Who really owns the experience.

We talk a lot about the evolution of a brand’s consumer experience and how all signs are pointing towards it becoming the single biggest factor in a purchase decision for a consumer. It all sounds great until you start to dive into how a consumer experience actually comes to life within an organization. It’s usually an amalgamated collection of different departments with different goals and incentives. 

For example, a holistic consumer experience for an auto manufacturer consists of advertising, the website, social media, financing, the test driver, the dealership, the mobile app that connects to the car, service and maintenance and, if all goes well, the repurchase of a new one. That’s a lot of moments and touchpoints that the consumer sees as one company, however the company treats it as, at least, 10 different departments - usually without an overarching consumer experience strategy. 

With all these touchpoints and varying degrees of KPIs, the question I have is “Who owns the consumer experience at a corporate level?” 

Traditional organizations are finding it hard to break the cycle of different departments “working together” to create the experience, with assumed, but not documented guidance on the consumer experience. 

Growth stage startups like Warby Parker, Casper and Glossier on the other hand created their organizations with the experience first, ensuring that the journey their consumer’s take are effectively branded, exciting and easy - creating a singular relationship with their consumers. 

As we are getting to the halfway point of 2019 and looking towards 2020 and beyond where growth will become harder and harder to come by, the first question organizations need to answer is “Who owns the consumer experience?” Understanding this creates the latitude and opens the aperture to fully define and create the brand’s experience for their consumer - adding incremental and step-change value to each relationship throughout their journey.