Last week in Downtown LA, eSage Group and Microsoft hosted an Executive Learning Lounge focused on understanding and influencing the customer journey.

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The concept is a complex one. I came across this great article in the November issue of Harvard Business Review.  I hope you find it as insightful as I did.

If you are in Seattle, we are having a Customer Journey panel at the DAA Seattle Symposium on November 12th.  Shish Shirdhar will once again get in the panelist chair along with Michael Lisin of Disney and Duane Bedard of eSage Group will moderate!

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Competing on the Customer Journey – HBR, November 2015 – Executive Summary

As digital technology has enabled shoppers to easily research and buy products online, sellers have been scrambling after them, trying to understand and satisfy their wants. Savvy companies, however, are using new tools, processes, and organizational structures to proactively lead digital customers from consideration to purchase and beyond. They are creating compelling customer journeys and managing them like any other product—and gaining a source of competitive advantage.

Building successful journeys requires four key capabilities: automation, to smoothly carry customers through each step of their online path; personalization, to create a customized experience for each individual; contextual interaction, to engage customers and appropriately sequence the steps they take; and journey innovation, to add improvements that enhance and extend the journey and foster customer loyalty.

In addition, the most successful companies have a particular organizational structure, with a chief experience officer overseeing a journey-focused strategist and a “journey product manager.” This latter role is critical—the journey product manager leads a team of designers, developers, data analysts, marketers, and others to create and sustain superior journeys, and he or she is accountable for the journey’s ROI and general business performance.