Yesterday, I tweeted about the just-launched Pan Macmillan website in the UK(www.panmacmillan.com). While I appreciate the design and the functionality of their site, what I really like is the strategy behind it–putting the reader at the center of the PanMac customer experience. Not many publishers think this way, yet.

For those of you with access to Forrester research (www.forrester.com), Josh Bernoff (www.twitter.com/jbernoff) wrote an interesting piece of analysis about six months ago: Competitive Strategy in the Age of the Customer. He advocates four imperatives for customer-obsessed customers, and one of these is creating a customer experience that reaches across sales channels.

Until recently, this didn’t seem like a realistic proposition for many publishers –who often defined customer experience as the bookstore/online environment. Social media, email, web, and other digital-marketing tools now make it possible for publishers to curate their content and support a reader experience beyond the pages of the book. (Disclosure: while at McGraw-Hill, we created a site with similar intent though not as slick or complete as Pan Macmillan. Check it out if you’re interested: http://learnmore.mcgraw-hill.com).

It’s more important than ever that publishers make a meaningful connection with their readers (customers). Traditional retail around the world is under significant pressure. Without owning some part of the customer experience, publishers are at the mercy of price-promoting sales channels that, too often, see books and ideas as a commodity.