It is an exciting time to be in our business.

Looking back on 2011, I believe we'll see it as the year when customers realized how “smart” they've become, and customer experience really did become the major strategic priority for brands and executives worldwide.

Yet a much bigger tipping point is just around the corner: when these two trends collide, resulting in the disruption of established companies, the upending of business models, and the creation of (even more) entirely new models.

This is when smart customers and stupid companies will collide - and though the winners are preordained, many don't see it coming. To those smart companies that do, 2012 may well be the ultimate “Happy New Year.”

We can't wait!

Happy holidays, and all my best for you this season. We’ll talk again in 2012.

Best,

Michael Hinshaw
Managing Director
MCorp Consulting

A holiday treat for you: The Top 11 Tweets of 2011.

Though we'd hoped to see a single clear theme emerge, it looks like our readers and Tweeters brought a few to the top as they shared, read and re-Tweeted. First, innovation in customer experience. Second, the spread of smart touchpoints. And third, how firms are navigating this intersection. This tells me one thing: 2012 is going to be very interesting indeed. So Happy Holidays! And take a deep breath over the next week or so, and get ready for the fast months and years ahead...

1.) Reading: “Manufacturing's New #Innovation Labs.” http://ow.ly/7PyL6
Number one on our list for 2011: Innovation labs come (back) to U.S. manufacturing; Learn how some smart companies are leveraging technology to aid process and product innovations.  (November Tweet Score: 135)

2.) The butterfly effect of customer experience - or - how to make the world a better place, one customer at a time. http://ow.ly/6NcWe
We all know “bad customer experience” can leave us feeling edgy and annoyed - or worse. Tie this to the financial value of experience, and you'll find that addressing customers' emotional needs isn't a feel-good strategy; it's a financially sound investment.  (October Tweet Score: 116)

3.) Just released a new White Paper: “Proving ROI on Customer Experience” http://ow.ly/6q6LP
This white paper is brilliant, insightful, timely, relevant... (Oh wait, we wrote it...) Four ways you can show that improving customer experience to improve the bottom line is more than a theory.  (September Tweet Score: 91)

4.) Pick Up Lines and Customer Experience http://ow.ly/4OTww
The “business” of pickup lines: Keep the brand intact and don't forget to engage! Think of it this way for the holiday season: You're angling customers under the mistletoe of sales and loyalty.  (May Tweet Score: 88)

5.) An advancement in “self-checkout” technology... A rather nice idea, actually. http://ow.ly/5eVkO
The future of retail looks easy... Scan, price, personalize, buy more! A 10% boost in sales from a tool that empowers customers and personalizes shopping based on customer actions has 'smart company' written all over it.  (June Tweet Score: 71)

6.) It's 2011. How does a major company still not email? http://ow.ly/61Oos
From win-win solutions to the poster child of stupid companies: In this day and age of mind-blowing technology and experience tailoring, did you ever think that the 2011 bar would be set as low as not offering email?  (August Tweet Score: 71)

7.) “If I were my customer, what would I expect?” http://ow.ly/4bh9Y
Here's your 2012 roadmap: Deliver loyalty-building experiences by anticipating needs, anticipate needs by understanding the customer journey. Of course we're partial to our approach - Touchpoint Mapping - but in this case, the journey is the destination.  (March Tweet Score: 70)

8.) Re-orient the customer experience around what customers value... http://ow.ly/4ORqU
True customer experience improvement is about delivering value for and with customers through an outside-in perspective of customer needs, vs. the “inside-out” lenses of CRM and ecommerce. A “big idea” for new year and beyond.  (May Tweet Score: 68)

9.) Some customer experience innovations can bring a tear to my eye... http://ow.ly/5oXqC
Innovation doesn't have to rely on major technological upheaval. Hipmunk looked at an old problem (the traveler's experience) through a different lens - agony. Voila! A most excellent disruption.  (June Tweet Score: 65)

10.) “There is both art and science to building a great customer experience.” http://ow.ly/5xat7
In a world of smart customers, nearly everything's surfable / tagable / appable / geo-locatable / bar-codeable. So how can smart companies leverage these thousands of touchpoints and the resulting fire hose of customer insights they generate?  (July Tweet Score: 65)

11.) Is your company at risk of being stuck in the “Land of Stupid”? http://ow.ly/7fK0R
The future is now; just look at Siri, and Kinect. It's not magic: it’s real. Customer expectations are utterly transforming, and it's going to kill those companies that don't keep up.  (November Tweet Score: 64)