Forrester is helping its clients better understand the Age of the Customer, a tectonic business shift characterized by technology innovations that have empowered customers in new and disruptive ways. With computing power we could only have dreamed of just a generation ago now in the hands of well over a billion individuals, businesses are scrambling to keep up with relentlessly growing customer expectations and demands.

A recent Forrester report, called ‘The CIO's Blueprint For Strategy In The Age Of The Customer’, provides CIOs with a strategy to help their companies thrive in these new times. In addition to transforming customer experience with a measurable approach, the authors argue that customer obsessed organizations must:

1.       Accelerate digital business to deliver greater agility and customer value

2.       Embrace the mobile mind shift to serve customers in their moments of need

3.       Turn big data into business insights for continuous improvement

When analyzing data from Forrester’s Business Technographics® product we see that many companies recognize the need for improving the experience of their customers. Our recent Global Priorities and Customer Journey survey shows that 32% of business and technology decision makers in North America identified customer experience improvement as a critical priority. Enterprises identifying customer experience improvement as a critical priority are dramatically more likely to invest in the business technology levers identified in the CIO strategy blueprint.

Organizations prioritizing customer experience are more likely to use data and analytics to guide business outcomes, invest in mobility both externally and internally and shift spending from operational to customer facing applications. Organizations that are not already prioritizing the experience of their customers – and aligning business technology resources accordingly – risk being left behind in the Age of the Customer.