Communicators are well aware that the customer experience is the most meaningful objective in building brand loyalty and trust today, but what about the rest of your organization’s leaders? New research from customer journey management firm Pointillist reveals that the most effective, high-performing teams align their entire organization around journeys to manage, measure and improve CX.
In its 2021 State of Customer Journey Management and CX Measurement report, the firm surveyed over 1,150 CX, analytics, customer service and marketing professionals from various industries worldwide to discover what separates leaders in customer experience from laggards.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen companies embrace new roles, like Journey Owner, to break down traditional organizational silos and realign their organization around their customer,” said Steve Offsey, VP of marketing at Pointillist, in a news release. “This year’s survey confirmed that companies that organize around customer journeys and adopt a journey-based approach to measure and optimize CX are more likely to achieve their CX and business goals. Customer-centric companies can use this year’s report to benchmark their journey management maturity and develop a strategy for improvement.”
The new report organizes the data around 5 major findings:
High-performing teams align their organization around journeys
Sixty-eight percent of respondents reporting that they have a dedicated role or team for customer journey management or analytics, compared to 35 percent of underperformers.
Quantifying the ROI of customer experience initiatives remains the top CX challenge
While it continues to be the top challenge for the third consecutive year, organizations that are further along the path to journey management maturity are almost 6 times more likely to be very or extremely effective at quantifying the impact of CX on business outcomes.
CX and marketing don’t see eye to eye
Most marketing teams believe they are tightly aligned with CX teams, but most CX teams do not agree. Top performing CX and marketing teams are 2.1 times more likely to regularly collaborate on CX initiatives and to be tightly aligned on customer-centric approaches and goals than underperformers.
Digital transformation succeeds by focusing on the customer
Digital transformation is the #2 top CX investment priority over the next year. Moreover, high performers said they look beyond simple cost reduction and make sure digital transformation initiatives create digital experiences that delight their customers and enable them to quickly buy, use and fix issues themselves.
Organizations still struggle to deliver consistent omnichannel experiences
The primary barriers to delivering seamless and consistent omnichannel experiences continue to be data and organizational silos, in combination with the limitations of legacy tools and technology. Nearly six in ten respondents continue to report that customer data is either siloed or not accessible at all. However, top performing teams are 3 times more likely to use customer journey orchestration to optimize CX and are 6 times more likely to be effective at engaging customers across channels and over time.
“Companies that report tight alignment between CX and marketing are outpacing their competitors,” added Offsey. “The most successful teams use customer journeys to align their goals and initiatives. Brands must market themselves in a way that’s consistent with their customers’ actual experience if they want those customers to keep coming back.”
