Today’s consumers share their experiences on social media and consult each other when making buying decisions. Establishing an online presence is only one part of reaching connected consumers. Retailers also should ensure that customers have positive experiences they can share. Providing good experiences is far more cost-effective than repairing bad ones. The experience begins the moment a customer starts researching a product. Subsequent customer behaviors measure product performance and the quality of your customer service. Social media offer businesses a set of “Moments of Truth” (MOTs) – or “touch points” marketers can use to engage customers. Connected customers prefer businesses that share their values. Marketers should use data about individual customers to add a “human touch” to company messages. Success in new media means more than creating mobile apps or viral videos. The goal of your digital activity is to create a connection with your consumers. What You Will Learn In this summary you will learnr1) How digitally connected consumers influence each other’s buying decisions and 2) How to create positive experiences that turn your customers into your online advocates. www.wtfbusiness.com www.briansolis.com Audio summary of WTF: https://www.getabstract.com/ShowAbstract.do?dataId=25718

1. To purchase personal subscriptions or corporate solutions, visit our website at www.getAbstract.com, send an email to info@getabstract.com, or call us at our US office (1-877-778-6627) or at our Swiss office
(+41-41-367-5151). getAbstract is an Internet-based knowledge rating service and publisher of book abstracts. getAbstract maintains complete editorial responsibility for all parts of this abstract. getAbstract
acknowledges the copyrights of authors and publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this abstract may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, photocopying or otherwise –
without prior written permission of getAbstract Ltd. (Switzerland).
1 of 5
What's the Future of Business?
Changing the Way Businesses Create
Experiences
Brian Solis
Wiley © 2013
224 pages
[@]
Rating
7 Applicability
8 Innovation
7 Style
7
Focus
Leadership & Management
Strategy
Sales & Marketing
Finance
Human Resources
IT, Production & Logistics
Career & Self-Development
Small Business
Economics & Politics
Industries
Global Business
Concepts & Trends
Take-Aways
• Today’s consumers share their experiences on social media and consult each other when
making buying decisions.
• Establishing an online presence is only one part of reaching connected consumers.
• Retailers also should ensure that customers have positive experiences they can share.
• Providing good experiences is far more cost-effective than repairing bad ones.
• The experience begins the moment a customer starts researching a product.
• Subsequent customer behaviors measure product performance and the quality of your
customer service.
• Social media offer businesses a set of “Moments of Truth” (MOTs) – or “touch points”
marketers can use to engage customers.
• Connected customers prefer businesses that share their values.
• Marketers should use data about individual customers to add a “human touch” to
company messages.
• Success in new media means more than creating mobile apps or viral videos. The goal
of your digital activity is to create a connection with your consumers.

2. What's the Future of Business? getAbstract © 2016 2 of 5
getabstract
Relevancegetabstract
getabstract
What You Will Learn
In this summary you will learnr1) How digitally connected consumers influence each other’s buying decisions
and 2) How to create positive experiences that turn your customers into your online advocates.
getabstract
Review
People talk about your business. In restaurants, on transcontinental flights and in the aisles of big-box retailers,
customers share experiences on social media in real time. Depending on how they react to the experiences you offer,
consumers can become your brand ambassadors or dangerous detractors. Cultivate more ambassadors by using social
media platforms not as newfangled billboards, but as a way to connect with people, learn their priorities and values,
and offer experiences they will praise. Digital strategist Brian Solis argues that you must engage in a new kind of 24-
hour marketing to reach this new digitally “connected customer.” Transferring traditional marketing to interactive
media isn’t enough. Instead, “design the experience” people have with your brand online so that every minute results
in positive web commentary. Solis conveys the urgency of creating these encounters, though he doesn’t go into a lot
of hands-on detail about how to do it. Most of his discussion stays on a theoretical level, and his few examples of
best practices are short. Still, getAbstract recommends his conceptual arguments to marketers and customer service
reps who aren’t digital natives as an excellent intro to a fresh marketing paradigm.
getabstract
getabstract
Summarygetabstract
getabstract
getabstract
“The future of business
is about creating
experiences, products,
programs and processes
that evoke splendor and
rekindle meaningful
and sincere interaction
and growth.”
getabstract
getabstract
The “behavior of
connected consumers
is not only changing,
it’s opening and closing
traditional touch points,
places and ways to
engage customers in
real time and at the
right time.”
getabstract
Disruption
Customers are changing. How they make decisions, what sources they trust for guidance,
the sales channels they prefer and what they expect from each transaction are all in
transition. Firms that satisfy customers’ new expectations will thrive.
However, the factors that today’s customers value the most may surprise you. They want
more than quality; they demand a positive experience at every step of the buying process,
including the customer support you provide after the transaction.
With today’s technology, consumers have the clout to insist on getting their way. If they
have a disappointing experience – if an airline loses their luggage, for instance – they share
it in real time on Twitter or Facebook or describe their negative experience in a review on
Yelp. The power of word-of-mouth is burgeoning, and companies ignore it at their peril.
Too many marketers focus on the technology itself and overlook how people use it.
Sellers must engage with customers, understand the experience they want and design a
digital strategy that delivers it at every “touch point” or “Moment of Truth” (MOT) in the
buying process.
“Generation C”
The traditional demographic approach to defining markets – segmenting people according
to age, income level or education – isn’t relevant for marketing to the growing group of
consumers who connect with you digitally. Generation C – the C stands for “connected”
– includes consumers who share a digital lifestyle. They come from all of the traditional
demographic segments. Reaching them requires connecting with their interests and values.

3. What's the Future of Business? getAbstract © 2016 3 of 5
getabstract
“Creating real-world
‘customer experiences’
is a critical role
businesses must
create in a new era of
consumerism.”
getabstract
getabstract
“Investing in creating
the desired experience
before, during and
after it’s experienced
is...critical to the future
of relationships and
word of mouth.”
getabstract
getabstract
“Just because a
business is embracing
new technology doesn’t
mean that it is creating
meaningful, productive
or measurable
experiences.”
getabstract
getabstract
“Think about the
experience we want
people to have and
share and then use new
digital channels to steer
each step along the
journey to win in each
moment of truth.”
getabstract
The distinct characteristic of this group’s members is that they’re always plugged in to their
mobile devices as they share a wide range of experiences – such as attending concerts and
purchasing consumer electronics – via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or blogs.
When retailers try to reach these consumers via new media, marketers tend to overlook
the customers’ desire for engagement and experience. Businesses turn management of
their Facebook pages or Twitter feeds over to marketing teams, who attempt to translate
traditional sales messages to new media. But ignoring the way customer share information
doesn’t mean they aren’t talking about you. Don’t take the risk of leaving what they say
up to random happenstance.
This gap between the customer and your business is never greater than when a customer
visits your corporate social media site to make a comment, lodge a complaint or ask a
question. Fewer than 50% of companies engage with customers’ comments or questions on
social media. And even if you do solve a customer’s problem, you’ve already allowed his or
her negative experience to spread among untold numbers of Twitter and Facebook accounts.
But if you proactively design the customer experience at every touch point, from initial
evaluation through purchase to post-transaction support, you’re giving your customers
many reasons to act as your advocates.
Begin by listening. Learn how customers connect with each other digitally, and absorb what
they talk about. Uncover their routes to your products, and determine what they value most
in those offerings and in their relationship with your business.
“The Customer’s Journey”
To be effective with generation C, recognize the transformation in your customers’
decision-making journey. If you still use a traditional model of that progression, you may
be relying on outdated, ineffective strategies for product development, marketing and
customer service. The traditional model depicts the customer journey as a “sales funnel.”
In this scenario, you scoop up lots of prospects through marketing initiatives and guide
them through a linear process of evaluation, transaction and support. If all goes well, you
ultimately produce a loyal customer.
Today, the customer’s journey more closely resembles a loop studded with four moments
of truth, or touch points. P&G devised the moment-of-truth concept when it identified two
such turning points. P&G marketers say the “First Moment of Truth” (FMOT) happens
when shoppers initially see a product. During this encounter, a marketer has just a few
seconds to motivate shoppers to pick one brand over another by appealing to their “senses,
values and emotions.”
The “Second Moment of Truth” (SMOT) occurs during the customer’s experience with the
product after the purchase.
Two more moments of truth serve as bookends for the first and second moments: Google
defined the “Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT) as the time before shoppers encounter the
actual product. Today’s consumers begin their decision-making process before they go to
stores or place online orders by digitally connecting with other consumers. The “Ultimate
Moment of Truth” (UMOT) occurs during the point after the transaction when consumers
share their experiences.

4. What's the Future of Business? getAbstract © 2016 4 of 5
getabstract
“Businesses that place
people and what they
feel, think, do and share
as a priority in not
just product design
but overall marketing
and business strategy
outperform those who
don’t.”
getabstract
getabstract
“Among the greatest
difficulties associated
with change is the
ability to recognize that
change is needed at
a time when we can
actually do something
about it.”
getabstract
getabstract
“The increasingly
important role of
technology, combined
with global economic
unrest, means that a
company’s brand is
more important today
than it has ever been.”
getabstract
getabstract
“Consumers tend to
ignore most information
available and instead
slice off a few relevant
information or
behavioral cues that
are often social to make
intuitive decisions.”
getabstract
A 2011 Google study conducted by Shopper Sciences illustrated how important these
new moments of truth can be. It reported that the average number of resources customers
consulted pre-purchase rose from 5.27 in 2010 to 10.4 in 2011. Automotive customers
consulted an average of 18.2 sources, while consumer-electronics buyers relied on an
average of 14.8. The overall percentage of consumers consulting online social media
rose by 19%, while use of mobile devices rose 16%. The influence of television and
radio dropped 14%, while print and outdoor advertising plunged 21%. Clearly, having an
effective presence in the new online channels is imperative.
Managing the Moments of Truth
Learn your customers. Track their online behavior as if you were an anthropologist: Look
for patterns. How do they make decisions? What resources do they trust? What do they
report that they value? Coordinate your marketing, customer-service, product-development
and other silos to work together to create a strategy for each step of your customer’s
experience, beginning with stimulating the customer’s interest:
1. “Stimulus” – The customer first hears about the product. Previously, businesses relied
on advertising or “in-store visibility” to provide the stimulus. As the influence of
traditional media channels like television and print wane, you need creative ways to
reach consumers via new channels. For instance, Toms Shoes uses Facebook to promote
its One for One program, under which it donates a pair of shoes to needy children for
each pair it sells. The company set up a platform on its e-commerce site so visitors can
vote on various shoe styles by clicking buttons labeled “Want,” “Love” or “Own.” Toms’
site sends updates on these vote tallies to visitors’ Facebook news feeds.
2. Zero moment of truth – The customer begins to research the product through online
searches and interactions. Don’t leave the customer’s findings up to chance. Identify
the peers and experts whose opinions carry the most weight; listen to them for clues
to designing your customer’s journey. Adventure outfitter Giantnerd, for instance,
engages with and learns from customers by providing a platform for them to share their
experiences and opinions. Customers earn rewards by offering buying advice to other
consumers. Their reviews, tweets and posts contribute to and form the zero moment
for your subsequent customers As you listen, keep your antenna tuned for common
themes and terms that pop up frequently in conversations. Those terms can help improve
your search-engine results. Engage potential customers and enhance your credibility by
offering your own expertise as a resource. For instance, provide useful content, such as
educational videos or customer reviews that prospects can use to evaluate products.
3. First moment of truth – Consumers focus on their possible choices. Today the majority
of the decision-making process – such as comparing prices, researching product features
or talking to company representatives – takes place on mobile devices. Carefully
design your e-commerce strategies so they engage mobile users with the right data and
dialogues that lead to purchases.
4. Second moment of truth – This phase comes after the purchase, when customers
experience the product and formulate the opinions they will share with others. Design the
experience to try to shape customers’ reactions during this stage. Use this opportunity
to gather feedback from customers that you can apply to improving your products.
Remember that delivering the product is never the end point of marketing. The user’s
experience of the product now becomes part of your marketing strategy, because the
customer’s positive experience leads to the final moment of truth.
5. Ultimate moment of truth – Here the loop comes full circle as customers share their
experiences with your product. Offering customer support after the purchase is one of
the keys to ensuring a positive experience. More and more customers expect companies

5. What's the Future of Business? getAbstract © 2016 5 of 5
getabstract
“You have to be
totally connected with
everyone who touches
your brand.” – Angela
Ahrendts, VP Apple and
former CEO Burberry
getabstract
getabstract
“The brilliance of
social networks is
the opportunity to
transform negative
experiences into
positive outcomes.”
getabstract
getabstract
“People are going
to talk, so give them
something to talk
about.”
getabstract
to read and respond to customer tweets. Dedicate a team of staff members to track users’
experiences in important media, and proactively empower your team to turn negative
customer experiences into positive ones. Encourage happy customers to share their
positive reaction online.
Designing the Customer Experience
Success in new media doesn’t end with creating mobile apps or viral videos. The real goal
of your digital activity is to create a connection with your consumers. To do that, you must
be clear about your vision and about the meaning of your brand.
Appeal to your customers’ aspirations. Invite them to be a part of something bigger and
more meaningful than mere consumerism. That’s what Apple accomplished with its “Think
Different” campaign. Apple’s vision encompasses more than making desirable products.
According to its late co-founder Steve Jobs, the slogan reflected Apple’s belief that “people
with passion can change the world.”
Lead your business to adopt a unified, “top-down” effort to design its customers’
experience. Put together a team to bring your vision of customer experience alive. Include
representatives from social media, customer service, and sales and marketing.
Currently, the task of shaping your customer’s experience is probably fractured among these
self-enclosed silos. Have the customer-experience team define a common vision, map out
the right journey, lead efforts to listen to and learn from buyers, and write a “playbook” that
integrates the experience across the organization.
The Road to Transformation
Change is never easy. As you lead the charge for this transformation you will confront
obstacles, including budget restrictions, naysayers and corporate politics. You’ll spend a
lot of time outside your comfort zone, but your comfort zone will widen to embrace these
new tactics and strategies.
That expansion will reward you and your business. Seek and welcome support especially
from your Generation C employees and customers. If you stay the course, you’ll turn a
corner. You’ll see resistance transform into excitement. But you must stay vigilant because,
as the buzz builds, so does the possibility of a backlash and a push to return to the way
things were.
Eventually you’ll reach your goal, but that’s only the beginning of the process. If you are
truly successful, you will recast your organization as one that embraces continual change
and is ready for anything the future brings.
getabstract
getabstract
getabstract
getabstract
getabstract
About the Authorgetabstract
getabstract
A principal of the advisory firm Altimeter Group, Brian Solis is a digital analyst, sociologist and futurist. He also
wrote Engage! and The End of Business as Usual; he blogs at BrianSolis.com.