We know we need to move faster. The digitization of our world is moving at hyper speed. Consumers and businesses are hyper-connected.

They are always connected and experiencing the best of the best in digital offerings. The rate of adoption or rejection is massive. And someone is going to launch something tomorrow to change all that. That is our reality.

So in this hyper-connected world, what do we do?

We need to optimize our options in business processes, marketing optimization of customer service level improvement.

We need to stop doing it in disconnected and siloed ways. We need to stop throwing stuff against the wall to see if it will work and stick.

A holistic approach to optimizing the customer experience looks at the whole customer journey not just how to improve one process. It is highly probable that the one thing we are trying to fix is a pain point for the customer but it is not “the pain point”.

We need to set in motion the necessary change and innovations to optimize in a far broader way than we traditionally think.

We need to be interconnected. We NEED to:

• Look beyond functions. Look way beyond functions. Customers don’t see things from this point of view. Never! Ever!
• Optimizing the part sub-optimizes the whole! While departments and divisions are a useful way to organize they aren’t the whole business.
• Perpetuating digital silos isn’t useful. It is in fact dangerous.
• Anything that makes an end-to-end optimization and experience flow impossible has to be ignored.

This focus on optimization through digital change is directly linked with the goals of (customer) experience. Does the change make anything simpler for the customer? Is it easy to use? Does it meet the customer’s goals?

• How can we enhance customer and stakeholder engagement?
• What is the big thing that will wow the customer?
• Is everyone working on that?
• Do we have the capabilities to make a difference on the big customer thing?