Anyone still wondering why some businesses are laggards while others are leaders which are light years ahead of the pack, need wonder no more; it is a company-wide commitment to the customer that sets mature organisations apart.
So says the second instalment of Merkle’s 2024 Customer Experience Imperatives Report series, entitled Winning in Today’s Experience Economy: What CX Leaders Do Differently, which explores the attitudes and priorities of global business leaders across eight industries through the lens of customer centricity.
Conducted in late 2023, the study quizzed 2,100 consumers and 820 business leaders across 18 countries.
It maintains that, while it can be tempting to chase after new trends or technology, brands should never lose sight of the ultimate goal: to organise all strategy around meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
In fact, success in customer experience requires effort and excellence across a range of disciplines, including strategy, data management, and technology-powered innovation.
The research explores four common attributes of CX leadership: leading CX organisations have codified CX strategies and customer-first cultures; CX leaders’ investments are more focused on customer feedback than competitor activity; leading CX organisations have well integrated technology; and CX leaders implement AI-driven CX solutions at a much faster rate than other groups.
It explains how all departments within organisations must share the same vision for what an “excellent” customer experience looks like. They must be able to articulate how they want their customers to think and feel when engaging with their brand.
The report states: “The objective should be to transcend the transaction and establish lasting trust and long-term loyalty. Consumers want cost-effectiveness, convenience, and consistency from their brand experiences. A customer-centric organisation is, by definition, better equipped to understand the nuances of these needs and how they differ across individuals than a business with siloed or contradictory departmental goals.”
However, it is also imperative that everyone in the business has access to the same customer data. This will help reduce friction across the total customer journey.
The report continues: “Breaking down data siloes keeps you from, say, spamming a one-time customer with ads for a product they returned. Centralising data in a cloud-based environment provides real-time accessibility to all teams and serves as the basis for democratised, data-driven decision making and governance.”
Merkle global president Pete Stein said the report is aimed at helping CX-minded business leaders to understand where they are in their journeys and where they may need additional focus to achieve their vision.
He concluded: “We’ve seen over and over that small tweaks to strategy and internal alignment can help put laggards on the path to becoming leaders.”
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