age of the customer

Everyone I’m speaking to in security at the moment is going through some kind of an uplift, a transformation, or a major program of works (e.g., Zero Trust). As someone who’s had to kick off and lead large transformation in large bureaucratic organizations, I know exactly the challenges involved. They are mostly internal and political […]

Augmented reality (AR) and the internet of things (IoT) — in principle, these two hot technologies are a great match, with data streaming from IoT-connected machines to be used by AR-wielding engineers on the factory floor. My latest report, “Combine Augmented And Mixed Reality With IoT To Deliver Insight At The Point Of Need,” began […]

Product information management (PIM) tools help marketing and product teams ingest, enrich, and distribute product data — but the functional description sells the full value of PIM short. The mandate to support product experience continues to grow in prominence within the PIM world. By now, most people in the field nod along at variations of […]

David Holmes formerly worked for both F5 Networks and Shape Security. The F5 Networks acquisition of Shape Security marked the third time in a year that a web application firewall (WAF) vendor purchased a bot management solution, as fellow Forrester analyst Sandy Carielli noted in her blog (The WAF-Bot Management Acquisition Waltz). The other two […]

I’ve just returned from NRF 2020. There were more than 40,000 attendees and 800 exhibitors from 99 countries. They showed how to deliver real-time retail, applying technology to win, serve, and retain the most demanding retail customers. This year, the emphasis was more than ever on boosting supply chain responsiveness to anticipate customers’ latent demand. […]

Three brands that shined and three that lost some luster in 2019, along with what to look for in 2020.

As AI and automation move deeper into customer service, new areas will be impacted including staffing, processes, and culture.

As AI and automation infuse the contact center, the role of the agent is changing. Contact centers are already seeing: Agents losing their jobs. Modern self-service technologies are giving customers the ability to find answers to frequently asked questions and to resolve simple issues. This takes away the routine work of generalists and tier 1 […]

Evaluating a vendor's go-to-market strategy can provide some key insights for technology buyers.

This is the fifth and final entry in a short blog series highlighting lessons about consumer behavior and attitude to take away from the previous decade. Here, you can find the first, second, third, and fourth posts. I close by emphasizing an age-old, fundamental human truth that takes on renewed significance given the latest shifts […]

AI, Privacy, And Transparency Dominate The Marketing Discussion At CES 2020 Rather than trolling the floor of the more than 4,400 exhibits at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) looking for the technology of the future, Jay Pattisall tried something different: listening to the conversations of marketers and agency executives for hot issues. Artificial intelligence […]

At last week’s CES event, I saw the latest and greatest advancements that will make TVs better and digital humans a reality. But my real focus: What changes will impact the retail industry? The headline: AI + computer vision + robotics = easier and more personalized customer experiences and the chance for companies to keep […]

Want To Know The $ Value Of Improving CX By One Point? We calculated it for you — at least if you are in one of the 15 industries that our new report “How Customer Experience Drives Business Growth, 2019” features. And if you aren’t, check out how we calculated the upside of CX (see […]

In the last decade, the term “boycott” pulsed through global consumer chatter and search queries. Whether consumers were talking about sneakers, seltzer, or the Academy Awards, the frequency of the word “boycott” spiked to some of the highest levels since the early 2000s. It’s tempting to assume that consumer activism will subside as swiftly as […]

Today I present the third of five key consumers lessons to take away from the 2010s. You can find the previous two here and here. Ten years ago, a wave of demonstrations and protests in the Middle East reshaped our understanding of social media’s influence; the Arab Spring turned up the volume on debate about […]

This is the second installment in a series of five blog posts highlighting important lessons about consumer behavior and attitude that emerged from the past decade. If a retrospective look on the 2010s conjures feelings of uncertainty, peering through the lens of legacy brand leaders only dramatizes the sense of instability as the volume and […]

There’s no better time to examine the past and future than when crossing the threshold of a new year and decade. During this time of thoughtful retrospection, it’s easy to exaggerate how dramatically the world has changed, thanks to cognitive bias. But certain changes are undeniable — after all, we entered 2010 at a time […]