Companies Fail To Define and Deliver Complete Customer Experience

The pursuit of customer loyalty through customer experience is high on the corporate agenda, yet companies still fail to understand the totality of customer expectations and therefore deliver commodity products and services, Strativity Group's new Global Benchmark study discovers.

The 379 executive participants study examined organizations' complete customer experience cycle from customer experience definition to customer-centric organizational alignment as well as their mechanism to respond to customer feedback.

Although the study indicates that 80% of the executives strongly agree that customer strategies are more important to companies' success than ever before, companies fail to design and deliver those strategies and, as such, lose customer commitment and loyalty.

Study results highlights include:

--Only 43.9% (up from 40.0% in 2006) believed that their companies deserve their customers' loyalty

--42.6% responded that their companies' products and services are NOT worth the price they charge (down from 44.0% in 2006)

--56% responded that their companies have differentiated and beneficial products and services (up from 49.5% in 2006)

--43.7% said their companies will take any customer that is willing to pay (up from 38.3% in 2006)

--Only 34.8% indicated that their company has a dedicated customer experience management role

--Only 27.2% of the respondents said that the definition of the customer experience is well-defined and communicated in their companies

--Only 28.8% responded that employees have the tools and authority to solve customer problems (down from 34.0% in 2006)

--Only 23.9% agreed that their employees are well-versed in how to delight customers

The benchmark study highlights a critical gap between companies' recognition of the importance of customer-focused strategies and their ability to successfully develop and implement such strategies. The executives surveyed responded overwhelmingly that their companies lack the three foundational elements critical to any customer-centric program:

1.A clear customer experience strategy
2.Employees with the tools and empowerment necessary to deliver extraordinary experiences
3.A systematic mechanism to transform customer feedback into actions

More information on Customer Relationship Management can be found at www.CRMindustry.com