today’s customer behaves.

We know this – we all behave like this. We interact with many different channels and devices in order to make decisions and interact with the companies that we do business with.

generation c

And when we interact through all of these different channels, we expect that the business is thinking about experience – not just in a single channel at a point in time but holistically as we interact across the channels to complete whatever it is we are trying to do. We EXPECT that a site will be relevant if we get to the site from a banner ad or search term. We EXPECT that the profile we set up online is the same profile for the mobile application. And, we get a little annoyed when we have to repeat all of our information to the customer service representative after already entering it all through the phone keypad.

expection

However, the reality is that, most companies are extremely siloed. They often have different technology and data that is driving the customer experience. But, even worse, they often have entirely different objectives and are measured in inconsistent, or even competitive, ways.

reality

In four years between 2008 and 2012, the percentage of brands that were rated as having “excellent” customer experience plummeted from 11 to 3 percent.

Being able to use social and omni channel is the solution!  More on this next week!!!