Good morning, and where is CX on the hype cycle?
You know the hype cycle? This is Gartner’s model for the lifecycle stages of a technology: from innovation to a high peak of inflated expectations, to a deep trough of disillusionment, the back up a gentle path of enlightenment to a plateau of use.
Where is CX right now? Are expectations inflated, and will disillusionment follow? We’re in special circumstances, undreamt of by Gartner, where customers’ expectations for experience have sky-rocketed in response to profoundly altered lifestyles and rapidly evolving relationships with brands. As Brian Solis said in his MarTech keynote, what’s coming out of COVID is “Generation Novel.” Gen N has really gotten over transactional relationships with faceless brands. It’s looking for meaningful relationships, solid values, and ethics.
It’s also quite willing to look at new brands and new ways of engagement. Let’s look back a year from now and assess whether CX as now conceived was up to this challenge: maybe it can go directly from peak expectations to table stakes, without falling into the trough.
Kim Davis,
Editorial Director, MarTech Today
