CX TM LANDSCAPE State of the Industry Report Executive Brief Sponsored By
The State of Customer Experience Customer experience and customer loyalty, though certainly not new concepts, are undergoing a renaissance. Spurred by the promise of new technologies and the power of customer data, what s old seems to be new again. Companies are looking to truly understand their customers and create more one-to-one engagements with them. While this may harken back to the days of the 1920 s corner butcher shop that knew a customer s weekly order before she walked in the door, today it means that brands are striving to be both omnipresent and omnipotent. The challenge to be those things is great, regardless of company size, budget or vision. It appears customer experience on is on a path to come full circle. A brand that knows the customer intimately tapping into the new technologies, processes and customer data tools available - uses that power to build a relationship with the customer. In this new world, the customer experience can be so harmonious that the customer will gladly make a commitment. Thus, customer loyalty is born. But on that path to customer loyalty, are we there yet? At this critical juncture, Loyalty360, the definitive voice of loyalty marketing, has chosen to assess the current and future landscapes of customer experience. The CX Landscape online survey polled more than 250 brands, representing companies of various sizes and a broad spectrum of industries, from April 23, 2014 to October 31, 2014. The study evaluated the definition and scope of CX, processes and frameworks, challenges, technology adoption, innovations and knowledge gaps. 2 Powered by Loyalty360 www.loyalty360.org
What we found is a disjointed and disparate industry, with lots of challenges to address, but the opportunity for customer loyalty as the ultimate payoff. Customer experience lacks a unified definition. How organizations define customer experience varies widely. Some organizations see it as a single interaction or touch point. Some narrowly define it as a customer satisfaction score. Others describe it as a well-orchestrated relationship with the customer at every point in the customer journey. Nevertheless, a challenge of definition exists. Accountability for customer experience is most often shared by more than one group within an organization. True customer-centricity means that every member of an organization is working toward the common goal of satisfying the customer and building customer loyalty, but the challenge is coordinating and managing across departments. Tasking one group to manage CX may simplify life in the short term, but lead to missed opportunities in the long term. In organizations where marketing is solely responsible for CX, short-term outcomes are expected, such as engagement and campaign response, rather than long-term outcomes like loyalty and advocacy. Determining the right metrics to track is the biggest knowledge gap. The confusion and complexity of customer experience is causing many to wonder what they should be measuring. These organizations appear to be working toward a goal, but are unsure of how to accurately and honestly measure effectiveness. Brands that are setting themselves apart from the competition are tackling the difficult tasks and seeing payoff as a result. The winners of the Loyalty360 CX Awards deliver on the promise of customer-centricity. Employees across all groups are held accountable for CX and outcomes are expected in the short-, mid- and long-term. More metrics are tracked, including loyalty and advocacy, profitability and ROI. For customer experience, winning brands have a taken a very complex concept and simplified it without diminishing the return. These companies are vested in the outcomes and therefore, see enhanced success.
CX Journey: Are We There Yet? This year it has become all too evident that customer experience and engagement is a terrain that s difficult to define and, therefore, even more difficult to navigate. New technologies emerging every day mean that we can connect quicker, captivate easier, and deliver compelling content in a matter of seconds. But while messaging may have gotten easier, for many brands effectively engaging customers has not. The CX Landscape is a comprehensive study of some of the most recognizable, valuable brands in the world. What we found is that, while all brands understand that a dynamic CX strategy is imperative for them to thrive, many still struggle to define CX - from who manages it, to how it s measured. And without a definition, how can brands establish goals or know what outcomes to expect? Our study showed that brands that excel at CX are doing so because they have a clear definition of what customer engagement and experience is. They also define CX in exhaustive, yet clear measures, use almost twice as many metrics to track CX effectiveness than the rest of the market, and employ short- and long-term metrics to gauge the effectiveness of CX - including complex metrics like ROI and profitability. And perhaps paramount: They include the customer as part of the brand s reason for being. At Loyalty360 we understand how important it is to listen. This study comes from listening closely to brands and hearing the need for direction with navigating the CX Landscape. Creating and carrying out a dynamic CX plan can be exciting and rewarding we hope our report helps guide you on your CX journey. Mark Johnson CEO Loyalty360
CX LANDSCAPE: State of the Industry Report An Executive Brief by Loyalty360 THE CHALLENGE OF DEFINING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Companies are defining customer experience in a myriad of ways. Some define it strictly as an outcome; specifically a net promoter score or a customer satisfaction score. Others view it as a single experience with a brand; from the moment a customer pulls into the parking lot, or arrives at the website, to the moment of purchase. Still others see it as touch points around the purchase and post-purchase events; in other words, customer care. Nearly one in five companies we surveyed said it isn t clearly defined or the definition is in progress. The companies who are thinking in a more comprehensive manner tell us that customer experience is not finite. It includes any and all interactions and touch points that a consumer has had with a brand. Those interactions shape consumer perceptions, incite emotions, influence behavior and are the building blocks that form brand loyalty and, ultimately, advocacy. Customer experience is not limited to one or a few stages of the customer journey, but encompasses all stages. It isn t limited to the store front or a call to customer service, but happens anywhere the customer is exposed to your brand; digital channels, in-store, word-of-mouth, social media, customer service and more. It occurs anywhere and anytime. This is the current state of customer experience. Companies who are not thinking about CX in this manner are missing opportunities to build real and profitable relationships with customers. Does Your Organization View Customer Experience as a Single Customer Interaction, Many Interactions or All Interactions? Single interaction or touchpoint 15% Many interactions or touchpoints 58% Infinite number of interactions or touchpoints 27% Percentage of Respondents 6 Powered by Loyalty360 www.loyalty360.org
Where in the Customer Lifecycle Does Customer Experience Occur? Post-purchase only 1% Purchase and post-purchase 36% Entire customer lifecycle 62% Percentage of Respondents What Is The Desired Outcome of Your Customer Experience Strategy? Positively impacting customer emotions/perceptions 38% Customer satisfaction 37% Customer loyalty 26% Customer advocacy 11% Percentage of Respondents
THE CHALLENGE OF OWNERSHIP Navigating internal processes and structures is a common challenge when it comes to customer experience. Difficulties also arise with properly attributing the initiatives that shape customer experience with the proper outcomes and measurements. Sharing accountability for CX across multiple departments adds complexity, while assigning it to a single group makes the scope too narrow. At most companies (51%), more than one group is ultimately held accountable. Marketing most often holds the responsibility at companies where one group holds sole accountability. What Group is Ultimately Accountable for CX Strategies? Product IT Sales Operations Other Marketing More than one group is accountable 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Percentage of Respondents
CX LANDSCAPE: State of the Industry Report An Executive Brief by Loyalty360 The Challenge of Ownership...continued. CX budgets are relatively small when viewed as a percentage of annual revenue. Companies are spending up to 1.5%, on average, of annual revenue on CX. At those companies where CX ownership lives solely in marketing, CX budget is likely to be lower (relative to annual revenue), and marketing spend is likely to be higher (relative to annual revenue). In fact, marketing spend is up to 8% higher at those companies, on average. Customer experience iniatives may be folded into broader marketing pieces at those companies where marketing owns CX, as evidenced by the larger total marketing spend reported. CX and Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Annual Revenue Up to 4.0% 3.5% 3.0% 2.5% 2.0% 1.5% 1.0% 0.5% 0.0% CX Budget as % of Revenue Marketing Budget as % of Revenue All Respondents Marketing Owns CX CX Not Solely Owned by Marketing 10 Powered by Loyalty360 www.loyalty360.org
Where marketing is solely accountable for customer experience, short-term outcomes are more likelty to be expected than long-term outcomes, such as customer advocacy (measured by net promoter score). Top Five Measurements of CX Effectiveness Net promoter score CX Not Owned by Marketing Sales/revenue Retention/churn Engagement Customer satisfaction Campaign response rates All Respondents Marketing Owns CX Accquisition Retention/churn Engagement Customer satisfaction Net promoter score Sales/revenue Retention/churn Engagement Customer satisfaction 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Percentage of Respondents
THE CHALLENGE OF MEASUREMENT Brands are grappling to create a more simplified, defined structure for customer experience. Many have an understanding of that structure and the processes required to deliver a strong customer experience, but are struggling to make sense how disparate touch points work together to impact the overall business. When asked what question they would like to ask of competitors regarding their customer experience strategy, many want to know what specific metrics are used or how customer experience is measured. As companies come to define customer experience as an infinite engagement with customers, measuring it especially in a meaningful way is a challenge. If You Could Ask Your Biggest Competitor One Question About Their CX Strategy, What Would It Be? How do you define CX? How do you track VoC? How do you stay top-of-mind for consumers? What technology are you using? What s on your road map? What s your budget? How do you differentiate? What does your customer feedback look like? What are you focusing on? What s your retention and loyalty strategy? How do you get executive buy-in? How do you motivate employees? How do you create alignment? How do you balance personalization vs mass communication? How do you align across departments/functions? What are your processes? What technique/initiative has the biggest impact? What metrics are used? How do you measure success? 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% Percentage of Respondents
CX LANDSCAPE: State of the Industry Report An Executive Brief by Loyalty360 The Challenge of Measurement...continued. When we look at how the Loyalty360 CX Award winners are approaching measurement, we see differences in the metrics used and outcomes reported between this group and the market at-large. The frameworks established by these companies spread responsibility for customer experience across multiple groups within the organization. These companies tell us that that the customer is truly at the center of the corporate culture and company ethos. Naturally, pleasing the customer, and building relationships with them that lead to loyalty, is engrained in the goals for every part of the organization. What Group is Ultimately Accountable for CX Strategies? Product IT Sales Operations Other Marketing More than one group is accountable 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Percentage of Respondents Award Winners All Respondents 14 Powered by Loyalty360 www.loyalty360.org
Winners are using more metrics than the market at-large (9.5 different metrics, compared to 5.5 metrics, on average). Nearly all are looking at customer satisfaction and engagement, which are also the most commonly used metrics in the market, but long-term metrics like Net Promoter Score, ROI and profitability measurements are much more common among the winners than the rest of the market. How Do You Measure CX Effectiveness? Engagement Customer satisfaction Long-term Mid-term Short-term Campaign response rates Website statistics Awareness Visits Retention/churn Sales/revenue Acquisition Share of wallet RFM Profitability ROI Net promoter score Lifetime value Penetration 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Percentage of Respondents Award Winners All Respondents
CX LANDSCAPE: State of the Industry Report An Executive Brief by Loyalty360 The Challenge of Measurement...continued. Most winners are measuring their CX strategies in the short-, mid- and long-term, while the market is more likely to focus on short-term metrics. Is the Imapact of your CX Strategies Measured in the Short-, Mid- or Long-term? Short-term Only, 6% Mid- and Long-term, 6% Long-term Only, 6% Winners Short-, Mid- and Long-term, 78% All Respondents Mid-term Only, 6% Short-term Only, 18% Mid-term Only, 36% Mid- and Long-term, 4% Short-, Mid- and Long-term, 18% Long-term Only, 10% Short- and Mid-term, 12% Short- and Long-term, 1% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Percentage of Respondents 16 Powered by Loyalty360 www.loyalty360.org
Not only are winners reporting that they approach customer experience in a more holistic way, with expected outcomes occurring in the long-term, the group reports a substantial lift in sales and revenue attributed to customer experience. Incremental Sales or Revenue Lift Attributed to CX More than 40% 21% - 40% 11% - 20% 5% - 10% Less than 5% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Percentage of Respondents Award Winners All Respondents
CX LANDSCAPE: State of the Industry Report An Executive Brief by Loyalty360 About the Authors Mark Johnson, CEO, CMO Loyalty360 As CEO & CMO of Loyalty360, Mark is committed to bringing loyalty to the forefront as a critical marketing strategy. To further this goal, he has created an unbiased, market-driven clearinghouse and think tank through which users and loyalty providers can interact and collaborate with. His finger on the pulse of what s happening in loyalty, Mark is driven to give members the expert insight and guidance they need to develop strategies and implement programs that effectively engage their customers and employees and build stronger relationships with them. Mark has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/crm programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs. He received his start in loyalty program design while at Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, OH where he developed the bank s open (merchant-based gift card) and closed (MasterCard) system stored value programs (Premiere Issue). Following, Mark was Vice President of Product Development at Stored Value Systems. Through efforts, SVS designed the gift card mall product and wrote its first comprehensive market evaluation on loyalty. He was also responsible for the recommendation to acquire the assets of DataMark Technologies and their loyalty processing clients. At Size Technologies, Mark sold loyalty and CRM programs to Alliance Data Systems (Dynamic Value), Carlson Marketing Group (Gold Points Replacement), National Processing Company/Bank of America, Blackhawk Marketing/Safeway and First Data Resources. Mark has his undergraduate degree in mass communications (media management) from Miami University, an M.B.A from the University of Cincinnati, and is currently pursuing an M.B.A. in Business Information Statistics from Xavier University. A recognized thought leader in loyalty marketing, Mark shares his expert insights with media worldwide. He is a regular contributor to Hotel Executive and 21st Century Business and has been featured in FoxBusiness, NBC News, ABC News, New York Times, Washington Post, 1to1 Magazine, MarketingSherpa, CRM Magazine and The PrePaid Press. Emily Heitkamp, Sr. Director, Content and Business Development Loyalty360 As an experienced market researcher and consumer insights expert, Emily has guided some of the most valuable brands in the world on their marketing strategies. At Loyalty360, Emily s research and thought leadership provides organizations with an understanding of broad trends in the marketplace, helping them develop strategies for creating profitable and loyal customers. Prior to joining Loyalty360, Emily held client services positions with The Nielsen Company, where she advised clients on measuring and optimizing advertising campaign effectiveness. Emily previously served as an account manager at NM Incite a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey helping brands measure and act on the chatter about them on social media. Prior to that, she honed her analytics skills as a research manager with Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a social media measurement solution, starting in 2007 when social media was in its infancy. In her time at Nielsen, Emily grew adept at packaging vast amounts of consumer and market data into easy-to-understand and actionable insights for clients, which makes her a valuable asset for Loyalty360 s members. 18 Powered by Loyalty360 www.loyalty360.org
About Loyalty360 Loyalty360 is an unbiased, market driven, voice of the customer focused clearinghouse and think-tank that is committed to bringing loyalty to the forefront as a critical marketing strategy. A trusted source for cutting-edge research, best practices, and networking opportunities, Loyalty360 gives members the expert insights and guidance they need to better understand loyalty and develop programs that effectively engage their customers and employees and build stronger relationships with them. Loyalty360 offers you a roadmap to engaging customers and driving loyalty through research, reports, webinars, conferences, news, expert articles, multimedia and more. We pride ourselves on our ability to continuously deliver relevant and timely customer loyalty and engagement marketing best-practice perspectives and industry thought leadership on a variety of topics. About ResponseTek ResponseTek is a customer experience management (CEM) software company focused on the requirements of Global 2000 organizations with diverse product lines. The ResponseTek Listening Platform analyzes valuable customer sentiment in real-time and scales to meet the demands of big data, eliminating silos of customer information captured across multiple channels including websites, call centers, retail or branch locations and social platforms. Since 1999, happy, satisfied consumers have been the trademark of a ResponseTek implementation. About Ansira Ansira is an intelligence-driven, customer engagement agency with 600 team members in 8 U.S. offices. Ansira unleashes the full value of our clients customers and their retail partners by transforming big data into intelligence-driven marketing and delivering measurable results for world-class brands. At the center of every client relationship is Ansira s Intelligence Engine. This tool informs and shapes our marketing strategies and execution capabilities, including direct response, online, social, mobile and in-store marketing. Our customer, transactional and third-party data powers our marketing automation tools that deliver relevant content and help optimize clients local spending. As a result, our clients benefit from greater customer engagement with their brand and a more empowered retail-selling channel. This combination of customer engagement and retail empowerment drives more profitable customer relationships for our clients.
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