CIOs Must Become Customer-Obsessed

The empowered customer is driving new models of business success that are rapidly redefining the CIO's investment agenda in successful firms — the inauguration of what Forrester calls the age of the customer. These customers use Net-based businesses and communities — like E-Trade, Amazon.com, Twitter, and Facebook — to disrupt the more traditional business models that have locked out competitors based on manufacturing capacity, retail locations, or market share. Companies are succeeding in the age of the customer by becoming customer-obsessed — investing in four areas: 1) real-time customer intelligence; 2) customer experience and customer service; 3) sales channels that deliver customer intelligence; and 4) useful content and interactive marketing.