Lack of buy-in. Lack of collaboration across teams. Siloed working. Does this sound familiar? According to a recent Forrester study it’s estimated that over 40% of Customer Experience (CX) programs have low or very low maturity. Key challenges companies face include:
- CX data is owned and analysed by a small insights team. The net isn’t cast wide enough, and the approach isn’t in partnership with overarching business objectives and executive team.
- CX Insights teams don’t integrate data across multiple sources for a holistic view of the customer and brand experience – making it difficult to prove the value of CX. Without internal buy-in true customer centricity won’t happen.
- CX Insights teams are focused on firefighting and ‘getting the job done’. They spend valuable time reporting fluctuations in metrics and KPIs and are not focused on how the business can change and act.
Analytics to prove the ROI of CX
It is fundamental for any customer-centric organisation to collaborate across the business with a shared CX vision, utilising data from different sources to show the value of CX and to drive action to improve the customer experience.
This can be challenging, but is important in driving your CX maturity as an organisation. At Kantar, we helped a retail client do exactly this, bringing together sales, media spend and CX data to quantify the role of CX on business outcomes. They found that CX drove 5.1% of total sales, compared to 3.1% for media spend, and 22.3% long-term brand equity. Kantar built an econometric model simulator, demonstrating the ongoing impact CX uplift had on boosting sales. The integration of data sources and linking CX to financials proved the value of CX, brought execs on board and informed action to drive CX improvements.
It is estimated that 71% of companies don’t fully aggregate and mine feedback across surveys and other sources or go beyond surveys to measure CX. However, leveraging external data and analytics for a holistic view is critical to driving impact and gaining buy in. Bringing multiple stakeholders and their data sources together can be a highly effective way of generating a full view of the customer experience, and also creating a shared understanding of what needs to be done to improve it.
Empowering insights teams with tech to drive action
At Kantar, we help insights teams create a holistic view of customer experience bringing together operational data, observed behaviour and direct feedback. We deliver this through our partnerships with leading experience management platforms, Qualtrics and Medallia.
Kantar recently worked with an automotive manufacturer to track the performance of 300+ dealer outlets across Italy by harmonising data across a broad set of internal and external sources. A seamless portal was created to bring together this breadth of data, tailored to the needs of specific users. It also enabled performance benchmarking and appropriate allocation of incentives. This led to higher user engagement, with 200+ users accessing the portal for their operational decision making. Plus, it achieved significant time saving through automated report generation and made tangible improvements in the overall quality of service.
The power of platforms means Insights teams are equipped with the tools to report CX data real-time, taking away the pain of manual metric reporting. Going beyond that means investigating the meaning behind the metrics; looking at specific business priorities and quantifying the commercial value of change. It is possible to leverage in-depth text analytics, advanced statistical modelling, and draw together external and operational data to provide rich data-driven recommendations. This can be brought to life through a combination of strategic reports and interactive sessions, where action plans are co-created and change ownership is driven through the business. The business must set goals and actions to work toward, with CX metrics reinforcing continuous improvement and pointing customer facing teams toward where they need to focus.
Key principles of CX
Ultimately, best-in-class CX programmes combine data, are aligned with business goals, and drive action. Organisations need to focus and stand by 5 principles in order to realise this, and transform their CX programmes into CX management:
- CX is more than a metric
- CX requires technology as an enabler
- CX demands habit at all levels
- CX requires clear ownership
- CX needs a clear measurement framework
How we can help
Kantar’s CX toolkit can help your business unlock opportunities for growth. Start by driving the right behaviours:
- Conduct a maturity audit to help understand where you sit along the CX maturity curve. Identify which enablers are strong and where you need to prioritise your efforts.
- Embed CX value analytics to demonstrate the ROI of CX. Use this to gain buy-in of leaders across the business.