...touchpoints customers require. Companies reach global customers in their own languages while maintaining a consistent, recognizable corporate image. They must accelerate product delivery and promotional campaigns, both to please customers and to beat competitors.

For some organizations these challenges culminate in the "perfect storm" of a customer experience crisis. To reap the rewards of competitive advantage and increased revenue opportunities, companies must provide a satisfying customer experience.

"Customer experience" is defined as the collection of all interactions a customer has with a company, its products and its partners, across all customer touchpoints, all geographies and throughout all stages of the customer lifecycle, from initial customer attraction through fulfillment to retention.

While many enterprise processes have been automated--such as ERP, supply chain, HR and CRM--most companies have not automated the processes that provide the customer experience. These processes typically occur across multiple divisions and are distributed over many geographies. Procedures vary by location. Consistent quality and branding standards are rare. People in different locations and departments share information only on an ad hoc basis, leading to isolated, redundant efforts that produce mismatched results and confused customers. Because more and more customers and nearly all promotional campaigns now interact across multiple touchpoints, the likelihood of providing a poor customer experience has only been increased.

Another obstacle to optimizing the customer experience is...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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