Between consumer demands for more personalized and greater data privacy and competitive pressures to provide better omnichannel customer experiences, brands are faced with a dilemma: build a foundation for the future of customer relationships or lose relevancy in a crowded marketplace.
Doing this, however, is not without its challenges. While many enterprises undertake digital transformations in order to modernize and anticipate future changes, these efforts are often fraught with roadblocks, and many fail to deliver the results promised.
The way to do this forms the foundation of House of the Customer. In this eleventh book from best-selling author Greg Kihlström, readers are guided through the elements of a 1:1, customer-first, employee-driven enterprise that includes seven key elements, why they are important, and how to implement them. These seven elements are explained in terms of building your brand as a “house” for your customers and aligning people, processes, and platforms in a customer-centric manner driven by strategic key performance indicators (KPIs) and measured by tangible business outcomes. The book also features a foreword by Barry Padgett, CEO of leading Customer Data Platform (CDP) company Amperity.
Drawing on Kihlström’s experience working with top organizations, as well as dozens of interviews with Fortune 500 customer experience leaders and industry-leading platform marketing technology executives and thought leaders for this book and his podcast, The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström, the blueprint to achieve a customer-centric, sustainable platform for growth is made tangible.
House of the Customer is Kihlström’s eleventh book, following Meaningful Measurement of the Customer Experience (2022), The Center of Experience (2020), his Agile Brand Guides series, and his Agile series, which includes The Agile Brand (2018), and The Agile Consumer (2019). The House of the Customer will be available in January 11, 2023 in print and as an ebook from Amazon and other retailers.
About Greg Kihlström
Greg is a best-selling author, speaker, and entrepreneur, currently an advisor and consultant to top companies on customer experience, employee experience, and digital transformation initiatives as Principal and Chief Strategist at GK5A. He is also the host of The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström podcast. He is a two-time CEO and Co-Founder, growing both companies, and ultimately leading both to be acquired (in 2017 and 2021). As a strategist, digital transformation, and customer experience advisor, he has worked with some of the world’s top brands, including Adidas, Choice Hotels, Coca-Cola, Dell, FedEx, HP, Marriott, Toyota, and VMware.
He is a member of the School of Marketing Faculty at the Association of National Advertisers, currently serves on the University of Richmond’s Customer Experience Advisory Board, was the founding Chair of the American Advertising Federation’s National Innovation Committee, and served on the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business Marketing Mentorship Advisory Board. Greg is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certified, is an Agile Certified Coach (ICP-ACC) and holds a certification in Business Agility (ICP-BAF).
Meaningful Measurement of the Customer Experience (2022), Greg’s eighth and previous book provides guidance on how to create a customer-centric culture that prioritizes customer needs while aligning internal teams around a common goal. Greg’s book, The Center of Experience (2020) talks about how customer and employee experience can be operationalized into a cohesive brand experience. The Agile Brand (2018), follows the evolution of branding from its beginnings to the authentic relationship with brands that modern consumers want, and gives practical examples of what you can do to create a more modern, agile brand while staying true to your core values. His podcast, The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström, launched in early 2019 and discusses brand strategy, marketing, and customer experience with some of the world’s leading experts and leaders.
Greg is a regular contributing writer to Forbes and CMSWire, and has been featured in publications such as Advertising Age, and The Washington Post. Greg was named one of ICMI’s Top 25 CX Thought Leaders of 2022, and a DC Inno 50 on Fire winner as a trendsetter in Marketing. He’s participated as a keynote speaker at industry events around the world including Internet Week New York, Internet Summit, EventTech, SMX Social Media, MarTech, and VMworld.
