Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) November 06, 2014
It has been predicted that by the year 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator (Source: Walker). Your customers are evolving, using technologies and channels to manage their purchase journeys on their own. As a brand, if you do not facilitate their journeys and delight them at every step, they will conveniently move on to other providers who do.
The State of B2B Customer Experience 2014 report analyzes the current state of customer experience (CX) in today’s B2B companies – from benefits of superior customer experience, challenges preventing CX excellence, tactics employed by companies, measurement and much more. The survey has brought to light a striking gap between how B2B companies view customer experience and how they actually approach it.
Top findings of the report include:
- 81% of executives report that Customer Experience features one among the top strategic priorities of their organization
- 91% executives say that integration of customer feedback with product development is key to providing superior customer service
- 76% of executives say that they do not have a single-pane view of their customers
- 80% executives use customer retention as a metric for measuring effectiveness of customer experience programs
Detailed Findings:
Customer Experience Goals
The survey demonstrated that not everyone surveyed had clear goals or expectations from their customer experience programs. Out of the ones who do, the biggest reason for being customer-focused was differentiation.
- 82% of executives reported their main goal of customer experience programs as differentiation from competitors and the industry
- 91% of marketers reported persistent improvement of online customer experience as a key priority of their customer experience program
- Mobile is a channel that is relatively low priority for marketers as only 46% of executives surveyed reported prioritizing improvement in mobile customer experience
- 46% executives say that improving cross-channel customer experience is a key priority of their customer experience program
Customer Experience Ownership and Management
- 46% of respondents reported that all departments are equally responsible for the quality of customer experience in their organization
- Majority of respondents (51%) reported a lack of an executive or person-in-charge for improving customer experience across products and channels
Customer Experience Tactics and Tools
Companies employ various tactics to understand their customers’ expectations, needs, wants, and suggestions, with regards to interactions with the company.
- The most popular tactic is employing feedback tools such as annual relationship surveys used by 62% of executives surveyed, followed by voice of customer studies in the form of focus groups, individual interviews etc. used by 57% of respondents
- Journey maps which are essential to mapping and understanding various steps undertaken by an individual as she interacts with the brand during her buyer journey are utilized by 52% of executives surveyed
- 46% executives reported using a single set of customer feedback scores such as Net Promoter Score, retention rate etc. for over a year now
- 42% executives reported using a voice of the customer program for a year
Benefits-Aiding Post-Purchase Consumer Behavior
The survey demonstrated that customer experience has a profound impact on post-purchase consumer behavior as opposed to pre and during purchase consumer behavior.
- 80% executives surveyed believe that advocacy and positive word-of-mouth are the top benefits of enhancing customer experience
- 80% executives surveyed also believe that it triggers enhanced engagement and fosters customer loyalty
- On the other hand, only 60% executives reported an increase in sales, and another 57% reported an increase in revenues as the topmost benefits of improving customer experience
Metrics for measuring effectiveness of customer experience programs
Metrics used for measuring quality of Customer experience programs are tied to the desired goals or objectives from this exercise.
- 80% of executives reported using customer retention to measure the percentage of customers who did not detract and remained loyal to the company
- 65% of executives used sales volume, while 55% preferred number of leads generated and 50% of executives selected rate of conversion to determine the impact of customer experience quality on pre-purchase customer interactions that lead to sales.
Companies still focusing on multi-channel and not omni-channel customer experiences
Companies use a wide range of channels - offline and online to reach out to and engage their target audience.
- When it comes to offline channels, 68% executives use direct mail and print media, while 80% executives use blogs and social media channels
- Mobile is given much priority, as only less than one-third of executives surveyed utilize it to engage their audiences
- 76% of executives say that they do not have a single-pane view of their customers
- 91% executives believe that integration of customer feedback data with product development is critical for providing superior customer experience
- 65% executives believe integration of customer behavior data is key to providing superior customer experiences.
But what are the challenges stopping companies from delivering harmonious cross-channel customer experiences?
Challenges Encountered
44% executives rate their customers’ overall experience with the brand is good. Only 16% marketers rated their customers’ experience with their brand as excellent. They report facing certain challenges that stop them from unleashing the true potential of customer experience programs.
- The biggest obstacle to achieving customer experience excellence is internal to a company – lack of a clear customer experience strategy reported by 62% of executives surveyed
- 38% of executives also attributed it to the lack of an integrated cross-channel management that provides them with a single pane view of customer behavior and interactions
- Out of the executives who do not prioritize customer experience, 41% say that the top reason for this is the lack of customer-centric culture in their organization
Budget Allocation
Most organizations do not allocate separate budgets to customer experience management programs as indicated by 71% of executives surveyed. One third of the executives say that customer experience management falls under the Marketing department’s budgets. More than half the executives surveyed reported allocating 0 to 10% budgets for customer experience management programs. 62 % executives say they plan to increase budget allocations for customer experience programs in the next 12 months.
Overview
The survey was conducted by Regalix Inc., and respondents included CMOs and mid-level marketing professionals from leading B2B companies.
The State of B2B Customer Experience 2014 was compiled using the survey results and covers the latest customer experience trends, tactics, metrics and challenges faced by B2B marketers in today’s dynamic market environment.
To download the complete report, please visit http://bit.ly/10u57Ng
Supporting Resources
Read more about customer experience management at http://bit.ly/1BBdaGz
About Regalix:
Regalix is an award-winning Global Co-Innovation company that leverages technology and marketing to help companies grow. They create successful ventures with clients through co-innovation and idea-driven frameworks that inspire companies to think differently. Founded in 1998, Regalix is based in Palo Alto. For over a decade, we have provided complete marketing services – Social, Mobile, Content, Multi-channel Campaigns, Technology Development, and Analytics – to companies such as CA Technologies, Citi, Apple, eBay, Cisco, VMware, NetApp, Cypress, LSI, Keynote, and Wipro Technologies. For more information, please visit http://www.regalix.com