Report: What Influences Consumer Purchases?

We just published a Temkin Group data snapshot, What Influences Consumer Purchases?

This study shows that social media has gained ground since last year, but is still not a top influencer. We surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers to find out what information sources they use to purchase autos, cell phones, computers, credit cards, health plans, insurance policies, and televisions. The analysis looks at sources such as Facebook and Twitter, discussions with friends and employees, discussions with company employees, and information on various websites. Our analysis examines differences across age groups and analyzes changes over the last year.

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We start the analysis by examining the degree to which social sources—Facebook and Twitter, ratings and reviews websites, and discussions with friends and family— are influencing purchase decisions. The online social media sources remain relatively low on the list, but Facebook and Twitter gaining ground (as you can see below in figure 2 from the report).

The data is rich with insights into how consumers of all ages make purchase decisions. Here are some of the highlights:

• Autos: More than two-thirds of consumers rely on their discussions with employees at the dealership. While this source is one of the top two across age groups, it’s particularly important for consumers who are 45 and older.
• Cell phones: Last year as well as this year, interactions with employees are at the top of the list. This is becoming even more important for consumers younger than 35.
• Computers: Across all age groups, consumers rely more on discussions with store employees than on information from Facebook or Twitter users.
• Credit cards: On average, respondents use information on the credit card website more than they use any other source.
• Health plans: Across all age groups, the most used source of information is either discussions with health plan employees or information on the health plan websites.
• Insurance policies: Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said that discussing options with insurance agents is helpful. Agents are particularly influential for consumers who are 25 and older.
• Televisions: Fifty-six percent of respondents said that reviews and ratings on sites other than the retailer’s or the manufacturer’s are helpful. This is the most useful information source for consumers who are younger than 45.

This data snapshot contains the following 15 charts:

1. Social Influences on Purchases
2. Social Influences on Purchases, Changes Since 2011
3. Information Influences on Computer Purchases
4. Computer Purchases, Changes from 2011 to 2012
5. Information Influences on Cell Phone Purchases
6. Cell Phone Purchases, Changes from 2011 to 2012
7. Information Influences on Credit Card Decisions
8. Credit Card Decisions, Changes from 2011 to 2012
9. Information Influences on Insurance Purchases
10. Insurance Purchases, Changes from 2011 to 2012
11. Information Influences on Television Purchases
12. Television Purchases, Changes from 2011 to 2012
13. Information Influences on Health Plan Selections
14. Health Plan Selections, Changes from 2011 to 2012
15. Information Influences on Automobile Purchases

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The bottom line: Social media is not yet a key input to purchase decisions

Mobile Drives Daily Facebook Use

Earlier this week, I tapped into a recent research report—Data Snapshot: Communications and Media Benchmark— to write posts about Facebook usage by age, gender, and ethnicity. Well, my Facebook analysis continues…

There has been some concern raised about Facebook’s revenue projections because of the growth of mobile, which does not provide Facebook with the same revenue streams. Given the hubbub, I decided to look at the mobile usage of Facebook.

It turns out that a large percentage of daily Facebook users, who are mostly younger consumers, are reading Facebook on their phones.

The bottom line: Mobile drives daily Facebook usage

Data Snapshot: Social Media And Mobile Adoption

We just published a new Data Snapshot: Social Media and Mobile Adoption that provides details of how often U.S. consumers do a number of social media and mobile activities. Here’s the description of the research:

As part of Temkin Group’s Q4 2011 Consumer Benchmark Survey, we asked 5,000 U.S. consumers about their social media and mobile activities. This data snapshot looks at how many consumers perform activities such as update their status on Facebook, send a tweet, read an online product review, or invite someone to join their LinkedIn network. The data also shows how frequently they do these activities and the differences across seven age groups of consumers.

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The data snapshot if full of facts and figures. Here are a handful of factoids that I pulled together from the report:

The data snapshot has 13 data-rich graphics. Here’s a partial view from two of the figures:

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The bottom line: Social medial and mobile adoption differs widely across age.

Stats On Social Media Activity

Temkin Group and Peppers & Rogers Group teamed up to survey companies about their social media efforts. Check out this Peppers & Rogers article with interesting findings from the research: How Does Your Social Strategy Stack Up?

In this post, I’m examining data from the 68 respondents from companies with annual revenues of $100 million or more. I put together five slides with data that I felt was interesting. Here are some of the highlights:

• Only 21% of respondents have connected social media into their operations while 26% are doing very little about social media at all.
• The top obstacle they identify is connecting social media efforts to hard-dollar returns.
• Only 6% of respondent think they’ve achieved significant business results from social media and 20% have seen very little benefit.  But many are still hopeful; 38% expect to gain significant benefits within three years.
• The benefit that is most frequently measured is an increase in engagement, using metrics like time on site or number of friends/fans.
• Social media is led by a functional leader in 44% of firms and by a social media leader in 21%.
• Marketing “owns” more than half of the social media efforts. But 62% are using social media for something in customer service.
• The top three social media activities are: providing links to relevant content, providing reactive support when customers complain, and integrating social media marketing with other marketing channels.
• Nearly 60% of  companies encourage some employees to use social media, while 25% encourage all employees to use it. But all of that social media might be problematic; only 60% have social media guidelines and in place and only about 40% provide social media training to employees.

The bottom line: Companies have not yet mastered social media

A Glimpse At Social Media And Mobile Adoption Rates

As you prepare for 2012, it’s likely that social media and mobile are making their way on to your agenda. And they should. These channels are growing and are particularly important if you are targeting a young audience.

We’re working on a report for early 2012 that examines adoption levels and frequency rates of use for numerous social media and mobile activities. The analysis will dig into differences across consumer demographic segments. Here’s an early glimpse at some of the high-level data:

Here’s that same analysis done for just 18 to 24 year-olds:

As you can see, there’s a dramatic difference in adoption rates, especially when looking at mobile activities.

The bottom line: You need to look at social media and mobile if you want to reach younger consumers

Report: Social Media’s Limited Effect On Purchase Decisions

We just published a new Temkin Group report, Social Media’s Limited Effect On Purchase Decisions.

Social media is a very popular topic, so we explored the role that it plays in how consumers make their purchase decisions.

Here’s the executive summary:

What effect does social media have on purchase decisions? We examined this question using a survey of 6,000 US consumers. Based on their responses, we calculated the Temkin Purchase Influence Index (TPII) to gauges the level of influence that these channels have on the purchase and selection decisions of computers, cell phones, TVs, insurance, health plans, and credit cards. While the overall results show very few areas where social media has a strong influence on these purchases, a deeper analysis of consumers by age, income, ethnicity, and education uncovers pockets of stronger (and weaker) social media influence.

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Here’s a chart from the report that highlights the overall effect of social channels:

Here are some additional insights from our analysis of the TPII across different consumers based on their age, income, education, and ethnicity:

• Computers: Social influence is strongest with African Americans
• Cell phones: Social influence is stronger with 30 year-olds
• Credit cards: Social influence is strongest with Hispanics
• Insurance: Social influence is strongest with low-income consumers
• Television:  Influence of discussions with friends and families goes down with education
• Health plans:  Ratings and reviews influence goes down with education

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The bottom line: Tailor your social strategy to your product and target customers

How Much Does Social Media Matter?

My previous three posts identified companies that were susceptible to backlash on Facebook, Twitter, and 3rd party ratings sites. Since we’re on the topic of social media, I thought I’d share my view on the role of social media in customer experience efforts…

In the recent Temkin Group report, How Consumers Give Feedback, we found that not many consumers used social media to discuss their very good or very bad experiences. In the report Customer Experience Accelerates In 2011, we found that only 31% of  large companies think they’re doing a good job with social media and 79% expect to increase their focus on it this year.

Is this a complete mismatch of priorities?

My take: In some companies, social media is definitely over-hyped. But in others, it probably doesn’t get enough attention. As often is the case, the insight is in the details. Here are my observations:

• First of all, I am not looking at any of the pure marketing use-cases for social media.
• Most companies still don’t understand social media; which leads them to think that they are way behind others. This is especially true since only the extreme cases about what companies are doing show up the media.
• Since many companies aren’t doing too much yet in social media, the increase in focus in 2011 may not mean that it is displacing a lot of other activities in the company (data-oriented folks would call it a large increase on a small base).
• For most companies, there’s a goldmine of insight that has yet to be tapped from direct feedback from customers. Although only 34% of consumers told companies about very bad experience and 21% told them about very good ones, this is still a higher rate than feedback via any social media channel.
• The use of social media is still rising, so it will continue to grow in importance.
• The use of social media varies widely by consumer segment and activity. So companies need to understand their customers to figure out how important social media is to their business.

So here are a couple of my direct answers:

• Should companies be looking at social media? Absolutely.
• Is social media the most critical improvement area for customer experience? Absolutely not.

Since many companies are being aggressive with their social media efforts, I wanted to share some advice from an article that I wrote for 1to1 Media called Customer Experience Common Sense: From 1 to 6. It’s about keeping your perspective:

1. Don’t ignore existing customer conversations. While it’s exciting to think about social media, you probably already have a goldmine of untapped customer conversations in your contact center. Don’t get distracted from mining insights from existing calls, emails, and chats.
2. Listen first, long before you start responding. Once you start listening to social media, you’re bound to hear some things that aren’t flattering. Don’t start getting involved in those conversations until you understand what you’re really hearing and who’s saying it.
3. Don’t overreact to Dave’s Guitar. In July 2009, Dave Carroll posted a video on YouTube about how he and his guitar were mistreated by United Airlines. It’s been a big hit; with more than 10 million downloads. The reality is that even great companies periodically deliver bad experiences. So you can’t plan a strategy around one poorly treated customer who happens to be a talented musician and filmmaker.
4. Get brand promoters to speak for you. The best use of social media is getting adoring customers to sing your praise and defend your brand when others attack it. So find ways to create, identify, and motivate promoters to more actively engage wherever possible.
5. Don’t lose sight of who you are. The best social media efforts support a well-defined brand strategy. So make sure you have a clear understanding of your brand promises and your target customer segments before diving too deeply into social media.

The bottom line: Social media is a long-term trend, not a short-term panacea

20 Companies Most Susceptible To Negative Comments Via 3rd Party Ratings Sites

In my previous two posts, I listed companies that were susceptible to negative feedback via Facebook and Twitter. Now it’s time to look at 3rd party ratings sites like TripAdviosr and Yelp.. In the report How Consumers Give Feedback, we analyzed what US consumers did after they had a very bad or a very good experience.

As a part of the analysis, we examined the difference in social media use across 141 companies. Our analysis looked at how often people that had interacted with those companies had also used social media to talk about a very bad experience in the previous 60 days. We then compared that data to the overall US average.

This chart shows the 20 companies that interact with consumers who are most likely to post a comment or rating about a very bad experience on a 3rd party site.

As you can see, Days Inn, Super 8, TD Ameritrade, United Airlines, Hyatt, Hilton, and AirTram Airways are more than the most susceptible to having a bad comment or rating show up on these sites.

The bottom line: These firms need to track third party rating sites more than their peers

20 Companies Most Susceptible To Negative Comments Via Twitter

In my previous post, I listed companies that were susceptible to negative feedback via Facebook. Now it’s time to look at Twitter. In the report How Consumers Give Feedback, we analyzed what US consumers did after they had a very bad or a very good experience.

As a part of the analysis, we examined the difference in social media use across 141 companies. Our analysis looked at how often people that had interacted with those companies had also used social media to talk about a very bad experience in the previous 60 days. We then compared that data to the overall US average.

This chart shows the 20 companies that interact with consumers who are most likely to tweet about a very bad experience.

As you can see, Days Inn, Courtyard By Marriott, Hyatt, Continental Airlines, 21st Century, and Bright House are more than three times as susceptible to having a bad experience show up on Twitter.

The bottom line: These firms need to think a bit more about Twitter than the average company

 

20 Companies Most Susceptible To Negative Comments Via Facebook

In the recent Temkin Group Insight report, How Consumers Give Feedback, we analyzed what US consumers did after they had a very bad or a very good experience. One of the areas we examined was the use of social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

As a part of the analysis, we examined the difference in social media use across 141 companies. Our analysis looked at how often people that had interacted with those companies had also used social media to talk about a very bad experience in the previous 60 days. We then compared that data to the overall US average.

This chart shows the 20 companies that interact with consumers who are most likely to post a very bad experience on Facebook.

As you can see, Days Inn, E*TRADE, and Apple are twice as susceptible to having a bad experience show up on Facebook.

The bottom line: These firms need to think a bit more about Facebook than the average company

 

Social Media Is Key Focus In NA And EU

In the recent Temkin Group report Customer Experience Accelerates In 2011, we examined the 2011 customer experience plans of large companies ($1 billion+). I decided to compare some of the data across North American and Westen European companies for for a slightly larger group of companies ($500 million+).

The data sample for the EU companies (52) is not large, so the data is indicative albeit not necessarily statistically significant.

In this post, we examine the emphasis on improving customer experience in different channels…

Social media is the top area of focus for both NA and EU companies. The biggest difference in the two groups is that EU firms are focusing more on phone agent experiences while NA firms are focusing more on in-store experiences.

The bottom line: Customer experience is a satisfying global profession

New Report: How Consumers Give Feedback

We just published a new Temkin Group report, How Consumers Give Feedback.

The report analyzes survey responses from 6,000 US consumers who were asked what they did following recent experiences that were either very good or very bad.

Here’s the executive summary:

Companies often discuss “word of mouth,” but how often and in what ways do consumers discuss their experiences? We surveyed 6,000 US consumers to find out. It turns out that the most common communication about good and bad experiences occurs between friends via email, phone, or in person. While few consumers share their experiences directly with the companies that pleased or displeased them, far fewer shared those experiences via social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and 3rd party ratings sites. Our analysis also uncovered differences by age, income, ethnicity, and educational levels. We analyzed the customer bases of more than 140 companies and discovered that Days Inn, E*Trade, and Apple were the most susceptible to negative feedback via Facebook. Days Inn, Courtyard By Marriott, and Hyatt are the most susceptible via Twitter.

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Here’s one of the figures that shows the data at an aggregate level across the US:

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The report analyzes the differences by age, income, ethnicity, and educational levels of consumers. Here are some other tidbits of information from the report:

• Hispanic consumers used Facebook more than Caucasians and African Americans to talk about their experiences.
• African American consumers were the least likely to tell companies about a bad experience.
• The higher the educational level, the more likely consumers were to give feedback directly to companies.
• Higher income consumers were more likely to share their good and bad experiences via Twitter

The bottom line: Are you soliciting, listening to, and acting upon the right feedback?

8 Customer Experience Trends For 2011

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It’s the time of year when prognosticators drag out their crystal balls and divine about next year. Well, I’m not too different. But instead of a crystal ball, I’ll tap into the 8 customer experience megatrends that I outlined earlier this year. They remain the key trends that I think we’ll see in 2011.

Here are the 8 megatrends along with my thoughts about how they’ll play out in 2011:

1. Customer Insight Propagation. Most decisions in companies are made without any real customer insight. Companies will increasingly recognize that they need to integrate a deeper understanding of their customers throughout their company. That’s why Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs represent one of the most popular customer experience efforts. A new cadre of vendors are making it easier to collect, analyze, and share customer information broadly across just about any organization.

2011: I’ve written a lot about VoC programs this year. Companies are beginning to figure out how to better use the insights and an emerging set of vendors have deployed customer insight and action (CIA) Platforms that can help considerably. But there’s still a long way to go. In the research report The State Of Voice Of The Customer Programs, we found that only 1% of large companies are “Transformers,” which is the highest level of maturity. In 2011,  I expect to see many companies move up on the VoC maturity scale as this continues to be an increasing area of focus next year. Don’t be surprised to see CRM players like Oracle and SAP acquire some of the CIA vendors.

2. Unstructured Data Appreciation. Deep feelings that customers have about a company often get truncated into a 5-point, 7-point, or even 11-point multiple choice scales; making it difficult to understand “why” things are happening. New text analytics applications can quickly process thousands of pieces of unstructured data and discern what’s making customers happy or what’s making them upset; pushing a dramatic rise in companies analyzing rich unstructured data like comments on surveys, call center verbatims, or social media discussions.

2011: As I said in a blog post earlier this year, it’s time for text analytics. I’m working with many companies on strategies for getting deeper customer insights and just about all of them involve a component of text analytics. In 2011, I expect there to be twice as many text analytics pilots as in 2010 and a lot of companies touting success stories at conferences. I expect IBM to make a big push in this area next year with SPSS and I would not be surprised to see Big Blue acquire either Clarabridge or Attensity.

3. Customer Service Rejuvenation As companies do touchpoint analyses and customer journey maps, they often find that customer service is a key “moment of truth” for customers. Unfortunately, the cost-cutting in this area over the last several years has created many poor experiences. Companies are recognizing that poor customer service is creating a very negative perception of their brand and will increasingly make investments to improve these experiences.

2011: During customer service week in October, I discussed how companies sometimes seem to care more about saving $1.50 in transaction costs than they care about $60 worth of business. But, I am seeing some changes. I’ve actually been working with a number of contact centers that are transforming the service they deliver. In 2011, I expect to see more contact centers drop average handle time (AHT) as a core metric and revamp quality measures based on customer feedback.

4. Loyalty Intensification. Over the last several years, many executives have realized that shareholder value is not an objective; it’s actually the outcome of building stronger customer loyalty. As companies starts using measures like Net Promoter Scores (NPS) to track loyalty, more firms will elevate these metrics to their executive dashboard; pushing companies to think and act more strategically about loyalty.

2011: Many companies are developing loyalty metrics and infusing them into their management dashboards. We found that 45% of companies tie compensation to some customer feedback metrics, but don’t push too hard, too early with compensation.  We also found that only 25% of respondents think their senior executives are willing to trade-off short-term financial results for longer-term loyalty. In 2011, it will become much more common for companies to balance loyalty metrics with financial ones. And many companies will evolve beyond fixing problems that cause dissatisfaction and start designing experiences that inspire advocates.

5. Interaction iPod-ization. QWERTY keyboards help make PCs so universal. But a keyboard-based QWERTY device is not the ideal interface for the next generation of digital devices. Fortunately, Apple’s iPod (and iPhones, iPads) are doing the same thing that QWERTY did over 100 years ago, teaching myriads of people how to interact with a touch-screen. As a result, a new wave of touch-pad based applications will emerge.

2011: Add Nooks, Android, and Windows Phone to the list of devices that will be teaching people how to touch, drag, shake, pinch, and tap to get what they need. In 2011, Mainstream PCs with a keyboard and mouse will seem even more like relics’ as people increasingly transition to iPad (and iPad-like) devices.  I also expect to see more voice interfaces emerge.

6. Social Media Assimilation. Social media is a hot topic. But Social Media is not really a new thing for companies; it represents just another interaction channel with customers. Companies will increasingly fold Social Media activities into the core activities of the company; especially within customer service.

2011: I created a term called “Social Schizophrenia” which describes companies that provide levels of service in social media that differ significantly from service levels in other channels. That still describes a lot of companies. In 2011, focus on social media will continue to grow but I expect much more mature approaches as the tools and processes are evolving.

7. Digital/Physical Integration. Consumers increasingly go online with their cell phones while they are doing activities like walking through a mall or eating at a restaurant. At the same time, iPhones have introduced consumers to the notion of task-specific application downloads. In this environment, companies can no longer think about online as a separate and distinct channel. They will start designing more experiences that blend together online and offline interactions.

2011: Mobile applications will increasingly take advantage of location-awareness to provide services and capabilities that are specific to the store, restaurant, hotel, ball park, intersection, or wherever you are. In 2011, we’ll also see more adoption of recognition-based services like Shop Savvy that can scan barcodes and Google Goggles that recognizes landmarks, text — pretty much anything you can take a picture of with your phone. Given the capabilities, I think we’ll see a bunch of integrated digital/physical offerings in the second half of the year.

8. Cultural Renovation. Companies are increasingly recognizing that “unengaged employees can’t create engaged customers” which is one of my “6 Laws Of Customer Experience.” That’s why many firms are starting to focus on the culture of their firms; trying to align employees with the vision, mission, and brand of the company. Cultural change takes several years to take hold; so significant changes won’t show up in companies immediately. But when change happens, it will very difficult for competitors to replicate.

2011: It’s great to see many executives ask for help building a customer-centric culture. I often compare customer experience to quality, which is captured in my manifesto: Great Customer Experience Is Free. I also like usurping this quote from the quality movement: “Great customer experience is the result of a carefully constructed cultural environment. It has to be the fabric of the organization, not part of the fabric.” We gauge customer-centric culture with Temkin Group’s Four Customer Experience Core Competencies. Our assessment of 144 large firms showed that only 3% are customer-centric. In 2011, I expect many companies to put in place the foundations for improving their customer-centricity while a few will revert back to their old ways; this stuff is not easy.

The bottom line: Hopefully you’re ready for 2011!

8 Symptoms Of Social Schizophrenia

A few months ago, I tweeted about one of my posts post called XFINITY Is (Unfortunately) More Of The Same. Immediately afterwards, a nice woman from Comcast replied to my tweet and tried to change my opinion. This type of social media outreach is not unusual for Comcast, which has made a name for itself over the last few years with an active presence on Twitter.

Comcast, however, continues to receive less-than-stellar (I’m being nice) feedback on its customer service. The company managed to come in 125th and 126th out of 133 companies in Forrester’s 2010 Customer Experience Index and ended up in 3rd place on MSN Money’s 2010 Customer Service Hall Of Shame.

So Comcast reaches out to strangers on Twitter, but doesn’t service customers very well when they contact Comcast. Something seems out of whack.

My take: Unfortunately, this type of behavior is becoming more common as the wave of social media excitement continues to crest. In order to better understand this disorder, I’ve given it a name — “Social Schizophrenia” — which I defined as:

Providing levels of service in social media that differ significantly from service levels in other channels

Does your company suffer from this ailment? Answer the eight questions below to diagnose the symptoms. A single “yes” may indicate that your company has Social Schizophrenia.

1. Does your company have poor customer service ratings and aggressive goals for social media?
2. Does your company treat people with “influential” social media voices better than it treats other people, even good customers?
3. Has your company invested more in social media outreach than it has invested in improving its traditional service organization?
4. It is “cooler” in your company to be part of the social media team than it is to be a part of the customer service organization?
5. Are employees reaching out in social media more empowered to solve customer problems than other customer service agents?
6. Does your company’s social media team have more headcount than its voice of the customer team?
7. Does your company have separate organizations handling social media complaints than it does handling complaints that flow through other channels?
8. Is more than 20% of your company’s customer experience strategy focussed on social media?

Does this mean that companies should stay away from social media? No. But social media efforts can’t be used to mask poor service. If your company delivers poor or inconsistent experiences to customers, then fixing those problems should be the primary focus of your efforts. Eliminate poor experiences from happening; don’t chase down social media complaints after the fact.

If customers do run into problems, companies should take action when they complain directly to the company — embracing the five elements of my C.A.R.E.S. model for service recovery: communication, accountability, responsiveness, empathy, and solution. Once this is in place, companies can add social media outreach to the customers that fall through the cracks.

The bottom line: Use social media to augment, not avoid, the delivery of great service

The Current State Of Customer Experience

We just published a new Temkin Group Insight Report, The Current State Of Customer Experience. This report, which is based on a survey of 140+ large North American companies, provides insights into the progress that companies are making on their customer experience journeys.

It looks at topics like the adoption of voice of the customer (VoC) programs and Net Promoter Scores, the use of social media activities, and the goals, obstacles, and ambitions for customer experience. Here’s the executive summary:

Using the Temkin Group customer experience competency model, we found that only 3% of firms were “Customer-Centric Organizations” while 33% of firms were “Customer-Oblivious Organizations.” While companies rated highest in the area of Purposeful Leadership, only 16% received “very good” ratings in that competency area. This data highlights that companies are still in very early stages of customer experience maturity. We expect the results to improve over time; as 65% of respondents want to be customer experience leaders within three years.

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The report has 20 figures; with lots of data. Here are some interesting factoids:

• Only 16% think they always or almost always delight customers getting customer service online.
• 95% want to improve profitability, but only 43% want to improve the work environment for employees.
• 37% have had a customer experience leader for at least 12 months
• 71% identified “other competing priorities” as a significant obstacle to their customer experience efforts; the most commonly selected of the 11 obstacles we asked about.
• 57% have a formalized voice of the customer (VoC) program
• 45% that have a formalized VoC program tie compensation to customer feedback scores; one of the 15 VoC activities we asked about.
• 32% have been using Net Promoter Score (NPS) for at least 12 months; 19% are not familiar with NPS
• 31% analyze conversations in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter; the most commonly used of 11 social media activities we asked about.
• The customer experience competency assessment showed a wide range of results across the 20 questions:
  • Highest scoring: Senior executives regularly communicate that customer experience is one of the company’s key strategies
  • Lowest scoring: Marketing does as much brand marketing inside the company as it does outside the company

In addition to the data insights, the report has a number of self-assessment tools that you can use to compare your efforts to the 140+ respondents:

• In the Temkin Group Insight Report, The Four Customer Experience Core Competencies (free download), we introduced an assessment tool for our competency model. This report allows you to compare your results with 140+ other companies.
• A tool for gauging your voice of the customer (VoC) activities
• A tool for gauging your social media activities

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The bottom line: Customer experience management is still immature