X by Brian Solis Take-Aways Designing a worthy customer experience is a competitive necessity. Customers share their experiences via social media. More buyers are basing their purchase decisions on the experiences that other consumers share. Most companies fail to prioritize the customer experience. Companies that believe in serving customers have a person or team responsible for designing each step of the customer experience. Offering a great experience requires seeing things from your customer’s perspective. Begin your improvement process by mapping the experience you currently offer. Learn about all areas of your customers’ lives, not just their product preferences. Create a storyboard with composite customer personas to help you visualize the experience you want to design. Build drama and excitement into every moment of your customer’s experience, including opening the product box. What You Will Learn 1) How customer experience became the most important criterion in consumer brand choices and 2) What methods you can use to design your consumers’ experience.

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The Experience When Business Meets Design
Brian Solis
Wiley © 2015
256 pages
[@]
Rating
8 Applicability
7 Innovation
8 Style
8
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
• Designing a worthy customer experience is a competitive necessity.
• Customers share their experiences via social media.
• More buyers are basing their purchase decisions on the experiences that other
consumers share.
• Most companies fail to prioritize the customer experience.
• Companies that believe in serving customers have a person or team responsible for
designing each step of the customer experience.
• Offering a great experience requires seeing things from your customer’s perspective.
• Begin your improvement process by mapping the experience you currently offer.
• Learn about all areas of your customers’ lives, not just their product preferences.
• Create a storyboard with composite customer personas to help you visualize the
experience you want to design.
• Build drama and excitement into every moment of your customer’s experience,
including opening the product box.

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What You Will Learn
In this summary, you will learn:r1) How customer experience became the most important criterion in consumer brand
choices and 2) What methods you can use to design your consumers’ experience.
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Recommendation
According to consultant Brian Solis, companies that provide truly outstanding consumer service can harness powerful
word-of-mouth advertising and gain competitive advantage. Starbucks, Apple and Disney thrive because they
carefully design the customer experience at every touchpoint before, during and after a purchase. Solis unloads a lot
of information, and occasionally his concepts get as convoluted as an alchemy treatise. But most of this big, boldly
designed volume is pure gold: inspiring ideas, clear explanations and vivid examples from real companies. A section
on mapping and comparing your customers’ current experience and the ideal you could offer proves particularly
useful, especially since Solis provides dozens of detailed sample maps as templates. getAbstract believes this design
manual will interest most marketers and could be especially helpful to executives at established companies.
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Summarygetabstract
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“We’ve entered a new
era in experience
creation, and
businesses that don’t
learn to craft much
more satisfying
experiences for their
customers have a great
deal to lose.”
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“The fundamental
mission of experience
architecture [is] to help
us see things through
others’ eyes, to feel
what they feel and hear
the thoughts they don’t
speak.
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“Experience Is the New Brand”
To succeed today, your business must design an experience for your customers. You must
craft this experience as creatively as you would a novel or movie, so you surprise and delight
consumers at every touchpoint. From the moment you capture their attention, make your
customers the center of your brand’s universe. Meet and anticipate their needs.
Customer experience encompasses much more than good product design or service,
although those basics are essential. Smart companies take a customer-centered approach to
the smallest details. For instance, Apple spent months designing the iPod box to make sure
it would be easy to open. Starbucks encourages guests to customize menu items to foster
a personal connection.
Experience is essential, not only because consumers demand it but also because they will
share their opinions about their experiences on Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, YouTube and
blogs. New customers increasingly consult other users’ opinions and advice before making
buying decisions.
Customer Experience
Statistics show how important experience has become. In a survey by the consultancy
Zendesk, 40% of customers said they switched to a new brand because they heard about its
good customer service. A recent American Express study found that six out of 10 customers
remained longer with a company because they had agreeable customer experiences. Half
said they would pay more for outstanding service.
Most companies recognize the importance of cultivating a great customer experience.
According to a report from Oracle, 93% of executives interviewed said that improving
customer experience was among their firms’ “top three priorities for the next two
years.” But companies that follow through remain rare. Only 37% of the executives
in Oracle’s survey had an official customer-experience program in place. Companies

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“The experience starts
with the core of your
brand – what it means,
what it stands for
– and then evolves
from a commitment to
following through on
the brand promise in all
of the micro-moments
of the customer’s
journey.”
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“What if we stopped
assuming how the
customer thinks and
acts, and learned how
it’s different from what
we know?”
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“To animate your
understanding of your
customers, to give
them lives and specific
desires, hopes and
dreams, you must craft
nuanced, detailed
portraits.”
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“Seeing the world
through the eyes of
others gives you a
competitive advantage
because so few
businesses truly have a
disciplined method for
doing so.”
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spend considerably more on advertising than on customer experience, even though good
experiences can stimulate word-of-mouth recommendations that are more effective than
media ads.
“Experience Architecture”
Many companies don’t know how to create the architecture of a great customer experience.
Designing a unified, cohesive experience is daunting, especially when different silos
within a company have different metrics of customer satisfaction and separate (sometimes
conflicting) mechanisms for customer service.
Another problem is that many companies try to build today’s customer experience on the
base of legacy systems from a different technological era. Your interactive website may
have performed well on a desktop computer, but won’t fit on a mobile screen. Desktop
commands like clicking and scrolling don’t translate well to mobile devices. This gap will
intensify with the advent of newer technologies, such as wearable computers or the smart
apps of the Internet of Everything.
“Empathy”
Many companies don’t offer a good experience because they don’t know what their
customers want. Organizations with empathy – the ability to see life as their customers
do – are rare. Getting to know your customers is part science and part art. Set out like
an anthropologist to collect data and record your observations. Then, like a novelist or
screenwriter, analyze the data to create well-rounded portraits of various customer types.
Humanize these customer personas by giving them names and backstories.
For example, the research and design firm Bolt | Peters used interviews and data analysis
to craft six personas to represent the customers of the audio firm Dolby Laboratories. They
included “Tim,” an audiophile who uses high-end gear for a solitary escape into movies,
music or games, and gregarious “Megan,” who uses her audio equipment for entertainment
at social gatherings.
Customer Experience Map
To improve your customers’ paths through your site or store, create a map of their current
experiences. This will show you whether your digital and traditional customers have
different experiences, and will reveal which touchpoints are the most useful and which are
not. You’ll see whether customers must flip among multiple screens or if they can complete
their journey on one device. Evaluate whether you provide easy access for a community of
users who can offer testimonials and share buying advice.
Rail Europe created a five-foot-long map depicting its customers’ experience at six
touchpoints: research and planning, shopping, booking, acquiring tickets, travel and post-
travel. For instance, the map outlines the various outlets where customers can buy tickets,
such as the Rail Europe website, a call center, a mobile site or a third-party service such as
Expedia. With the map, company executives could see which touchpoints worked best.
Innovation
Innovation enhances customer experience. Too often, companies attempt to improve the
efficiency of legacy systems when they should rethink the journey altogether. That’s what
Disney did when it tried to smooth out friction points at its theme parks. With its “Magic
Band,” the company worked to improve efficiency and eliminate causes of inefficiency.
Now, when you visit a Disney theme park, you get a computerized wristband that you use

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“A good customer
experience ecosystem
grabs customers’
attention and then
delights them all
through their journey
with you.”
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“Designing with human
experience as an
explicit outcome and
human engagement
as an explicit goal is
different from the kinds
of design that have
gone before.”
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“What you want
people to share and
what you want people
to find is not an
accident, it’s designed.
This is experience
architecture.”
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“Experiences are more
important than products
now…experiences are
products.”
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to enter or leave the park, make purchases or open your hotel room door. You use the band
to make a reservation at a park restaurant and to place your order – when you approach the
restaurant, the band’s sensor alerts the staff members, who will have your table ready and
begin preparing your food. As COO Tom Staggs explains, “If we can get out of the way,
our guests can create more memories.”
The Circular Journey
Your customer’s journey isn’t a straight path that begins with awareness of your product and
ends with a purchase. The modern customer journey is a circle made up of four “Moments
of Truth.”
1. “The Zero Moment of Truth” – The ZMOT is the point where the customer begins
looking for a product to fulfill a particular need.
2. “The First Moment of Truth” – The FMOT is when the customer first encounters and
evaluates a particular product.
3. “The Second Moment of Truth” – The SMOT is the accumulation of “micro-
moments” that make up the customer experience. It includes customer satisfaction with
the product and with your service.
4. “The Ultimate Moment of Truth” – The UMOT happens when customers share
their experiences with others via YouTube, blogs, Twitter and through other media
channels. A well-designed Ultimate Moment experience leads customers to inspire other
consumers’ Zero Moments.
Mapping the Ideal
When you draw your customer personas’ experience maps, you may discover you’re not
offering an ideal experience. You may be luring customers into a disorienting, frustrating
maze. These customers will probably encounter different departments with different notions
of customer service, along with distinct and perhaps conflicting procedures.
But if you know your customers, you’ll be able to align the journey with their needs and
aspirations. Everyone in the company should work together to draft the ideal “experience
flow” map, which depicts the standards for every moment of the customer journey. Follow
these steps to create your experience flow map.
• Identify the target customers and the objective of the flow.
• Research your consumers through interviews, observation, customer diaries and
demographic studies.
• Find areas where you can improve current touchpoints or design new ones.
• Brainstorm solutions, test ideas on customers and depict the new flow.
Plot Points
When you map out the ideal experience, think of it as a “story.” After you attract customers’
attention, involve them in an experience that unfolds like the plot of a movie, play or novel.
Apple, for instance, brings a story approach to every moment of the customer experience.
Even opening the iPhone box is a mini-drama – you experience small peaks of mystery
and excitement as you uncover each layer in the box, leading to the climactic moment of
holding the phone itself.
Storyboards
A storyboard is a series of sketches that filmmakers use to outline a film’s narrative arc.
The notes show the development of the story. Writers rearrange sequences to deliver the

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“Customers form a
personal connection
with the brand where
experience becomes
a catalyst for ritual
visitation.”
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“We can learn a great
deal about how to
better serve people by
understanding how they
spend their time not
only with our products,
but in all other walks of
life.”
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“Because so few
companies offer quality
experiences, customers
are willing to pay more
for them.”
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most powerful emotional punch possible. Airbnb visualized the journey for personas that
represented types of hosts or guests. The storyboard described characters like Cassandra
(a “casual host”), Paul (a “pro host”), and Veronica and Rick (“vacation rental travelers”).
Humanizing these personas with names and drawings helped Airbnb understand their
motivations, thoughts and needs.
Construct your storyboard using these steps:
• “Ideation” – Brainstorm your concepts and themes.
• “Modeling” – Build your customer “narrative” using “visuals and cinematic ideas.”
• “Critique” – Analyze the emotional power of your narrative; invite others to say what
works and what doesn’t. Consider the power of individual sequences, and how sequences
fit together and influence one another.
• “Iteration” – Apply the judgments from the critiques; change the narrative accordingly.
• “Visual Language” – Find the most powerful images to illustrate the customer journey.
• “Point of View” – Consider how to present your values to customers.
• “Story Sensibility” – Choose how you tell your story, and what voice and attitude best
suit your needs.
• “Sincerity and Belief” – You cannot pander. Your customers will recognize and gravitate
toward an authentic presentation.
The Apple iPad
Apple Computer, particularly under the leadership of Steve Jobs, became a virtuoso of
customer experience. Apple’s emphasis on the human aspects of technology stands out in
particular. Apple designed this customer experience for its iPad Air tablet:
• The Zero Moment of Truth – Apple doesn’t attract consumers’ attention by touting
its products’ features. Instead, they are putting the user at the center of the experience.
As the iPad Air ads say: “Before we thought about what goes into it, we thought about
what you’ll get out of it.” On its website, Apple connects the shopper with community
feedback by sharing stories of how people use the iPad. Rather than broadcasting a
marketing message at searchers, it artfully opens a space for satisfied customers to
demonstrate the product’s value.
• The First Moment of Truth – Apple provides a link to its online store where you
can research your choices and make a purchase. You can ask for help from an Apple
representative or from a community of other users. If you want to try the tablet in person,
you can head to a real-world Apple Store, where representatives avoid sales pressure and
focus on support and guidance.
• The Second Moment of Truth – Apple makes sure your experience continues when
you become an iPad owner. It painstakingly designs the iPad’s box and shopping bag. It
provides access to free tech support from Apple’s Genius Bar.
• The Ultimate Moment of Truth – Your purchase brings you into the iPad users’
community. You can share your story or offer information to fuel someone else’s path.
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About the Authorgetabstract
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A principal analyst at Altimeter Group, Brian Solis wrote What’s the Future of Business? and The End of Business
as Usual, a Publisher’s Weekly Top 10 business book. He blogs at www.briansolis.com.