Open World CX | Why Open World CX? It's About ALL The Touchpoints

Marketers and CX Professionals: Let's continue to build the MarTech stack to deliver personalized omnichannel CX.

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Stop Trying to Dictate What Your Customers Should Do and Create An Open World for Them to Explore

TL;DR: Gone are the days when customers interacted with brands through a single, predictable channel. Now, they move between apps, websites, in-store visits, social media, and voice assistants with the same ease they scroll past ads that don’t interest them.

For brands, building an open world customer experience that has multiple entry points and infinite ways of engaging with customers isn’t an inconvenience or even a pipe dream—it’s an opportunity. The ones that figure out how to meet customers where they are (without making them start over every time they switch devices) will win. The ones that don’t? Well, they’ll be left wondering why their email open rates are plummeting.

This level of integration isn’t just nice—it’s necessary. Customers expect brands to recognize them across every touchpoint, not treat each interaction like a brand-new relationship. When done right, open world CX builds trust, strengthens relationships, and gives brands valuable insight into customer behavior—all while making customers feel like the brand gets them. And at the end of the day, that’s what keeps them coming back instead of wandering off to a competitor that does it better.

Personalized experiences are the backbone of this. According to McKinsey, loyalty program members who receive tailored rewards spend up to 15% more per year. That’s not magic—it’s basic human nature.

Give people offers that make sense, and they’ll engage. Give them something irrelevant (looking at you, poorly targeted promotions), and they’ll disengage faster than a shopper confronted with a "Do you need help?" the second they step into a store.        

Listen: Greg talks with Lisa Ferriter from The Office of Experience and David Galbraith from Mack Trucks about finding innovative ways to transform #CX. Catch the episode here, or click below.

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Adopting open world CX isn’t about being trendy—it’s about survival. Customers no longer compare you to your direct competitors; they compare you to whoever last gave them a frictionless, personalized experience. This means that even if you’re in, say, B2B manufacturing, your customer’s expectations are being shaped by Amazon, Netflix, and that coffee chain that knows their order better than their own family does.

The brands that figure this out sooner rather than later will pull ahead, leaving the laggards to wonder why their "customer retention strategy" consists of increasingly desperate discount emails.

Open world CX isn’t just about making customers happy—it’s about ensuring they don’t even consider leaving in the first place. Because if you’re not meeting expectations, someone else will. And they probably have better AI.        

Dissatisfaction with the Current State

The case for open world CX has never been stronger. With advanced technology like big data and generative AI paving the way, customer expectations pushing brands to deliver more personalized, seamless experiences, and the clear business benefits of increased loyalty and competitive advantage, the time to act is now. These three key drivers—technology, customer demand, and brand benefits—converge to make this the ideal moment for companies to rethink their approach to customer experience.

Of course, challenges remain. Real-time data processing, omnichannel consistency, and breaking down organizational silos are not small tasks. But the rewards far outweigh the hurdles. Brands that commit to creating open world CX will not only meet customer expectations but also deepen relationships, increase lifetime value, and position themselves as leaders in their industries.

So, where does your brand stand?

• Take a hard look at your current customer experience and assess your readiness.
• Are your systems capable of supporting real-time, personalized interactions?
• Are you enabling seamless journeys across every channel?
• And most importantly, are you truly meeting your customers where they are?

Now is the time to invest in the technology, processes, and culture needed to make open world CX a reality—and to reap the substantial rewards that come with it.        

In the next edition, we're going to talk about the opportunities brands have to create an open world across channels and touchpoints

?? Want to explore more? This is what I do: I work with organizations to build better omnichannel experiences. Let's talk about it.

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