Fifteen minutes of fame has become 15 seconds . . .  if you are lucky.  Mass customization is the call of the day, as big box stores retreat in the face of 2-day Amazon Prime delivery.   Librarians can no longer keep up with the cataloging of new information.  There is too much and it is coming too fast.

Hollywood is grappling with the fact that instantaneous reviews of the latest movie on Rotten Tomatoes, is determining financial success immediately.  Like the outcome of the Super Bowl, now judgement is in hours, instead of days and weeks.

In the new world of dialog, value is in the exchange of opinions and insights.  This includes names like: Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, Facebook, Yelp, and hundreds of others.

In the middle of this exchange of information, the birth of a measuring device for the Customer Experience has emerged.  It most common name is Net Promoter Score.  It is centered on one question.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to tell your friends and family about your experience?”

Enterprises must deal with the fact that their customers are talking about them (in both good and bad ways).   Building creativity that causes innovation in the organization must become standard training.  Turn those lemons, not into lemonade, but into Sprite.   In Health Care, patient feedback is affecting government and private insurance payments (HHCAHPS).  Disney is on a tear to gobble up Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars, as buzz-equity explodes.  Twitter serves up mistakes to millions at the speed of light, as it becomes a news source to the news industry.

Where Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction were once the ante to get into the game, now the Customer Experience is the imperative.  If people are not talking about their experience with you in a positive way, then you are hosed.

But wait.  There is more.  What comes after incredible customer experiences?  What is the future?