NEW YORK ? A Lithium executive said at CXNYC 2015 that brands such as Sky, AT&T and Barclays are models for how to leverage social emotionally in a world where they can no longer control the customer experience. 

The session, ?How Digital is Allowing for Personalized, Emotional Connections,? looked at how brands can escape economic peril and compete on the battlefield of customer experience by leveraging emotion across social channels. The presentation pointed to mobile?s and social?s ability to boost corporate revenue while delivering insight into customers? feelings about products and services in what has become a new, more mature phase of social media.

?When talking about the customer and what each and every customer does for us, we have a compelling story,? said Katy Keim, chief marketing officer and general manager of social software maker Lithium. ?So customer economics are going to win.

?You?re not in the driver?s seat the way you once were,? she said. ?Social technology and digital is a huge advantage to you.? 

CXNYC 2015 if forum for customer experience professionals organized by Forrester Research. 

The presentation emphasized how more brands are struggling to maintain revenue levels while meeting customer expectations that have climbed to an extreme level amid the mobile mind shift.

In an example of how a brand could use social to tap audience emotions beneficially, UK broadcaster Sky asked the millions of customers who normally turn to social media for information on how to get channels and to do things with the brand, what irked them most about it.

 

?They brought all that into single feed,? Ms. Keim said. ?They also pushed it to employees based on topics.

?They doubled the amount of responsiveness,? she said. ?They are now at 100 percent responsiveness on these social inquiries as well as reducing the time it takes.?

AT&T and Barclays also used social to get answers directly from employees to consumers or to achieve a dialogue with the customer.

?[Barclays] went to social and asked what drives you nuts about the bank,? Ms. Keim said. 

While mobile allows consumers to click a button and not only get a taxi but to see how far away it is, the phenomenon also has hit many businesses hard.

?The story that hasn?t been told is this is fundamentally an economic disaster for many incumbent businesses,? Ms. Keim said. ?They are feeling this pressure from a customer that is demanding this much but wants to pay only this much,? she said.

Retail has been in a race to the bottom as consumers press their ability to decide online what they want to buy, decide on the recommendations and then launch a hunt for the retailer that has it for the cheapest price.

?This is creating a true economic peril for the organizations you are in,? Ms. Keim said. She cited research showing that 79 percent of survey respondents agree that their products are being commoditized.

The mobile mind shift means that digital customer experience is going to become the next battleground. 

?Customer economics win,? Ms. Keim said. ?You don?t define their experience. We are working with a self directed consumer for whom it is impossible to define their experience.?

Thus, social is for achieving scale, not creating sizzle.

The first phase of social emphasized me, whereas social more often now has a broader community focus. 

View from the back at CXNYC.

?What?s happening on digital networks is what?s happening together,? Ms. Keim said. ?Together we actually raised $100 million for ALS by dumping ice buckets on our head. 

?Together we form movements, together we help each other,? she said. ?That?s (a core value) that people haven?t understood how to tap yet.

?That emotional resonance is there,? she said. ?You don?t have to figure out how to create it. You have to tap it.?