The Leading Edges of Customer Experience Management
Angelia Herrin – Editor of Special Projects and Research,
Harvard Business Review
Jason Miller – Customer Intelligence Solutions Architect, SAS
Preliminary Research Findings
Respondents’ Profiles
2%
2%
3%
3%
5%
5%
6%
6%
7%
8%
15%
17%
19%
Prof/bus services
Construction
Transportation/ Logistics
Other
Leisure/Media
Healthcare
Retail
Pharma/Med/Life Sciences
Energy/Utilities
Consulting services
Mftg
IT/Telecoms
Financial
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
Which of the following best describes the MAIN industry in which you personally work? All n=403
Respondents’ Profiles
How many individuals does your organization employ? Base: All answering n=308
What were the approximate gross annual sales or revenues for your entire company in 2012? Base: all answering n= 403
19%
11%
22%
40%
8%
$150m - $499m
$500m - $999m
$1bn - $4.99bn
$5bn or more
Not sure
Gross Annual SalesFY 2012
Average revenue = $3.9bn
11% 5%
1%
22%
10%
51%
Less than 500
500-749
750-999
1,000-4,999
5,000-9,999
10,000 or more
Company Size (employees)
Average no. staff = 8,602
Respondents’ Profiles
46%
47%
7% Very involved
Somewhat involved
Not at all involved
Involvement in organization’s customer experience (CE) practices
How involved are you in your organization’s customer experience practices? Base: All n=403
Challenge for All Firms
10%
8%
4%
8%
49%
37%
38%
41%
24%
38%
34%
32%
10%
11%
19%
13%
8%
6%
4%
6%
Forward looking firms
Neutral firms
Non forward lookingfirms
All
Not difficult at all Somewhat difficult Very difficult
How difficult is it to tie customer experience investments to business outcomes? Base: All n=403
Tying CE investments to business outcomes
• About half say it is very or extremely challenging to tie CE investments to business outcomes.
• Forward looking firms are not immune; a third are in the same position.
How difficult is it to tie customer experience investments to business outcomes? Base: All n=403
CE Management is Challenging for All
8%
7%
3%
3%
3%
4%
1%
2%
4%
5%
26%
20%
18%
17%
16%
13%
17%
11%
11%
10%
33%
33%
37%
36%
36%
37%
32%
36%
33%
33%
33%
40%
42%
44%
45%
46%
50%
51%
51%
52%
Reducing customer churn
Multi-channel management
Identifying cross & upsell…
Understanding customer lifetime…
Integrating voice of the customer
Connecting customer experience…
Cultivating a customer focused…
Building new customer experiences
Achieving a 'single view' of customer
Maximizing customer experience…
NA/Don't know Not a challenge (1-4) Moderate challenge (5-7) Significant challenge (8-10)
Please rate the degree to which the following customer experience issues present challenges to your company on a scale of 1-10. Base: All n=403
• 66% find customer churn a challenge and this is the CE area of least concern.
• Forward looking firms are just as likely to face these challenges as their peers.
Extent of Customer Data Challenges
8%
7%
10%
8%
9%
8%
13%
8%
8%
8%
22%
21%
16%
17%
15%
18%
18%
19%
14%
15%
42%
42%
45%
43%
43%
39%
33%
37%
38%
33%
28%
30%
30%
32%
33%
34%
36%
36%
40%
43%
Reliability/believability
Tracking customer trends
Solutions costs
Skills availability
How actionable data is
Timeliness
Big data
Data quality
Forecasting customer behaviour/purchasing
Data integration/lack of standardization
NA/Don't know Not at all challenging (1-4) Moderately challenging (5-7) Extremely challenging (8-10)
How challenging are the following customer data challenges in your organization? All n=403
CE Management
17%
47%
36%Not forward looking(score 1-4)
Neutral (score 5-7)
Forward looking(score 8-10)
Forward looking firms are:
• Geographically evenly spread
• More likely to be in IT/Telecoms
sector (24%, index 141)
Non forward looking firm are more
likely to be:
• Firms of fewer than 500 staff
(20%, index 182)
• In the Manufacturing sector
(20%, index 133)
How forward-looking would you say your organization is in its approach to customer experience management? Base: All n=403
Corporate Performance
47% 46% 45% 44%
37%
60%
66%
60%
54% 54%
45%42%
44%42%
34%
35%
27% 28% 29%
20%
Profitability Quality Growth/revenue generation Market share Customer retention rate
All Forward looking Neutral Not forward looking
Please indicate how successful your company is in the following areas of corporate performance. Base: All n=403
Index 128
Index 132
Index 133
Index 143
Index 146
Top Box Scores (8-10)
CE and Competitive Advantage
7%
12%
23%
28%
25%
6%
3%
17%
31%
40%
5%
18%
23%
30%
20%13%
15%
31%
21%
14%
Strongly disagree Somewhatdisagree
Neither agree nordisagree
Somewhat agree Strongly agree
All Forward looking Neutral Not forward lookingIndex 160
• 71% of forward looking organizations agree that CE
provides a competitive advantage.
• Those who are not forward looking are much less
likely to recognize the competitive advantages of
CE; just one third agree that there is an advantage.
To what extent would you agree that your organization’s customer experience management provides a competitive advantage? All n=403
Use of CE Practices
19%
22%
27%
34%
36%
36%
39%
40%
40%
43%
44%
45%
45%
46%
48%
62%
69%
75%
None of these analytics used
Screen job candidates for customer centric values
Connect coprorate rewards to CE metrics
Map customer interactions within firm
Analyze all customer insights across organization
Share CE metrics with all staff
Create consistent, company wide CE standards
Compare CE quality across segments
Regularly review CE projects/metrics
Factor CE impacts in business decisions
Develop CE strategy to align with corporate…
Get feedback from customer data
Get staff feedback on CE
Train new and existing staff in CE skills
Collect CE operational metrics
Communicate CE's importance to all stakeholders
Respond to individual customers' feedback
Get feedback from customers
Feedback
Analysis
Implementation
• There is plenty of scope for
increased use of CE
practices, particularly in
the area of analysis
Which of the following practices does your organization routinely employ?
All responding Feedback section n=402, Analysis section n=399, Implementation section n=400
Forward-Looking Firms Use Analysis More
106
111
113
118
121
122
122
127
132
133
133
133
138
142
144
145
156
Respond to individual customers' feedback
Communicate CE's importance to all stakeholders
Get customer feedback
Get staff feedback on CE
Factor CE impacts in business decisions
Train new and existing staff in CE skills
Get feedback from customer data
Screen job candidates for customer centric values
Map customer interactions within firm
Regularly review CE projects/metrics
Connect corporate rewards to CE metrics
Collect CE operational metrics
Compare CE quality across segments
Share CE metrics with all staff
Create consistent, commpany wide CE standards
Develop CE strategy to align with corporate strategy
Analyze all customer insights across organization
Indices: Forward looking organizations’
answers indexed against all answers
for each CE practice. Over 120
indicates more likely to use a practice,
less than 80 indicates less likely to do
so.
Feedback
Analysis
Implementation
Which of the following practices does your organization routinely employ? Base: All forward looking organizations n=143
Indices
Rating of CE Practice: Feedback
38%
46%52%
59% 60%
17% 16%
35%39%
47%
10% 8%
22%16%
27%
Gather CE input fromstaff
Collect unsolicitedexperience data
Collect operationalmetrics
Solicit experiencefeedback from
customers
Respond to individualcustomers based on
feedback
Forward looking Neutral Not forward looking
Please rate the effectiveness of the practices your organization currently employs to manage the customer experience on a scale from 1 to 10,
with 1 meaning not at all effective and 10 meaning extremely effective. All responding n=402
Even forward looking firms have
plenty of room for improvement in
their CE practice
All respondents saying “extremely effective” (top Box Scores of 8-10)Base: all respondents who routinely employ the relevant CE practice.
Rating of CE Practice: Analysis
48%51% 49%
55%
34%
22%27%
35%
17%12%
0%
20%
Compare differences inexperience qualityamong segments
Analyze crossorganizational
customer insights
Map customerinteractions within
organization
Create organizationwide CE standards
Forward looking Neutral Not forward looking
All respondents saying “extremely effective” (top Box Scores of 8-10)Base: all respondents who routinely employ the relevant CE practice.
Please rate the effectiveness of the practices your organization currently employs to manage the customer experience on a scale from 1 to 10,
with 1 meaning not at all effective and 10 meaning extremely effective. All responding n=402
Forward looking firms are way
ahead in their use of analytics,
but this is the area where there is
most scope for improvement
Rating of CE Practice: Implementation
All respondents saying “extremely effective” (top Box Scores of 8-10)Base: all respondents who routinely employ the relevant CE practice.
60%63% 63% 65% 67% 68%
71% 73%
36%30%
26%
40% 41%
29%
42% 40%
22% 21%
29%26%
9%
28% 29%33%
Factor CEimpacts indecisions
Regular CEproject/metrics
reviews
Screenemployment
candidates forcustomercentrism
Develop CEstrategy that
aligns with firm'sstrategy
Provide staff CEtraining
Share CEmetrics with all
staff
Connectrewards to CE
metrics
CommunicateCE importance
to all
Forward looking Neutral Not forward looking
Please rate the effectiveness of the practices your organization currently employs to manage the customer experience on a scale from 1 to 10,
with 1 meaning not at all effective and 10 meaning extremely effective. All responding n=402
CE: Forward-Looking Firms are More Effective
132
139
143
144
148
154
155
161
194
Average revenue per customer
Customer retention
Use of Net Promoter Score
Customer satisfaction
Customer loyalty
Brand value management
Up-sell/Cross-sell rate
Customer engagement
Customer Effort Score
Indices
Forward looking firms are waking up to and
becoming increasingly proficient in the
newer CE tools like Customer Effort Score
Please rate your organization’s effectiveness in the following aspects of customer experience. Base: n=403
Importance of Multi Channel Management
20%
27%
38%
15%9%
22%
53%
15%
16%
36% 37%
11%
39%
21% 21%19%
Not at all important (1-4) Moderately important (5-7) Extremely important (8-10) Don't know
All Forward looking Neutral Not forward looking
How important is multichannel management to your organization? All n=403
Index 139
Index 195
Forward Looking Firms Use More Channels
20%
34%
25%
21%
21%
25%
21%
33%
12%
45%
28%
15%
28%
33%
28%
11%
2 channels or fewer 3-4 channels 5-6 channels 7-10 channels
All Forward looking Neutral Not forward looking
Index 157
Index 140
Which of the following means of customer engagement does your organization use today? Base All n=403
Extent of Customer Data Challenges
8%
7%
10%
8%
9%
8%
13%
8%
8%
8%
22%
21%
16%
17%
15%
18%
18%
19%
14%
15%
42%
42%
45%
43%
43%
39%
33%
37%
38%
33%
28%
30%
30%
32%
33%
34%
36%
36%
40%
43%
Reliability/believability
Tracking customer trends
Solutions costs
Skills availability
How actionable data is
Timeliness
Big data
Data quality
Forecasting customer behaviour/purchasing
Data integration/lack of standardization
NA/Don't know Not at all challenging (1-4) Moderately challenging (5-7) Extremely challenging (8-10)
How challenging are the following customer data challenges in your organization? All n=403
Success in Overcoming Data Challenges
29%
51%
13%
7%
7%
58%
29%
6%
29%
60%
5% 6%
58%
32%
2%
8%
Not at all successful (1-4) Moderately successful (5-7) Extremely successful (8-10) Don't know
All Forward looking Neutral Not forward looking
Index 223
Index 200
Overall, how successful do you think your organization is in overcoming these data challenges? All n=403
Even ‘best in class’ have plenty of room for
improvement in overcoming data challenges.
Less than 1/3 say they are extremely successful
in this aspect
Data Sources Used to Enhance CE
16%
24%
24%
25%
33%
33%
33%
37%
52%
57%
70%
71%
Online chat
Online review data
Other 3rd party data
Partner data
Mobile interactions
Location-based services
Contact center 'phone transcripts
Transaction data
Social media
Sales/retail staff feedback
Surveys
Website
Over half of companies are drawing on
social media data sources, making it a clear
top four source.
But they do not yet know how to manage,
analyze or be highly effective in this
channel.
Which data sources does your organization draw upon to create better customer experiences? All n=403
Forward Looking Firms’ Preferred CE Data Sources
92
98
100
100
100
103
110
112
112
119
121
125
125
Location based services
Feedback from sales/retail staff
Transaction data
Focus groups
Other third-party data
Surveys
Website
Contact center phone transcripts
Partner data
Social media
Mobile interactions
Online review data
Online chat
Which data sources does your organization draw upon to create better customer experiences? Base: All n=403
Forward Looking Firms See Promise inEmerging Technologies
15%
16%
17%
23%
33%
43%
44%
53%
26%
22%
26%
35%
41%
56%
54%
61%
8%
12%
13%
14%
30%
31%
37%
49%
Speech analytics
Wearable computing
Augmented reality
Text analytics
Location basedapplications
Social media analytics
Real-time decisionmaking
CE/online behaviouranalytics
Not forward looking
Forward looking
All
In your opinion, how promising are the following emerging technologies to improving your organization’s ability to manage the customer experience?
Base All n=403
Thank you!
The Leading Edges of Customer Experience Management
Full Report Publication date: April 16, 2014
Angelia Herrin – Editor of Special Projects and Research, Harvard Business Review
Jason Miller – Customer Intelligence Solutions Architect, SAS