Jim Davies, a Research Director for Gartner Research and part of the company’s European CRM team, said that customer-centricity is finally coming of age.
“Customer-centricity is finally coming of age and it’s being driven by a major shift in how customers think, act, and communicate,” Davies said during a session titled, “Innovations in Customer Experience Management,” at the recent Confirmit Community Conference held in Orlando, Florida.
Davies said customer experience is one of the few differentiators that is still difficult to imitate, but increasing numbers of executives see it as a critical component in their business strategies.
What’s more, Davies said customers have more choices and control than ever before and they are quick to share bad customer experience stories.
“Digital is critical for survival,” Davies said. “Embracing digital is something every industry has to factor in.”
For example, Davies said officials in London created high-tech digital trash cans that could customize personal information from passers-by. Controversy involving privacy and other issues ensued and the program was canceled.
But Davies said it represents a vital lesson.
“They tried to embrace digital and inject next-generation thinking into a product or service,” he said. “You have to go through these journeys when embracing digital.”
CEOs “really care” about the customer experience now, Davies said.
“The No. 1 area for them is Customer Experience Management,” he said. “It’s definitely in the mindsets of CEOs in general. Customer expectations are much higher than they’ve ever been in the past. Customers are more willing to churn than in the past.”
Davies listed five levels of CEM Maturity:
Level 1: Initial Fragmented Focus−Surveying, web analytics to improve the customer experience. “Someone is doing something, but there isn’t a major strategy,” he said. (45% of companies are at this level).
Level 2: Developing−Voice of the Customer Validated. (30% at this level).
Level 3: Defined−Executives engaged (20% here) with buy-in from the CEO. The Customer Experience is important. Someone oversees it and a clear strategy is in place. “Most companies try to get to Level 3 or risk getting left behind,” Davies said.
Level 4: Managed−With a strategy in place, a company is working through programs systematically to improve the customer experience. Metrics are in place and the metrics are as important as the financial metrics for the company.
Level 5: Optimizing−Culture change where every employee does the right thing with the right training in place and the entire organization is customer-centric.
Davies said a meerkat depicts for him what a Voice of the Customer approach is all about.
“Like a meerkat, a company is looking out at the world for bits of information that will be useful to its customers,” he explained. “It comes down to basics, making it highly personalized and embracing new channels. The biggest thing to drive response rates will be to tell customers what you did with their data the last time you surveyed them. If they know this is what you did with their information, and how your company used it, they will be more apt to take another survey in the future.”