Customer Experience, the new Battle Front

Commoditization is everywhere.  With offshore development, noisy marketing channels, worldwide internet commerce, the last true battle front that remains is the Customer Experience (Cx).

Today’s buyer, either B2B or B2C (Which is becoming less and less relevant. More on that later) values service and convenience many times over price and product and expectations have never been higher.

Take Uber and Lyft.  Both ride sharing services offer exactly the same thing.  Get me from point A to B in somebody else’s Hyundai Sonata.  What’s the difference? Switching cost is zero.  Customers will churn over a 3-minute wait time.  The difference is the Cx.  How the driver greets you. What happens if you leave your phone in the car?  What is there is a dispute?  How the company handles the Cx defines whether you will renew or churn. Cx drives loyalty.

My friend Nick Mehta has built a great company in Gainsight on Cx being a killer differentiation and managing the Cx is now a whole category unto itself.

The flattening of the product and price curves have driven comprehensive commoditization across broad industries where price and product differentiation were formerly king not just Uber or Lyft, but Boeing or Airbus, eBay or Amazon, Cisco or Juniper. Our parents would drive across town to save 5 cents on a gallon of milk.  Today, I shop at Wholefoods, and am willing pay a premium, for a killer Cx.

Commoditization has flattened differentiation and the only battle front that matters is the Customer Experience. 

Deliver a great Cx and your business will thrive.