The numbers are still growing fast: There will be an estimated 3.6 billion internet users around the world by 2017, equalling more than 47 percent of the world’s projected population of 7.6 billion. The impact is crystal clear. Asian consumers are becoming more and more connected. Digitalization is transforming them from mere consumers into smarter value demanders.

Now that company-to-consumer dynamic digital interaction is a given, companies without an engaging online presence or an effective mobile strategy or app will suffer in comparison to those who have them. Therefore, customer management should apply the same logic.

Customers today are smarter and more demanding than before. Information technology has provided them with abundant information. Their decision-making processes are now being shaped long before they enter a grocery store or meet a salesperson. It is a new decision-making moment that plays out 100 million times a day on mobile phones, laptops and other wired devices of all kinds.

It is a moment where marketing happens, where information happens and where consumers make choices that affect the success and failure of nearly every brand in the world.

Google calls it the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT). ZMOT is that moment when customers grab their laptops, mobile phones or some other wired devices and start learning about a product or service they’re thinking about trying or buying.

In essence, brands should proactively take advantage of the various digital tools at their disposal — actively perform searches to unravel the moments that matter to consumers, be present at the right places and the right time, make content more smartphone-friendly and routinely evaluate the impact. This would enable brands to score a significant competitive edge as a truly customer-centric organization.

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