Experiential innovation
Customer experience management involves five steps. They are:
The fifth and final step is to engage in continuous innovation. Continuous innovation can be achieved by any improvement to the customer experience whether it results from:
- breakthrough new products
- small innovations
- marketing innovations
The innovations should be experience-driven and not product or operation focused. Innovations are product related as well as marketing related.
- Product related: Innovation can contribute to customer in several ways, e.g.
- developing new functions of a product
- providing new solutions and therefore new experience
- project a new image of relevance, meaning when a new company is no longer seen as relevant (losing customers and being perceived as old-fashioned)
Customer experience is also very important for the development of new products and therefore should be implemented into the innovation strategy and plan. The innovation plan shouldn't be too narrow because it may limit the company in seeking new opportunities.
Customer should not be integrated in the whole development process, but once the company has a clear idea and perhaps even a prototype, it should definitely be tested with customers in an experiential way. The integration of customers experience requires an understanding of the experiential world of them, e.g.
- how customers will use them
- how are people moving about
- Marketing related: Goal of marketing innovation is to create a big splash in marketplace. They should be surprising, intriguing, and might also want to be a little bit provocative at times. This can be achieved by:
- unusual communications
- special events
- other marketing vertures
They result from thinking out-of-the box, having guts, and taking risks. Possible forms are for example:
- Event marketing
- Brand celebrations
- Buzz campaigns
See also
