Customer Experience Matters

I just published a report called “Obstacles To Customer Experience Success, 2008” that examines survey responses from 287 customer experience decision-makers at large US firms. We asked some of the same questions that we asked last year. One key finding is that customer experience is even more important this year:

In the previous survey, 38% of respondents felt that customer experience was critical for 2007. In this year’s survey that number grows to 64%; a total of 91% of respondents feel that customer experience will be either critical or very important in 2008.

Here are some other highlights from the research:

• While only 45% of respondents report having a senior executive in charge of customer experience across products and channels, this represents a significant jump from the 27% that was reported last year.
• Only 12% of respondents report that their companies have a very disciplined approach to customer experience management, and more than 40% have an undisciplined approach.
• When it came to obstacles, firms with a disciplined approach to customer experience most often pointed to “lack of cooperation across organizations” while firms without a disciplined approach pointed to “lack of a clear customer experience strategy.”
• We also compared responses between large (>$1 billion) and smaller ($100 million to $1 billion) companies. One highlight: 50% of larger firms use a single set of feedback scores (e.g., satisfaction or Net Promoter) across the company compared with only 43% of smaller firms.

The bottom line: While firms recognize that customer experience is increasingly important, their efforts do not match this realization. That’s why companies should make 2008 the year of customer experience discipline.