Forrester conducted another successful conference last Friday, September 1, at our Customer Experience (CX) Marketing Shanghai 2016 Forum.With insightful content, influential industry speakers, and great event organization, we are grateful for the excellent feedback that we received from the delegates who were present.

A total of 190 CX and marketing professionals attended this event, joined by 23 Forresterites from all over the globe. As the event host, I was approached by many attendees during the networking breaks and at the end of the event who unanimously expressed their appreciation and their willingness to work with Forrester for their CX initiatives. CX, though in its early stage in the China market, is getting traction from senior leadership in many organizations, and Forrester is definitely at the forefront of CX research in challenging thinking and leading change.

Forrester analysts and our distinguished guest speakers shared their insights into the following topics with the audience:

  • Innovation. From the latest digital trends to design thinking, companies now have access to an arsenal of methodologies and tools to improve their CX and drive sustainable business growth with CX excellence.
  • Social. Social media is indeed an integral part of our lives, and CX and marketing pros ought to leverage it to take their CX to the next level. Speakers from Tencent, IHG, Decathlon, and Social Touch showcased their thought leadership in this area and demonstrated that social media can help up your game and generate tangible results.
  • Culture. We also heard from The Walt Disney Company that for the ultimate CX, companies should run their businesses with heart. Customer centricity then took center stage when Adobe and Epsilon talked about how they drive CX from a cultural perspective. 

Another highlight of the event was when winners of the first-ever China CX Index awards were announced. China Merchants Bank, Anbang Insurance, Huawei, IKEA, and Womai.com were named leaders in their respective industries, based on a survey of more than 9,000 metro Chinese online adult consumers that measured and ranked the CX quality of 36 brands. Congratulations to the winners — we are confident that we will see better performance from them and other firms next year!

Thank you all for making this event a tremendous success and hope to see you next year!