A Guest Post By Mark Grace, President, BeyondVia

Changes may come and go away, but some big changes stay a long time. Big changes may become part of the basic fabric of life. It is a safe bet that the big changes of the internet and related online activities like shopping and video watching are here to stay. Almost every person has a cell phone. The changes brought about by the Internet and cell phones are relatively new. So, what is the NEXT big change to stay?

The NEXT big change is that consumers will buy entire experiences, and fewer stand-alone, single products. Just as society moved from agricultural to industrial products, we are moving to an experience economy. Consumers are growing more befuddled each day with the millions of products to choose from, and no one to help them integrate all these choices together in their complex and time-crunched lives. Consumers just do the “best they can” to assemble a life. To reduce the complexity, many consumers just follow routine habits and do less. Companies are beginning to realize that the more they require customers to do, the less they will buy and use.

Some companies are implementing the NEXT big thing buy selling entire experiences of all required products and actions. Examples include experiences like getting from here to there (i.e. Uber) or overnight living experiences in a community (i.e. Airbnb). Consumers will be able to economically buy entire experiences with multiple products and services all at once, at the time of need. I call this type of buying – Experidigm™ purchases. Consumers will be able to buy experidigms like Better Health Care, where traditional medicine is easily partnered with eastern medicine like acupuncture and with Better Food Experidigms. Better Food experidigms may focus on natural and fresh, prepared for immediate delivery, car traffic willing or by flying delivery drones. Specific experidigm related community centers may spring up to assist consumers in designing and living their NEXT experidigms while using the internet on their phones – big changes work together.

As with all big changes, some short-term impediments stand in the way. So far, the biggest impediment to selling and delivering entire experiences is the “silo” structure of companies.  In the current product world, companies tend to build a “profit” silo for each product and have that product silo compete internally for resources, bonuses, and customers. “Silos” sell their product, leaving it up to the customer to figure out how to integrate the single product into their life. Company attempts at “cross-selling” multiple individual products to serve customers rarely work, as the trust between “silos” is low when performance bonuses may be compromised. To deliver entire experiences, some silo companies build marshaling and logistics experience organizations that deliver the entire customer experience. These experience organizations can source products from internal silos and external partners to ensure customer satisfaction. The goal is to be part of the ongoing customer experience. Products are being commoditized by ultra-efficient supply chains. Experiences are value added.

Experidigm delivery is proving successful in certain industries. For example, for energy utilities, suppliers offer hundreds of products and software solutions working together as the Smart Grid experience.  The goal of the experience is to have maximum uptime for the energy to flow to consumers.  In commercial construction, owners are requiring structures to be more flexible and responsive to changing needs and lifestyles.  Buildings are becoming Alive Space experiences adapting real time to the changing experiences of users.

The word “experience” is being used a lot these days. In most cases, the word is used to focus on efficiently and digitally delivering all the transactions a customer may experience in the buying process, sometimes called journey mapping. This transaction mapping is a good thing, but it is still deeply rooted in the product world. The shift to the experidigm world focuses on integrating all the products and associated activities of the entire customer usage experience, not just the transactions.

The future for this NEXT big experidigm thing looks bright.  The world is shifting from a product-based world to an experience based world. Enjoy your purchased experidigm. For more details, send questions to markgrace@beyondvia.com.

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