As the world starts to open up, the incredible velocity of digital growth experienced since 2020 will appear to wane. There will be reports of customers who were driven to become digital-first in 2020 shifting to physical activity. Don't get caught up in the minutiae of a binary vision of the future. Plan for continuous shifts and disruption. 

There will be customers who prefer to spend their time online, those who enjoy interacting in the real world, and those who seek hybrid experiences where something new emerges in the middle. The most certain way to grow in a post-pandemic economy is to organize around customers and the insights that reveal behaviors, preferences, and expectations as tastes, times, and trends change. 

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Regardless of buying paradigms and platforms, digital-first behaviors have permanently shifted from 2019-2022. As a result, customers have unlocked next-level skills of discovery and experimentation and escalated their standards for how they want to engage and be served. And, research already shows that almost two-thirds (61%) of customers anticipate spending more time online than they did pre-pandemic. This means that any semblance of a new or next normal for customers isn't likely to happen. The answer is to not respond to every twist and turn as it occurs. By organizing around customer data and insights, businesses will become resilient. These "Customer 360" companies will always be in step with market evolution, and over time, in a position to even anticipate change. 

Understanding the customer becomes the most direct path to delivering value-added, innovative customer experiences (CX) in real-time. The timing couldn't be better to have this conversation. CX was ranked as the number one priority for business transformation, according to a new report by Harvard Business Review Analytics Services (HBRAS) in partnership with Salesforce. The study, "Making Customer Experiences the Heart of the Enterprise," also found that 88% of executives say that the future success of their business is defined by having a complete and consistent view of their customers across channels and platforms.

The research shows that great CX is built on two key pillars: insight and engagement.  Yet, only 17% of executives say their organizations are either excellent in both insight and engagement or excellent in one and good in the other. Furthermore, only 15% of companies say they have a unified (360