The document discusses how customer experience has become the most important factor for business success and competitive advantage. It outlines how new digital technologies have empowered customers and shifted power from producers to buyers. The document then provides recommendations for companies to build their customer experience strategy, including adopting a customer-centric approach, using data and analytics to understand customers, and creating a seamless experience across all digital channels. It also shares examples of companies that have transformed their customer experience through new technologies.

1. THE NEW CX
PARADIGM:
USING ORACLE CLOUD TO COMPETE
WHEN THE CUSTOMER IS KING

2. “GONE ARE THE DAYS OF THE CORPORATE
BRAND BEING CONTROLLED BY THE C-SUITE
OR MARKETING IVORY TOWER. TODAY YOUR
BRAND IS WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE SAYS IT IS.”
MARK SUNDAY, CIO, ORACLE
Customers are the most powerful force in today’s market.
Are you prepared to meet their expectations and demands?
In today’s marketplace, buyers are more powerful than other
forces such as suppliers and long-established brands. How
do companies understand and react to this important shift in
power? In this guide, we’ll measure the value and importance of
the customer experience (CX) to an organization and show how
industry leaders are overcoming traditional obstacles to growth by
embracing revolutionary business models. We’ll also identify the
key factors that business leaders need to consider to thrive under
this new paradigm.
64%
89%
12
CONSUMERS
SAY CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE IS
MORE IMPORTANT
THAN PRICE WHEN
DECIDING WHO GETS
THEIR BUSINESS
CONSUMERS BEGAN
DOING BUSINESS
WITH A COMPETITOR
FOLLOWING A
POOR CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
THE NUMBER
OF POSITIVE
EXPERIENCES IT
TAKES TO MAKE UP
FOR ONE POOR ONE
Is it possible to overstate just how
important customer satisfaction
and retention are? The numbers
speak for themselves.

3. THE TRENDS:
SHOCKING THE SYSTEM VIA
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
In 2015, customer experience can be an asset more valuable than physical
resources or intellectual property. Companies that successfully prioritize the
customer experience have the ability to move from startup to superpower almost
overnight.
In many verticals, the long-established barriers to entry have collapsed. While
factors such as physical location, supply chains, and longtime brand loyalty
determined the market leaders in the past, today a powerful and personalized digital
experience can be the greatest differentiator.
Technology gives customers the ability to search, comment, bargain, recommend,
re-sell, and literally make or break a product or service. And they’re using that power
every day.
ALIBABA
The most valuable
retailer has no inventory.
UBER
The world’s largest taxi
company owns no fleet.
AIRBNB
The largest accommodation
provider owns no real estate.
FACEBOOK
The most popular media
owner creates no content.1

4. SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY
BY FOCUSING ON INNOVATION
The company that builds and maintains market share is likely to
be the one that fights for “King Customer,” rather than trying
to overthrow him. Businesses must constantly review and
improve the digital experience for all stakeholders, transforming
the relationship, never resting on past success in meeting or
surpassing customer demands.
“Adapt or die” is the blunt response from Harish Venkat, Oracle’s
VP of Business Development in North America, who elaborates:
“TECHNOLOGY HAS SHIFTED THE BALANCE
OF POWER IN THE TRADITIONAL VALUE CHAIN
FROM PRODUCERS TO INTERMEDIARIES - AND
NOW TO BUYERS. INVESTORS HAVE REWARDED
COMPANIES THAT HAVE BEST CAPITALIZED ON
THIS VALUE CHAIN SHIFT.”
Successful companies aren’t resting on their laurels, but are
constantly re-evaluating how to learn from and engage the buyer.
Instead of destroying the competitor, industry leaders work every
day to empower end users even more, because that empowerment
is what they expect and demand. Cloud computing, social
media, the Internet of Things, and even yet unnamed emerging
technologies have altered the landscape forever.
So what are the first steps?
COMPANIES EXPECT TO
COMPETE PRIMARILY
ON THE BASIS OF
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
RATHER THAN ON PRICE
POINT OR PRODUCT
DIFFERENTIATION IN THE
NEXT TWO YEARS, SAYS
RESEARCH FIRM GARTNER.
89%

5. STEP ONE:
THE CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS
1
2
5
3
4
40% 46% 72%85%
MORE IS SPENT BY CUSTOMERS
WHO ENGAGE WITH COMPANIES
OVER SOCIAL MEDIA2
ORGANIZATIONS WILL HAVE
CONSIDERED A CLOUD BI
DEPLOYMENT BY 2015
CONSUMERS HAVE A MORE FAVORABLE
VIEW OF A COMPANY IF THEY PROVIDE
A CUSTOMER SERVICE APP3
USERS FIND IT FRUSTRATING WHEN
A COMPANY’S WEBSITE IS NOT
CONFIGURED FOR MOBILE BROWSING
existing websites. Today, the best digital interfaces are designed and launched with the
mobile customer as the primary target. Are your apps designed for user adoption? Do
users enjoy a consistent online experience?
ASSESS, ALLOCATE AND AUTOMATE
Understanding your current customer experience capabilities enables you to
address areas of weakness. How effective are the experiences you offer your
customers? How do your experiences compare to those of your competitors? In
addition, keep in mind that your competitors are moving from manual processes to
digital automation in order to contain costs and meet client needs more efficiently, so
any plan needs to include a schedule for making this transition.
EXPERTISE AND INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS
It can be dangerous to rely on intuition when it comes to transforming your
business. Consulting with a customer experience expert can help you build
the processes and tools to understand your customers and their needs across all
mobile, social, digital, and in-person channels. Ensuring that your brand is integrated
professionally and seamlessly in these areas enables you to move beyond short-term
surveys and make the most out of each interaction.
With this dramatic shift in landscape, where organizations can
rise and fall more quickly and dramatically than ever, there is little
room for error. Here are some key considerations for any customer
experience strategy.
BUILD A PLATFORM FOR SUCCESS
Do you have a common platform, powerful and flexible enough to build applications
and then enable their seamless integration? Even customers who have invested
in on-site systems can benefit from evaluating cloud and hybrid options. Can you
implement and integrate solutions for sales, marketing, and service delivery on the
same system? An adaptable, scalable, and secure platform delivers a solid foundation
on which all of these features can operate and interact, connecting every customer
engagement to your brand. Does it meet your analytics needs, your mobility needs,
and your social marketing needs? In many cases, your ability to compete starts here.
INTELLIGENCE MATTERS
A customer-centric approach falls short without the business intelligence to
access, understand, and properly leverage customer data. When choosing a
solution, keep in mind that your company’s needs can change based on acquisitions,
geographical expansion, and other factors. Find out if your service provider offers
options for cloud-based, on-premises, and hybrid approaches to analytics.
YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE EVERYWHERE
And they expect you to be there, too. Is your mobile app just a “lite” version of
your website? When the first smartphones emerged, apps were follow-ups to

6. “Technological advances are
helping change the equation
with regards to customer
experience. Companies
such as Trulia, Airbnb, and
OpenTable have upended their
respective industries by using
innovative technologies such
as big data, mobility, and the
cloud to better reach and serve
customers.”
THOMAS KURIAN,
PRESIDENT OF PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT, ORACLE

7. STEP TWO:
SHOW THEM THE MONEY
Some stakeholders, including investors, might not have embraced the
message. If you’re still seeking support to implement a new CX-focused
strategy, share these numbers:
Companies that put a premium on customer experience outperform their
industry peers in:
PROFITABILITY: When companies prioritize the customer experience, they
generate 60% higher profits than their competitors.4
A 10% increase in
customer retention yields a 30% increase in the value of the company. And a
5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by 25-125%.
COMPANY PERFORMANCE: Firms that excel in delivering superior customer
experiences have outperformed the S&P 500 index by nearly 30% over a six-
year period; those that deliver poor experiences underperform by more than
45%.5
In addition, Gartner’s 2014 CEO Survey shows revenue growth as the most
pressing strategic mandate in business today. When asked for the top priority
in technology-related business capabilities to support this growth agenda,
CEOs identified digital marketing, followed closely by customer experience.
“What big data, cloud, mobile, and
social have enabled is the fundamental
rethinking of business. Industries we
never thought would be disrupted are
being totally reinvented by leveraging
the digital transformation.”
MARK SUNDAY, CIO, ORACLE
10%
+30% -45%
30%=
VS.
INCREASE
IN CUSTOMER
RETENTION
FIRMS WITH SUPERIOR
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
FIRMS WITH POOR
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
IN COMPANY PERFORMANCE IN COMPANY PERFORMANCE
INCREASE
IN COMPANY
VALUE

8. STEP THREE: LOOKING AHEAD
Strategies and tools to understand and respond to customer behavior
have come a long way, and they continue to evolve rapidly. Cloud-based
and hybrid systems have replaced direct mail and simple surveys,
enabling business leaders to employ new solutions more quickly and
easily. Designed to meet the changing needs of the business, Oracle
offers a complete and integrated solution that breaks down silos to
deliver a seamless customer experience across marketing, sales,
social, and service channels, connecting every customer engagement
with your brand.
Above all, the business that understands and reacts to user demands
will succeed not just as a vendor, but as a true partner to an
increasingly empowered customer base.
Oracle’s portfolio of cloud-based customer experience solutions
enables clients to plan, analyze, and manage every customer interaction
without the substantial investment in on-premise technologies or the
resources required to support those technologies. From transforming
marketing operations to automated email campaigns targeted by role
(and tracking the response rates of those campaigns) to providing
end customers the ability to immediately address their own questions
via integrated knowledge management, Oracle’s Cloud CX solutions
provide a comprehensive solution for optimizing the continuum of a
customer interaction.

9. SUCCESS STORIES
A MODEL FOR SUCCESS: KP ONCALL
Healthcare organizations are aware that, for many patients, an office visit can
be more than a minor inconvenience. It may require taking time off work, or
making complicated or expensive travel arrangements. And a doctor’s office
never feels as comfortable or private as one’s own home. When it’s difficult
for a patient to make or keep appointments, the provider suffers as well.
Like firms in most industries, healthcare organizations are confronting the
changing expectations of the consumer. KP OnCall, a division of Kaiser
Permanente, has been a leader providing cost-effective and convenient care
for both existing patients and newly insured individuals, even though an
increase in patients doesn’t necessarily lead to an increase in the number of
providers on staff.
To overcome the dual challenge of rising expectations and limited resources,
KP OnCall sought a solution to reduce the need for in-person care. The
answer: instead of cutting back, they added new options, including self-
service. Partnering with Perficient experts and using Oracle Service Cloud, KP
OnCall created the Web Self Service & Nurse Chat to empower patients with
a choice of self-assessment versus waiting to speak to a nurse on the phone
or go in for an appointment. Nominated for an Oracle Excellence Award, the
solution has enhanced the customer experience and improved KP OnCall’s
bottom line.
REDUCED PATIENT VISITS AND LOWER HEALTHCARE COSTS
EMPOWERED PATIENTS THROUGH SELF-TREATMENT
DELIVERED ALTERNATE METHODS OF PATIENT/PROVIDER COMMUNICATION
MANAGED SYMPTOMS AND MEDICAL CONDITIONS FOR THE PATIENTS
AND POPULATIONS THEY SERVE
GENERATED DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS
This program enables online interviews and other communications between
medical professionals and their patients. The relationships can include online
routing of prescriptions to pharmacies and instructions for follow-up care. The
result is personalized care that can turn a bad experience into a plus for all
parties involved.

10. TURNING MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS
INTO RELEVANT, PERSONALIZED
RELATIONSHIPS: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Enjoying an edition of National Geographic has been a tradition for
generations. But nostalgia isn’t enough when dealing with a new generation
that grew up with the web, and the direct mail approach that succeeded
for decades is no longer a winning strategy. As marketing executive
Marc Haseltine explained, “We want to be relevant to our customers, our
subscribers, our fans.”
National Geographic used Oracle CX offerings to gain insights into customer
behavior and then acted to meet changing stakeholder needs. Moving
away from a one-size-fits-all approach, a new email strategy focused on
understanding the readers’ preferences for product offers and content
and then delivering the digital experience required. Even with new data to
leverage, Haseltine admitted that this aggressive push was ambitious, but
that they were able to hit every target. Today it might be online and not on
paper, but National Geographic is still finding ways to reach readers.
CREW CLOTHING ADDRESSES A
CHANGING MARKETPLACE
Online shopping has lowered the barriers to entry for new retailers, making
the fashion industry more competitive. At Crew, the IT and marketing teams
chose Oracle Cloud to gain customer insights, such as what interests the
user base, what constitutes an ‘incentive’ for them, which devices buyers
use, and more. In addition, they segmented their customer base by purchase
history, email and social interactions, as well as site visits, and used the cloud
service for measuring customer activity levels both pre- and post-campaign
for accurate benchmarking.
Crew had the tools needed to compete with the upstarts. It was able to use
Oracle Marketing Cloud to understand buyer behavior, segment the market,
implement a more personalized email marketing strategy, and reward and
retain loyal customers.
20% INCREASE IN ACTIVE USERS
25% DECREASE IN LAPSED USERS
75% INCREASE IN EMAIL OPEN RATES

11. ABOUT THE AUTHORDANIEL RABBITT
Marketing Manager, Oracle Group, Perficient
Daniel Rabbitt has more than 20 years of experience driving
marketing initiatives in the U.S. and overseas for technology and
service companies including IBM, Dow Jones, and Software AG
Americas. His previous work has been covered in leading publications including
The Wall Street Journal and Network World. He leads marketing for Perficient’s
Oracle practice and has delivered messaging and thought leadership on such
topics as customer experience and digital transformation.
RESOURCES:
1
Tom Goodwin, Techcrunch
2
Elan Media
3
Nuance
4
Gartner Group, “Leading on the Edge of Chaos,” 2013
5
Watermark Consulting, 2013

12. ABOUT PERFICIENTPerficient is a leading technology and
management consulting firm serving Global
2000 and enterprise customers throughout
North America. Our digital experience, business
optimization, and industry solutions enable clients
to improve productivity and competitiveness;
strengthen relationships with customers, suppliers
and partners; and reduce costs.
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