Highlights of the CX Summit held January 28, 2021:

The organisers of the CX Summit (www.cxsummit.gr) did a fantastic job moving the event to an online format and expanding its reach to a global audience with 450 attendees from 30 countries. The day featured 18 internationally-known speakers sharing the latest thinking on themes including B2B customer experience, ROI and the business case for CX, metrics and KPIs, COVID-19 implications and opportunities, and (from my side) platform CX.

In my talk, Three Keys to Customer Experience for Platform Businesses, I gave a simple overview of the rise of platform businesses for a novice audience. I described how the practice of CX is grounded in the marketing of pipeline businesses and focuses on the optimisation of linear value chains. I explained some of the key differences between pipelines and platforms and how CX needs to evolve alongside changing business models. I also offered three basic keys to platform CX: Value, Usability and Trust, drawn from the literature of the platform economy, customer experience, user experience and user acceptance of technology.

In the Q&A following the talk, attendees showed a great interest in platform topics, including whether some platforms have become too large and powerful, and whether platforms create conditions of unfair competition with pipeline business that join them. I advised CX professionals that poor understanding of business models (on both the pipeline and platform sides) will undermine their ability to inform business strategy going forward. More specifically, they need to understand that CX as a competitive advantage depends on both business model and correct assumptions about market conditions, such as competition and switching. I was very encouraged by the reaction to this talk, the increased awareness of platforms, and the likelihood that customer experience practices can be modernised to better align with platform business drivers.