Alex Allwood - Customer Experience is the Brand

I once read that everyone has a book in them. Most people do I expect, however writing your first book is nothing like it’s portrayed. The harsh reality is that it’s damn hard work. Firstly, if you’re like me and have a 12-hour day job to keep the wolf from the door, you write whenever you can, weekends, nights and early mornings, sometimes starting at 4am! 

Secondly, writing a regular blog is very different to writing a 30,000-word manuscript. As obvious as this might seem, I’d written my first chapter and realised that I’d need to write 29 more just to get even close to a book. When I unpack my purpose for writing my book it’s the chance to change people’s thinking with an idea. In this case, my first book, Customer Experience is the Brand, is based on my belief that great experiences get people talking.  

The bookis an introduction to customer experience strategy for brand leaders using ‘The 7 Pillars of Customer Experience’ as a foundation for building strong customer connections throughout the business that foster satisfaction and advocacy. The reality for marketers is that the pace of change is accelerating, customers are global and super-connected, with expectations that their brand interactions will be personalised, contextual and device relevant. More than ever, the mobile device is the mainspring of the experience, connecting the empowered customer at every touchpoint along the purchase journey. To remain competitive in the experience economy organisations need to refocus on their customer. Shifting their focus from product to customer-first, with the emphasis on creating great experiences that unlock customer value and drive competitive advantage.

The customer experience leader’s toolbox will include: understanding their brand’s reason for being – its purpose – creating organisational alignment around a customer-first culture, consistently delivering and keeping the brand promise using customer, data, technology and innovation to create simple, feel-good experiences that customers want to talk about and share with their peers. The experience economy is here. Our customers are living it now, and now is the time for brands to catch up – welcome to a time where Customer Experience is the Brand.

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Aldo Cundari - Customer Centric Marketing 

Aldo Cundari's new book, Customer-Centric Marketing: Build Relationships, Create Advocates, and Influence Your Customers, offers a comprehensive game plan on succeeding in the new marketing landscape by focusing on the customer. 

To remain relevant, unique and needed by customers, brands face a daunting challenge. The root problem is that brands no longer drive the relationship, customers do. The sales funnel model that dominated the sales process for decades has taken a back seat, as web and digital media have completely reshaped brand-customer relationships and rocked the marketing ecosystem and customer purchase behaviours. The result? Customers now control how they engage with brands. With this new reality firmly in place, marketers need a Plan B to connect with these demanding customers. Despite these challenges, there is a relatively simple formula, which involves flipping your old brand-centric model, and putting the customer at the centre of all your branding efforts. 

Customer-Centric Marketing will help you sort through the complex forces affecting your customers and make your organization rise to the top.