Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

As markets around the world continue to decline, credit stays tight, and job cuts escalate, making the case for customer experience will be even more of a challenge. But firms can ensure that the experiences they offer don't degrade — and hopefully improve — during the economic downturn. To do this, customer experience professionals should focus on keeping current projects from getting cut, making the business case for funding new projects, investing in small projects that pay large dividends, and identifying the investments they must make to achieve the next level of Experience-Based Differentiation (EBD) maturity when the inevitable recovery occurs and budgets improve.