Research reveals how customer insight impacts CX

Why does your organisation need an effective customer experience programme? Well, here’s just a few interesting statistics for insight on how customer experience really impacts your organisation.

80% of CEOs believe they offer a superior customer experience - but only 8% of their customers AGREE (statistics from a survey by Bain & Company). So why the big gap in perception?

There is a very useful Gap Model, created by Parasuraman et al, that we refer to in the customer experience world as a way to explain the common gaps in an organisation that means the customer’s expectation is very different from the organisation’s perception. It is argued that there are 5 very common gaps, including a gap between the management perception and the service quality specification. This gap occurs when the management perception of customers wants and needs may be accurate, but this knowledge has not been applied to customer-driven performance standards.

Another gap out of the five is the communication gap when the delivery of service to customers is different to the actual communication of that delivery. This gap arises when there is a lack of transparency in external communications; when advertising messages have been exaggerated or customers have been overpromised, compared to the actual delivery of the service.

Companies that OUTPACE their COMPETITORS in CX have 50% more engaged employees than those with CX that lags their peers (statistics from Temkin Group research). Can you imagine the benefits ahead of competitors with this advantage?

Investing in customer experience has become a strategic priority and indeed a challenge, for organisations worldwide. The organisations who are getting it right by using customer feedback to guide their processes are reaping the rewards. The entire business needs to engage in the customer experience programme. Too many customer-centric change initiatives fail to engage with all the business units within a group.

As well as communicating the value of customer experience to the business as an entirety, it is also beneficial to include a CX specific reward strategy to motivate and engage employees. These initiatives could include bonuses when an individual’s CX KPIs are met, provide perks to enhance the employee experience or reward those named in customer surveys.

67% of large companies rate themselves as good at SOLICITING customer feedback. Only 26% think they are good at ACTING on it (statistics from Experience Matters's State of Voice of the Customer Programs, 2015). This is a common problem for many organisations.

One of the key components to improving customer experience, and to making a success of any CX program, are the actions you take in response to customer insight and information, and this is aided by a well-designed strategy. Many organisations have difficulty driving and tracking actionable next steps, and often struggle to mobilise action across complex businesses. Fewer still make actions visible and are able to learn from them.

Good workflow — which automates processes around driving customer related actions — is a key component of a positive customer experience strategy. Being able to drive prompt action and operationalize insight is integral to customer retention and to achieving business results.

Understanding your customers only happens when you can achieve a full 360 view of customers which can be achieved with intelligent customer experience software.