We are strategists focused on experiences.

The briefest of histories, from a long line of firsts.

There are so many firsts and starting points in the history of our firm. But perhaps the most important was a conversation between Dave Norton, our founder, and Joe Pine, the guy who discovered the Experience Economy.

In 2002, Joe and Dave were partnering on a lot of experience projects. The Experience Economy—the book that launched a million experiences—was one of the hottest selling business books in the world (and still is). But Dave was struggling with a problem. Every company wanted better customer experiences but most companies were struggling with what was the most strategic way to go about creating experiences that mattered. Should they focus on new channels, new solutions, branding, marketing, technology, physical environments, operations, innovation, design, or something else? Or . . . all of the above.

When you produce experiences for customers, they affect every part of the company and every other strategic decision.

One afternoon, Dave called Joe and they debated the core definition of experience strategy. Dave said, “I think it’s all about Time Well Spent.” Joe said, “Let me think about that.” He thought about it for a few years and then he agreed.

Time is the customer’s most precious currency.

And, the most strategic thing you can do to be customer-centered and deliver on meaningful experiences, is to use technology, environments, solutions, people and everything else to ensure that your customers not only value your goods or services, but truly feel that the time that they spend with you and your offerings is time well spent.

In 2005, Dave Norton launched Stone Mantel, the first consultancy focused on experience strategy and design and immediately brought Joe onboard as a partner. Our vision is to help companies create real value for themselves and truly meaningful experiences for their customers.

We stay at the forefront of experience research, investing heavily in thinking beyond the traditional CX movement. For you that means time well invested. We can help your company make forward looking strategic decisions regarding experiences much faster. And we cover so many different aspects of what most people refer to as customer experience. Everyday we:

Identify customers’ jobs-to-be-done
Build better business models
Motivate people in meaningful ways
Bridge digital and place-based experiences
Create customer centricity transformation
Do data experience design
Build channel value propositions and strategies
Measure for time well spent
Employ AI for greatest engagement
Think systematically about customer journey
Find the experiences that matter

We are Stone Mantel. We are strategists focused on experiences.

We are here to help you connect in a very meaningful way with individual customers.

Dave Norton

The briefest of histories, from a long line of firsts.

Joe Pine

Time is the customer’s most precious currency.