With apologies to Juliet and to Will, let me ask, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet . . . ” Romeo And Juliet (II, ii, ll. 46–47) Juliet meant that it didn’t matter that Romeo was from a family enemy, the Montagues; she loved him anyway.

For years, Forrester has called agencies and tech services firms that build digital touchpoints — from websites and mobile apps to chatbots and augmented reality apps — “digital experience service providers.”

I track 65 vendors that provide digital experience services to help clients pick the best one for their particular needs. Most of those requests come in as “Which agency can help me build a [website|mobile app|marketing stack|commerce solution|und so weiter]?” Those are digital experiences, not full customer experiences.

Putting it all together, and after a buncha discussion with other Forrester analysts, we’ve decided to change the name of the category and service line to “digital experience agencies,” which we have (always) defined as:

Partners that can help companies design, build, and manage digital customer experiences in the context of their digital business transformation.

We’ve already published a report describing the most important digital experience agencies in Asia Pacific and will soon do the same for Europe. We’re currently conducting a Forrester Wave™ evaluation of midsize digital experience agencies in North America. When we re-evaluate the big digital experience agencies in 2019, we’ll change the name in that report, as well.

So what’s in a name? Quite simply, I hope and expect that Forrester’s coverage of this important market shows up when people search for it using the language they use every day.