With companies such as Uber, which is transforming the taxi industry, and Airbnb, which is transforming the hotel industry, the tech field is recognizing a fundamental shift in the flow of data. This is the basis of Customer Experience (CX): what consumers expect companies to deliver to them, rather than the former model of companies “pitching” products and services to consumers.

Des Cahill, head CX evangelist at Oracle, joined and Peter Burris (@plburris) and John Furrier (@furrier), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during Oracle OpenWorld, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, to talk about Oracle’s thoughts around CX and how it’s shaping a new digital world.

CX is changing the fundamentals

The discussion kicked off with a basic question: What does CX look like today for a technology company like Oracle?

“I would redefine it as … customer expectations … the power of technology we have in our pockets, the experiences we have as consumers everyday … we expect companies to know us. And anything less than that is unacceptable to us,” said Cahill.

He also explained that data used to flow from sellers to consumers (i.e., television commercials), whereas today, the flow of technology is coming first from customers, from their smart phones, from their online preferences and selections, and then feeding that information back to potential sellers. Smart companies understand this fundamental change and are managing expectations accordingly.

How can CX help companies define design?

There were some questions around how companies can engage in better journey mapping, getting a clearer view of who they are developing for and how to use that data to design better products and services.

“The ultimate example would be Uber … you have [the frustration of] a guy waving a hand in Manhattan during a rainstorm, trying to get a cab … he goes to his mobile device [for the Uber app], no fuss, no muss, it’s pre-paid … to me, that was reengineering the taxi industry based on CX,” Cahill explained. “Companies today, if they are not utilizing CX as a fundamental philosophy, they’re going to be the laggards.”

It was also agreed that CX needs to be driven from the C-level and then fed through all parts of a company. If companies do not adopt CX at the very top level, they are taking a risk of no longer going to be perceived as leaders in their industry.

“[Oracle] is taking an industry-centric approach … we’re trying to help our customer envision what digital transformation and leading-edge technology look like for them,” said Cahill.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Oracle OpenWorld.

(* Disclosure: Oracle and other companies sponsor some OpenWorld segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Oracle nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo by SiliconANGLE