Sasha Banks-Louie, a brand journalist with Oracle, wrote an article in Forbes about four key components of the “experience economy,” a new era of deep understanding of how customers consume products—whether to grow their business or enrich their personal lives.

It’s about more than just churning out new and innovative products to attract customers.

Rob Tarkoff, Oracle Executive Vice President, spoke about the experience economy at Oracle Modern Customer Experience in Las Vegas in March. He explained that, in the experience economy, “customers are the innovators in the way they engage with brands and how they use their offerings.”

Tarkoff went on to advise companies to adopt artificial intelligence to instantly capture data about customers, apply analytics to that data in real time, and immediately present relevant offers. This is the key to getting the most out of the experience economy and using it to create a competitive advantage. To do so, customer-facing business functions should be silo-free and connected to customers along a marketing, sales, service, and commerce continuum.

He shared four key components of the experience economy that help companies get the most out of it.

#1: Help customers discover exactly what they’re looking for in the precise moment that they need it.

Tarkoff explained that exceptional customer experience begins with hyper-personalization—a practice that goes beyond audience segmentation. Instead of targeting people based on common attributes or demographic groupings, companies should capture their customers’ browsing patterns, content interests, and purchase histories in precise “micro-moments.” If they do that, then they can respond with tailored offers in milliseconds.

Wolters Kluwer, a global information services and advisory firm, is an example of this through their use of Oracle Eloqua to understand which pages of their website people were visiting and the types of content they were downloading. It has allowed them to present customers with customized offers and then connect with them on a personal basis.

#2: Facilitate ways for customers to engage with your company on their terms.

One company that is a great example of this is Radius Bank, located in Boston. The organization strives to “provide a community bank feeling, while also having state-of-the-art technologies to support a self-service, digital banking business model,” according to Christina Shortall, Vice President of Customer Experience.

The bank allows customers to deposit checks and pay bills from mobile devices and has a website that features a self-service searchable knowledge base, an automated email response form, and a chatbot named Rae. Rae is run through the Oracle Service Cloud Virtual Assistant. Customers are able to ask Rae questions about how to open a savings account, find their tax documents, etc. If Rae can’t find the answer that the customer is looking for, the application triggers an escalation to a live agent from the bank.

In just a few months, Rae has been able to solve 15 percent of customer inquiries that come through the chat. This has reduced the average amount of time customers spend with a live agent by a full minute. As a result, the bank’s Net Promoter Score, a measure of a company’s customer loyalty, has increased by 20 percent.

#3: Let customers subscribe to your range of products rather than making them pay to own specific ones.

Selling products as subscriptions can be difficult, especially because many companies don’t have the pricing, billing, monitoring, revenue management, and other “monetization” systems in place to support them. However, new Cloud-based software helps convert even the most rigid sales and financial systems into ones that flex to complex subscription selling models.

BMW is a great example of subscription-based service offerings. The company introduced a tiered subscription service last year that lets customers switch among five or six different vehicles as many times as they want. For those who are indecisive or just want to enjoy the features of different models of cars, this is an ideal situation. The subscription covers insurance, maintenance, and roadside assistance.

BMW uses in-vehicle sensors to track the mileage, fuel consumption, and fluid levels of each vehicle. With that information, BMW can craft a pricing plan that includes monthly allowances. They also have the ability to tack on fees if drivers exceed their subscription limits. This model has enabled the company to build recurring customer relationships and predictable revenue streams.

#4: Create an integrated service organization to build relationships with more loyal, higher-margin customers.

Tarkoff explained that, in the experience economy, every department shares ownership of the customer. Whoever gets to the customer first needs to be given the tools and authority to earn the customer’s trust, win her business, and keep her happy.

Brother International, a 65-year-old manufacturer of printers, sewing machines, and label makers, places the responsibility of excellent customer service on all employees. By consolidating its digital marketing, direct e-commerce, and customer service operations into a single customer experience center of excellence, the company’s customer-facing employees will have more visibility.

For example, these employees will be able to see new social posts as they come from Q&As and reviews on the sites of its retail partners. This is useful because it allows service agents, marketers, or sales representatives to directly engage with customers. This lets them gather feedback, identify problems, and quickly come up with solutions in order to provide excellent customer service.

To learn more about the experience economy, check out the original Forbes article and additional Quest resources attached below.