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Three out of ten CMOs haven’t invested in customer experience
In their latest research, AmazeRealise explored how customer experience is now a key factor in driving business growth. The key? Bring everyone along on your journey.
Chris Barnes
Director, Customer Experience AmazeRealiseIt’s obvious that there’s still a huge and growing gap between customer expectations and the reality of what brands are delivering. According to Forrester research, CX improvements have stalled for a third year in a row. Brands need to build trust with consumers, actually listen and take action.
Research carried out by AmazeRealise found that 36% of CMOs admit their brand still hasn’t invested in customer experience (CX). This was despite 88% expecting a focused CX programme would yield long-term customer loyalty and increasing sales over time.
77% of CMOs we asked confessed that their business has spent less than one percent of its annual turnover on enhancing CX. The top three reasons cited for this lack of investment were that they didn’t know enough about it, the perceived cost of implementation and that they had trouble building the business case for its positive impact based on results.
In spite of the lack of investment, our survey found that the long-term business benefits of dedicated customer experience programmes were well understood by all CMOs. As well as providing improved loyalty and sales, half of those surveyed (44%) expected CX initiatives to lead to a decrease in costs and 25% thought they would attract new customers through word-of-mouth recommendation.
Customer Experience is now a key factor in driving business growth. The key is to bring everyone along on your journey. Brands don’t need to do everything at once. They can start small and go for quick wins and shouldn’t shy away from getting customers involved in beta testing.
A new brand could release a customer-focused service tomorrow that almost immediately makes another look behind the times. A Customer Experience journey should never end. It requires a culture of constant improvement.
KEY TAKE OUTS
- Organisation. A successful CX programme starts with a focus on business goals then develops mutual benefits with customers. It also sows the seed for a shared approach for the entire company. Start by embedding more iterative working practices; the right operational mindset can deliver incremental change and re-energise teams.
- Insight & measurement. Use the voice of the customer to highlight the moments that matter, identifying where the best wins will be.
- Realistic ambition. Don’t be overwhelmed by the enormity of your CX project. Identify the top three things that will make the biggest change and start there.
- Futureproof your brand. Your CX will never be ‘fixed’. Establish a culture of continuous improvement to stay one step ahead of the competition.
THE CX CHALLENGE
Visit AmazeRealise's showcase to read the full report.
About
Chris Barnes has a passion for putting smart thinking and process into action and has the unique ability to translate highly difficult information into the simplest propositions and insights. Aside from being arguably the very best UX practitioner in the UK, Chris simply gets it. He understands people and he knows how to work with a client to mould a service and a solution around them.
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