EKN: The Elusive Habitable Zone of Optimal Customer Engagement

For decades brick & mortar retailers have benefitted from a natural imbalance of the prevailing times – information asymmetry of pricing and product availability, a one-way, broadcast orientation to customer communication, and a monopoly on the “now” purchase. The convergence of the Internet, mobile and social has offered the potential of a new normal – balance. If one were to liken the new retailer-consumer relationship dynamic to a binary star system - the retailer and the consumer are both stars that exude gravitational force, creating a complex mechanism of push & pull. The optimal customer experience that is beneficial to both the customer and the retailer is created by a balance of push & pull. This Point of View illustrates an elusive “habitable customer zone” where these gravitational forces find balance, characteristics of retailers in the Habitable Zone and foundational building blocks of a balanced customer engagement strategy.