In 1974, Phillippe Petit walked across a high wire stretched between the twin towers. He walked a quarter mile above the ground amidst the cheers of onlookers below and the threat of NYPD who were waiting to arrest him for trespassing the moment he disembarked. His walk lasted an incredible 45 minutes and became a high watermark for performance art.

While he walked, Phillippe used a 26-foot long pole to aid his balance. A tightrope walker’s pole works by spreading out the walker’s mass. It also bends toward the ground keeping the acrobat’s center of gravity low. In order to work right, both sides of the pole must be evenly weighted.

Iconic companies are sort of like acrobats. They navigate unstable environments with elegance. This, of course, requires mastery of the art of balance. The best brands walk a tightrope of great customer experiences, and they do it by balancing technology with human talent. MIT Technology Review Insights recently surveyed over 550 senior executives from some of the world’s top companies, focusing specifically on the role of customer experience to shape an iconic brand.

Here are just a few major takeaways from the survey:

  • Leading firms leverage technology to connect the customer with the firm’s own culture to enhance and deepen customer relationships. For example, 77% have deployed advanced technologies for “voice of the customer” survey analytics.
  • Iconic companies hold partners to a common customer experience standard. But good partner management doesn’t mean sharing unique and proprietary customer insight.
  • 68% of iconic firms use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve customer experience. Consider Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. They use AI for 100% of customer inquiries and resolves 50% of them completely using AI.

Take the Right Steps to Iconic

Please join me for a webinar, Getting to Iconic – How leading brands balance technology and human talent to deliver exceptional CX, featuring Ross O’Brien from MIT Technology Review Insights.

We’ll explore the reasons behind the survey numbers and share valuable insight into:

  • Strategies that differentiate an iconic firm from other businesses
  • Breakthrough technologies that directly impact CX strategies and why
  • How strategies vary across regions based on maturity and customer expectations

 Register now for Getting to Iconic – How leading brands balance technology and human talent to deliver exceptional CX, and learn how your most successful peers build customer relationships.