Chapter 14

195

C h a p t e r

14 Improving the Customer Experience: An IT Perspective

It used to be so simple. Customers “experienced” a company through its products or services. Brand managers handled the products and customer service handled any problems with services. Products were bought in only one or two ways and services were developed accordingly. Thus, a store was the sole channel for retail products, while the agent was the sole channel for insurance products and so on. Today, of course, we live in a very different world of multichannel access, thanks to a plethora of new Web-based computing devices. Now, we can find products and services anywhere in the world, undertake transactions 24 × 7 from almost anywhere with our mobile devices, and compare and contrast our perceptions, feel- ings, and quality of interactions with others through new forms of social media. As a result, an increasing number of businesses are looking to differentiate them- selves not just on products or services but also on a superior customer experience (Thompson 2011).

However, recognizing the need and delivering an outstanding customer experience are two different matters. While all organizations give their customers an “experience”—either positive or negative—few as yet have committed the time and resources to analyze, manage, and improve it on an ongoing and holistic basis (Davies and Thompson 2009). So where does IT fit into this mix? As with so much else, infor- mation technology is essential to the solution but not the whole answer. There are many stakeholders, technologies, and even strategies involved and no one “silver bullet” (Thompson 2011). And yet “it is clear now that technology will be playing an increasingly important role in delivering positive customer experiences and, when implemented poorly, can destroy them” (Thompson 2011). A key challenge is delivering a consistent experience across all channels, but technology is also important for improv- ing both front office and online knowledge management, and listening and respond- ing to customers after interactions are completed. As well, in order to address these matters, there is considerable foundational work that needs to be undertaken by IT, such as integrating all information about a customer, analyzing the different processes

196 Section III • IT-Enabled Innovation

involved in dealing with customers, and even coming up with a clear definition of what the customer experience is1 (Thompson and Herschel 2009).

This chapter explores the IT function’s role in creating and improving an organi- zation’s customer experiences. It first examines the nature of “customer experience”— both its business value and its many dimensions. Then it describes the role technology plays in creating experiences for customers and helping companies understand their customers’ experiences. Finally, it looks at the foundational elements an IT organization must put in place in order to be able to support and deliver enterprise–customer expe- rience initiatives and describes some of the advice our focus group managers had for others trying to improve their customers’ experience with IT.

Customer experienCe and Business value

Improving their customers’ experience was the top strategic priority for many members of the focus group and an extremely high priority for all the others. One global study of CEOs found that 88 percent of all CEOs selected “getting closer to the customer” as the most important dimension of realizing their business strategy over the next five years. It noted that

Customers encountering new products, services and experiences . . . are growing less loyal to their brands . . . Reputations can be built and burned by opinions shared online, “texted” or “tweeted” by friends, bloggers and advocacy groups. CEOs told us they need to re-ignite customer interest and loyalty or risk losing ground to competitors. (Korsten 2011)

There are many good business reasons for this strong interest in creating a posi- tive customer experience. First and foremost, studies show that a consistent and excel- lent customer experience positively impacts an organization’s bottom line. One found that strong returns on investment of up to 50 percent are related to initiatives designed to improve customer experience (Dardan et al. 2007). Profit and growth are primarily stimulated by customer loyalty, which in turn is stimulated by customer satisfaction, which is driven by positive customer experiences with an organization and its brands and services (Thompson and Herschel 2009).

Conversely, today’s customers are more willing to complain, switch brands, and tell others about it (Thompson and Davies 2011). “In our competitive world, customer acquisition is expensive, so we want to retain them once we get them,” said a focus group manager. For example, 59 percent of customers will stop doing business with a brand after just one bad experience in just one channel (Gagnon et al. 2005). On the other hand, 82 percent of consumers will recommend a brand to friends and family if they have a satisfying experience with it (Kioa and Zapf 2002).

Second, customer experience can also be a strong company differentiator—both positive and negative—thereby directly affecting sales. For example, Apple’s consistent ability to delight its customers and make their experience with its products enjoyable

1 Voice of the Customer, Customer Relationship Management, Master Data Management, Customer Experience Management and multichannel distribution are all interrelated aspects of this concept.

Chapter 14 • Improving the Customer Experience: An IT Perspective 197

illustrates that how a product or service is provided is as important as what is provided (Meyer and Schwager 2007). In fact, an excellent customer experience is one of the most sustainable forms of business differentiation (Thompson 2011). In contrast, poor quality experiences can humiliate an organization and damage its credibility and stock prices, and lead to customer determination to do business elsewhere (Meyer and Schwager 2007).

Efforts to improve customers’ experience can also result in a number of other less well-known benefits to an organization, such as improved customer data qual- ity, reduced operations and service costs, more effective brand launches, and better segmentation and marketing (Sarner and Davies 2011). While customer experience projects typically look at customer-facing applications, there are other less obvious impacts on customers from back-end processes, such as billing and logistics (Thompson and Davies 2011). One focus group manager found that her company’s invoicing prac- tices not only had the largest impact on customer experience but also a very strong potential to dissatisfy. Poor customer service at the end of the sales cycle in particular can have a strong negative impact on customer experience as anyone who has been trapped in “voice mail hell” or stuck on hold can attest (Alcock and Millard 2007). And good customer service that enables customers to solve their problems with a minimum amount of time and interaction can both save the company money and dramatically improve customer satisfaction (Hopkins 2010; Jacobs 2011).

In short, today’s customers have growing expectations of the organizations they deal with. They don’t want to waste time; want better options; and want their relationship with an organization to be recognized and respected (Hopkins 2010). The gap between their expectations and their experience spells the difference between an organization’s ability to delight them or to repel them and will directly affect a firm’s competitive advantage. Unfortunately, this gap is only too apparent in most modern organizations. While 8 percent of customers described their experiences with organiza- tions as superior, 80 percent of companies believe that they provide superior service (Meyer and Schwager 2007). Focus group members agreed that their companies had not focused on creating a good customer experience in the past. “We are gradually changing our behaviour to ask what we can do to become more customer-centric,” said one manager. “We are recognizing that while our vision for the type of customer relationships we want is strong, we need to do a much better job in delivering on projects that will build them,” said another.

many dimensions of Customer experienCe

“Customer experience” is a multidimensional concept that is often misunderstood or poorly defined by organizations (Thompson and Herschel 2009). For example, many organizations do not distinguish between surveys that measure satisfaction with a particular experience or at a point in time and customer experience, which is a more comprehensive, holistic, and continuous accumulation of a variety of experiences with all aspects of an organization (Meyer and Schwager 2007). As a focus group manager explained, “We are beginning to recognize that we must understand all our customers’ needs and experiences across many dimensions such as price, personal interaction, pro- motions, products, processes, and place.”

Customer experience is thus not just customer service or customer relationship management, although these are key components of it. Nor is it derived from a single

198 Section III • IT-Enabled Innovation

interaction or channel. It also varies according to the type of customer involved because experiences are both rational and emotional (Davies and Thompson 2009). Altogether, it encompasses customer touch points from every part of an organization, across multiple channels and departments, and the full sales cycle from marketing to order processing to billing to post-sales service.

As well, it incorporates both positive and negative experiences. One focus group company assesses its touch points along two dimensions: their potential to delight or dissatisfy, and the size of the impact if they succeed or fail. “All our departments must recognize that they have a role to play in creating a positive (or negative) customer experience,” said a manager. “We need to better understand customer perceptions of our entire organization,” said another “and to recognize that different customers may have different experiences.” Customer experience is also influenced by whether or not a company is perceived to be actively working to address its problems (Markey et al. 2009). In short, customer experience is an enterprise challenge that reaches across all parts of an organization, touch points, and channels (Dougherty and Murthy 2009).

Some additional dimensions customer experiences include the following:

• Consistency and reliability. Customer experience is shaped by expectations and these, in turn, are positively influenced by products and services that deliver consis- tently across channels, over time, and as promised (Thompson 2011).

• Knowledge and data. The ability of an organization to assist, support, and edu- cate its customers is based on how well knowledge about products, services, and customer preferences, is either built into its customer-facing applications or made available to its staff (Jacobs 2011). In addition, organizations need to know about their customers’ experiences in order to better understand and act to improve them (Dougherty and Murthy 2009).

• Timeliness. Clearly, the best time to positively influence a customer’s experience is while the customer is interacting with the organization. The longer it takes to accomplish an interaction, the less likely a customer will be satisfied. This is partic- ularly true if an experience is mediated by technology. Members cited studies that showed that 65 percent of customers abandon online shopping carts if frustrated (Kioa and Zapf 2002). They also stated that their firms lose millions of dollars if their Web sites are down even for a few minutes.

• Innovation. Since it is now a strategic differentiator for organizations, innovation is an increasingly important dimension of the customer experience. While many think first about innovative usability, some suggest there are whole new layers of customer experience that can be improved through the innovative use of technol- ogy (Korsten 2011; Martin 2011). For example, one company that manufactured medical scanning equipment used IT to create a personalized environment with pictures and sound, which helped reduce anxiety in patients—something that had never previously been thought of as a role for technology (Verganti 2011).

Finally, the focus group managers and researchers both stressed that it is impor- tant for companies to hear what their customers are saying about their experiences and to take action to improve problems. “We are now undertaking a wide variety of feedback initiatives,” said a manager, “because we need a more nuanced understanding of how cus- tomers are experiencing our company.” Unfortunately, too many organizations fear what data will reveal about their organizations and don’t stress this dimension (Meyer and

Chapter 14 • Improving the Customer Experience: An IT Perspective 199

Schwager 2007). Getting real-time customer feedback is especially important so that prob- lems can be quickly identified. In today’s connected world, rapid action to correct problems is the best way to deal with specific issues that arise. “We are implementing technology to get near real time feedback so we can take corrective actions at once,” said one manager.

Figure 14.1 combines all these dimensions into one holistic view of customer experience.

the role of teChnology in Customer experienCe

Organizations today rely on technology for nearly every facet of customer interaction, making IT a significant component of the customer experience (Violino 2005). Studies show that companies are investing considerably in technologies that will affect cus- tomer experiences. Ninety-one percent have automated some aspects of the customer experience and 61 percent say that they are investing in IT in order to improve it (Violino 2005). And there are literally hundreds of vendors selling many different technologies to “help” (Davies et al. 2011). A focus group manager described the scope of IT’s influence in her organization as follows: “Technology and IT play a big role in a variety of cus- tomer experiences. We’re using in-store kiosks for self-service; providing better informa- tion for our staff; better analysing our customer data; improving our website; training our staff better; simplifying our returns process, integrating products and services across all our lines of business and offering the same consumer campaigns across all channels.”

There are several broad categories of technology that are typically thought of in relation to customer experience management. These include technologies that are customer-facing such as, customer relationship management (CRM), interactive voice

Feedback & Action

Promotion

Product

Price

Process

Channel

Perceptions &

Expectations

Rational experiences

Cumulative Customer

Experience

Consistency, Reliability, Timeliness, Knowledge, Innovation

Demo- graphics

figure 14.1 A Customer’s Experience Has Many Dimensions

200 Section III • IT-Enabled Innovation

recognition (IVR), and online and mobile self-service applications. However, as we have noted, there are many other customer touch points in organizations where IT is used, such as billing, complaints and dispute resolution, and incorporating technology into innovative products and services that will also affect the customer experience. Finally, there are the underpinning technologies, such as master data management, knowledge management, infrastructure management, and metrics and analytics that will in the longer term make a huge difference in how a customer experiences an organization.

However, the use of technology by no means guarantees a positive customer experience. All too often technology is substituted for people in an effort to slash costs, resulting in a less satisfying or negative experience, rather than using it to create more meaningful and positive experiences (Davies et al. 2011; Verganti 2011). Members of the focus group agreed with this assessment. “We’ve used IT for cost reduction, seeing our customer services as a factory model,” said a manager. Bad technology unfortunately leads to a bad or mediocre customer experience. For example, one study found that some companies hide behind their Web sites so that customers have no way to commu- nicate with a human being (Weill 2008).

Effective architecture underpins a consistent and holistic approach to addressing an organization’s customer experience needs. “We have typically proceeded to imple- ment customer-oriented technology without the end architecture in mind and this has been a mistake,” said a manager. “As a result, we’ve made assumptions in key decisions based on superficial analysis.” Architecture is essential for delivering a consistent, cross- channel customer experience and for ensuring that all touch points are well integrated, explained another manager.

There is broad agreement that the most positive (and cost-effective) customer experiences come from the right combination of investment in a combination of technol- ogy, improved processes, and knowledgeable and empowered employees (Davies and Thompson 2009; Jacobs 2011; Verganti 2011). Ideally, the channel used to interact with a company should be the choice of the customer. Customers will then self-select an appro- priate channel depending on the nature of the transaction, customer perceptions, time of day, and concerns about privacy and security (Alcock and Millard 2007). Thus, an effec- tive use of technology doesn’t degrade one channel (e.g., the telephone) in order to pro- mote another (e.g., a Web site). Often this approach is not deemed to be cost-effective. However, although enforced self-service can result in substantial cost savings for an orga- nization, it can also translate into no service and become a brand destroyer (Alcock and Millard 2007). In contrast, where technology is adopted taking direct customer input into consideration, experiences tend to be viewed more positively (Sarner and Davies 2011).

Customer experienCe essentials for it

There is no shortage of advice about what IT needs to do in order to facilitate a positive customer experience. However, the group agreed that there are five essential capabili- ties that IT needs to develop, which will serve as foundational elements for whatever customer initiatives a company decides to focus on:

1. Visioning. The ability to creatively envision how to create a more positive expe- rience for customers came up over and over in the group. “We need to stop see- ing IT as a back office function,” said one manager, “and develop better skills

Chapter 14 • Improving the Customer Experience: An IT Perspective 201

in researching emerging technologies and doing experiments.” Another added, “We need to work more closely with the business and ask the right questions so we can do creative problem solving.” Research stresses that innovation is critical to delighting customers and that organizations can boost their capacity for innovation by making more of an effort to understand them (Martin 2011). As  Apple’s success has shown, “we must stop thinking that copying others will yield uniquely attractive results” (Martin 2011). Instead, IT needs to envision what technology can make possible and broaden its horizons about what can be done to make services more meaningful (Verganti 2011). Many of these will only be discovered through experimentation and trying out new ideas in the field, said the focus group. Still others will come from “thinking like a customer” and leveraging current capabilities. From these dreams, business and IT then need to develop the strategies and capabilities that will deliver differentiated interactions with customers (Feig 2007).

2. Customer Focus. Group members concurred that improving customers’ experi- ence involves their companies and IT functions becoming more customercentric and that doing this properly will involve redefining large parts of business pro- cesses and systems. “The first thing we are doing is identifying specific touch points where customers come into contact with our organization and analyzing their jour- neys through the processes involved,” said one manager. Many experts in the field also stress the need to analyze actual customer experience, rather than the generic experience (Alcock and Millard 2007). In order to become more customer-focused, IT staff must understand and internalize the customers’ point of view. Finding ways to make the customer experience real for IT staff will build customer empathy and improve IT’s ability to design appropriate technology. This can be done by sharing customer stories and letters, and engaging front line staff to share their experiences with customers. In addition, having selected IT staff meet with customers has been shown to have a demonstrable impact on the quality of a design from a user’s point of view and to be a significant source of inspiration for innovation (Grant 2011; Heller 2011).

3. Designing for utilization. Because most IT projects now have an impact on cus- tomer experience, designing for a positive experience has become a key IT capa- bility (Shih 2012; Thompson and Davies 2011). There are several components to effective design from a user point of view. First, it must be useful. Second it must be useable. Third, it must be used. The real test of a good design is therefore not its features but its utility (Alcock and Millard 2007). One focus group manager cited a study that showed that 65 percent of customers abandon online shopping carts due to usability barriers at a potential loss of $25 billion (Kioa and Zapf 2002). “We should not be rewarding [IT] for ‘bloatware,’” said one researcher, “but for stuff that people use and are happy to use and are willing to pay to use. . . . It’s customer use that really matters now” (Hopkins 2010).

Other important elements of customer-centered design include the ability of a customer to personalize how he/she interacts with a company through offering different channels and combinations of human and technical interaction (Alcock and Millard 2007). For example, it’s not good design to force customers to use a Web site or IVR when they have complex needs or prefer to speak with a human being. Properly designed technology will encourage customer use but incorporate

202 Section III • IT-Enabled Innovation

options for them. Similarly, business processes should also be designed to prevent customers being handed off or made to wait (Feig 2007). The goal of good customer experience design is to make it easy for people to interact with a company and to minimize frustration across all touch points (Hopkins 2010). Finally, focus group managers emphasized that an outstanding customer experience extends to the design of the full range of customer interactions. “We should be designing an end- to-end experience that addresses both upstream and downstream needs, as well as purchases,” said one.

4. Data management. The delivery of complete, current, and accurate data is central to the ability to provide high-quality customer service with technology (Feig 2007; Jacobs 2011). This is one reason why many of the focus group’s companies are undertaking master data management initiatives2 (Davies et al. 2011). Good infor- mation is not only important for customer service representatives who interact with customers, but it is also essential for the managers and executives who are working to understand how best to address customer needs (Davies et al. 2011). Focus group members pointed out that data should enable mangers to understand the customer experience from a variety of perspectives across an organization, help resolve prob- lems at first contact (a well-known satisfier), and identify problems that should be addressed.

However, going forward, even more data and better data classification systems will be needed in order to personalize company services and offerings to its customers (Davenport et al. 2011). “We want to create personalized, memorable experiences,” said one focus group manager “and that means having good data for customers and about them so that we can measure and fine tune the customer experience.” The growing availability of social, mobile, and location data is creating new data sets that can be mined to better serve and delight customers. However, since this is a huge field, it is also important to be  selective about the data that will be used to meet corporate strategies (Hopkins 2010).

5. Delivery. Execution is where it all comes together. Well-designed customer experiences can easily fall apart if they are not executed well and this is too often the case, according to the focus group. The number one order of business, they said, is to deliver existing products and services reliably and consistently across channels and products. Several focus group members acknowledged that their companies had different customer service experiences for different products or different locations. They also spoke about having multiple customer experience initiatives in different business units, which didn’t integrate or weren’t consistent. “Ideally, the customer experience should be seamless across all channels,” said a manager. Others underlined the importance of having both good technology and knowledgeable and caring staff, who are themselves supported and empowered by good technology. The key to effective execution of a customer experience there- fore is to deliver technology that enables the right balance of human “touch” and technical convenience for a particular customer in a particular situation (Alcock and Millard 2007).

2 For a more complete discussion of this topic see “Master Data Management” at Pearson’s Web site.

Chapter 14 • Improving the Customer Experience: An IT Perspective 203

first steps to improving Customer experienCe

“Improving customer experience is a journey, not a project,” said a focus group manager. Addressing it will take multiple small improvements that together add up to create an overall positive impact (Thompson 2011). However, members of the focus group had some advice and recommendations for those beginning this journey.

First, it’s important to take a holistic approach to it and doing this requires central management. “We want to have ‘one company and one customer,’” said a manager. “In the past, each business unit had their own unique approaches to improving customer experiences. Now, we want to make it part of everything we do, so we’ve created an EVP of Customer Experience.” Another company has also created a senior vice president position to address all dimensions of customer experience. “This is giving us a single, shared view of the customer across the entire value chain,” said the manager. Studies show that 75 percent of companies still have fragmented customer processes that are disconnected or disorganized. Appointing a single senior executive with responsibility to improve customer experience thus provides the executive sponsorship that many enterprisewide initiatives often lack (Thompson 2011).

Second, companies need to think clearly about the kind of value they want to create with their customer experience strategy (Hopkins 2010). Unfortunately, this critical discussion is often ignored as companies leap directly to what technology can do for them. However, if value is not addressed, it is doubtful that IT will be able to deliver what is expected (see Chapter 1). Thus, a company should first ask, “What kind of world am I trying to create?” before determining what technology they need to deliver it (Hopkins 2010). Focus group managers agreed strongly. “In the past, we’ve traded off customer ease of use for cost containment and we’ve lost customers,” said one. “We’ve realized that acquiring new customers is expensive and retaining them is important.” Another cited research showing that having a clear customer relation- ship management strategy and value proposition is a strong contributor to profitable growth (Korsten 2011).

Third, it follows that an integrated business and IT strategy is needed to develop a roadmap for improving the customer experience and to design the initiatives that will operationalize it. A manager explained, “We believe that establishing a cross-functional team, mapping key journeys from a customer point of view, and assessing gaps in our corporate capabilities are critical to developing an effective strategy to improve cus- tomer experience.” Another stated: “We have decided to have one view of the customer and one common set of business rules. This is giving us common ground for cohesive business-IT strategy development because we are all hearing the same message.”

Fourth, IT needs to identify and develop new capabilities to deal with custom- ers, not just business users. “We need people who keep the big picture in mind and who can connect the dots,” said a manager. Another added, “we need people with a blend of business and IT skills—who can think like a customer, communicate in busi- ness language, and ask ‘so what?’ questions.” Skills with designing experiments, learn- ing about new and emerging technologies, usability design and testing, and working with customers are all currently in short supply. “We must meet our customers on their own turf,” said a manager. “While not all IT people can speak with customers, we must be able to collaborate with our business colleagues and particularly with front line staff to test new ideas.” One company is doing this by creating and engaging its various

204 Section III • IT-Enabled Innovation

customer “communities” to learn about how to improve its customer experiences with different demographic groups.

Finally, the focus group stressed that IT must keep working away at the basics— common data, integration across applications and channels, and reliability. “We need to develop a single source of truth,” said a manager. “This is the best way to ensure that we all have the same understanding and are working towards the same ends.” Customers want and value simplicity and common data and integration ensures that interactions are easy and convenient (Hopkins 2010). And these three basics are essen- tial to delivering a consistent experience that will develop a positive perception of a company and its products, which in turn will lead to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately profitability (Thompson and Herschel 2009).

Until relatively recently, customers’ expe- rience with a company was simply a by- product of whatever business strategy an organization selected. Outsourcing, IVR, online “self-service,” and complex processes apparently designed to confound the cus- tomer and save the company money were the order of the day. Consequently, when a company did appear to care about its cus- tomers’ experience, it was a breath of fresh air. Apple’s huge success is based largely on its “obsess[ion] about [customers’] experi- ence and being dedicated to creating unique improvements to delight them . . . cobbled together in the most magical ways with the [customer] rather than the scientist at the center of the picture” (Martin 2011).

Today, customer experience is recog- nized by most organizations as being essential

to their current and future success and, as a result, it has become a top priority for most executives. IT plays an integral part in almost all customer experience initiatives and this fact is putting new pressures on the IT function to become more customercentric and think dif- ferently about how technology is delivered to the organization. As the members of this focus group made clear, everything a com- pany does—and especially its technology— must now be designed with the customer in mind. This is a significant shift of mind-set for IT staff in particular, but it is an essential one if technology is going to be able to deliver on its potential to delight and differentiate. For companies, the stakes are high: change to meet rising customer expectations or lose out against the competition and risk losing customer loyalty and corporate reputation.

Conclusion

Alcock, T., and N. Millard. “Self-service—But Is It Good to Talk?” BT Technology Journal 25, nos. 3 & 4 (July/October 2007): 313–20.

Dardan, S., R. Kumar, and A. Stylianou. “The Impact of Customer-related IT Investments

on Customer Satisfaction and Shareholder Returns.” The Journal of Computer Information Systems 47, no. 2 (Winter 2007): 100.

Davenport, T., L. Mule, and J. Lucker. “Know What Your Customers Want Before They Do.”

References

Chapter 14 • Improving the Customer Experience: An IT Perspective 205

Harvard Business Review 89, no. 12 (December 2011): 84–89.

Davies, J., J. Jacobs, and M. Maoz. “Balance Customer Experience with Customer Service Productivity in Customer Service Automation Initiatives.” Gartner Inc., ID Number: G00216492, September 2011.

Davies, J., and E. Thompson. “Manage the Customer Experience to Improve Business Performance.” Gartner Inc., ID Number: G00169030, June 30, 2009.

Dougherty, D., and A. Murthy. “What Service Customers Really Want.” Harvard Business Review 87, no. 9, Reprint No. 00178012 (2009).

Feig, N. “BPM: Beyond Workflow—Banks Are Using Business Process Management to Improve the Customer Experience.” Bank Systems and Technology 44, no. 7 (July 2007).

Gagnon, J., H. Kleinberger, and G. Morrison. The Customer-Centric Store: Delivering the Total Experience. IBM Institute for Business Value (2005). http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/imc/ pdf/g510-4027-the-customer-centric-store.pdf.

Grant, A. “How Customers Can Rally Your Troops.” Harvard Business Review 89, no. 6 (June 2011).

Heller, M. “The Customer Will See You Now; CIOs and Their Teams Must Spend More Quality Time With End Customers.” CIO 24, no. 7 (February 1, 2011).

Hopkins, M. “Value Creation, Experiments and Why IT Does Matter.” MIT Sloan Management Review 51, no. 3 (Spring 2010).

Jacobs, J. “Case Study: Exploiting Agent Knowledge to Enhance Customer Experience.” Gartner Inc., ID Number: G00213917, July 6, 2011.

Kioa, K., and M. Zapf. ISM/Forrester Research Report on e-Business. October 2002. http://www.ism.ws/ ISMReport/content.cfm?ItemNumber=14177.

Korsten, P. “The Essential CIO.” IBM Institute for Business Value. Somers, NY: IBM Global Business Services, 2011.

Markey, R., F. Reichheld, and A. Dullweber. “Closing the Customer Feedback Loop.” Harvard Business Review 87, no. 12 (December 2009).

Martin, R. “Canada, Like Steve Jobs, Should Zero in on Innovation.” The Globe and Mail, November 21, 2011.

Meyer, C., and A. Schwager. “Understanding Customer Experience.” Harvard Business Review, 85, no. 2 (February 2007).

Sarner, A., and J. Davies. “Balance Customer Experience with Marketing Productivity in Marketing Automation Initiatives.” Gartner Inc., ID Number: G00216115, September 2, 2011.

Shih, G. In Silicon Valley Designers Emerge as Rock Stars. April 16, 2012. http://uk.reuters.com/ article/2012/04/16/oukin-uk-designers- startup-idUKBRE83F1BD20120416.

Thompson, E. “Key Issues for Customer Experience Management 2011.” Gartner Inc., ID Number: G00213321, June 8, 2011.

Thompson, E., and J. Davies. “Ranking Technology Projects by Improved Customer Experience.” Gartner Inc., ID Number: G00227323, November 9, 2011.

Thompson, E., and G. Herschel. “The Definition of Customer Experience Management.” Gartner Inc., ID Number: G00169354, August 7, 2009.

Verganti, R. “Designing Breakthrough Products.” Harvard Business Review 89, no. 10 (October 2011).

Violino, B. “Focus on Customer Experience.” Information Week, no. 1054 (September 5, 2005).

Weill, N. “Five Things I’ve Learned; Actors Know a Thing or Two about Serving the Customer.” CIO 21, no. 9 (February 15, 2008).