Whether you’re the CIO of a Fortune 500 company, an SME or a government agency, the key to success is the consumer experience.

In today’s world, consumers expect that experience to be digital. That doesn’t mean sacrificing the consumer journey for unnecessary technology, but it does mean putting the consumer at the center of any digital changes.

In the Gartner 2019 CIO Agenda survey, top-performing organizations had a mean of 4.3 consumer engagement activities, and worked in more areas to improve their consumer engagement than their peers.

Public organizations and private enterprises approach consumers differently, but consumers are equally important whether they’re buying a product or looking for government information. Private companies depend on consumers, and government agencies often have citizen service guarantees in their charters.

How and why organizations interact with consumers varies, but the best experience combines front-office and back-office activities for the best results. Front-of-house includes anything that enhances the consumer interaction with the organization, such as providing a feedback channel or a loyalty program. Back-of-house reduces the cost required to serve by developing consumer journey maps to guide internal developments or using digitalization to reduce the cost of consumer engagement.

Organizations can improve business performance and deliver a better experience by deepening their understanding of the consumer across the journey life cycle.