I received a copy of Brian Solis’ new book, [What’s the Future] of Business (Wiley, 2013) yesterday directly from the author, after his talk at the Dachis Group Social Business Summit 2013 in Austin. It is an interesting format heavily peppered with artwork by Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) and full page of slogans and quotes; I might have even mistaken it for a coffee table book because of its shape. But, there is no mistaking the heavy detail of business topics focused on the changing customer experience, social commerce, and the evolving relationship with the customer.
The story unfolds with a look at how top companies have continued to have shorter lifespans, recounting the work of Lawler and Worley’s 2006 book Built to Change (Jossey-Bass, 2006). It then follows with the changes with digital commerce giving a new strength to customers and as Mr. Solis describes it, the rise of Generation C(ustomer). Per the book,
“Gen C’ers are not bound by age; they’re not defined by income, ethnicity, or education, either. They live and breathe in social networks and use mobile devices as their windows to the world. They don’t learn or make decisions like their traditional counterparts. Gen C lives the digital lifestyle and unites demographics around interests and behavior.”
Mr. Solis offers recommendations on how to align business objectives and strategies based on Gen C, and the ‘new landscape for engagement’ with this psychographic. In particular, he points out,
“Time to resolution, cost per engagement, NPS, wait time … these are metrics of an aging era. Advocacy, referrals, positive endorsements, reviews, loyalty, these are the metrics that can be directly linked to social customer service among many other tangible outcomes, including return on investment (ROI).”
The later chapters look at his view of the transformation of the classic marketing funnel into four moments of truth after initial awareness of a product:
- The Zero Moment of Truth (a recount of Google’s study of this area) – the moments before people buy, where impressions are formed, based on what people searched for
- The First Moment of Truth – the consideration to purchase based on what they think when they see your product even perhaps before they read the words describing the product
- The Second Moment of Truth – the experience of using the product across all their senses, as well as how the vendor company supports them in their efforts
- The Ultimate Moment of Truth – the step that leads to that customer sharing their experience to the next potential customer
The continuing chapters focus on more constructs to understand evolving social commerce, such as the dynamic customer journey, the psychology of engagement, and the user experience. The 218 pages are quite detailed with supporting data points, as I would expect from every good analyst, and there is some wit and wordplay—e.g., Chapter 16 is titled “The Dilemma’s Innovator” a play on Clayton Christensen’s business book classic, The Innovator’s Dilemma (Harper Business, 2011 reprint)—to keep a CMO entertained for a while. There are definitely many good ideas in this book. The format may throw some off but this is a serious business book, just not in the classical wall-of-text-plus-some-scatted-diagrams. Take a long look when it comes out.
