According to the 2014 ICMI report, “Customer Experience Management in Action! Insight to Differentiate YOUR Company & Contact Center,” customer engagement and loyalty is an important priority to 92% of organizations. What’s more, the report reveals that 81% of companies recognize the correlation between the customer experience and loyalty. Customer experience management (CXM) is no longer a luxury, but a competitive necessity, the report says. What’s more, customer experience programs can optimize an organization’s customer service, provide valuable competitive data, and give a brand the competitive edge to create a more loyal customer base. But customer experience management doesn’t just happen naturally, the report says. It needs to be consciously created, holistically supported by the organization; and tracked, measured, and acted upon. ICMI’s research, along with other current ICMI data, provides contact center professionals the ingredients they need to create or refine their customer experience management culture in 2014. “The customer experience needs to be holistically owned by the organization,” Sarah Stealey Reed, Content Director, ICMI, said in a press release. “It’s not enough for marketing or the contact center to be involved; everyone from the CEO on down needs to understand and respect their impact on customer experience.We are pleased that almost half of contact centers have a CXM program in place, but that doesn’t mean their company has the culture to truly make it effective! You want successful CXM? Establish organizational readiness, create a CXM team, ensure committed executives, and have visible metrics, measurement and actionable data!” The study included 459 respondents (primarily executives, directors and managers) from every major industry in both the U.S. and abroad. Findings from the study were compiled and analyzed by ICMI’s research team. Here are some of the key takeaways: Customer engagement and loyalty is an important priority to 92% of organizations 81% report their organization recognizes correlations between the customer experience and loyalty 49% of contact centers have a customer experience management program currently in place Only 27% say their C-level executives have ownership in the customer engagement strategy Three-quarters of contact centers are measuring the customer experience through CSAT surveys and quality monitoring The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) is the leading global provider of comprehensive resources for customer management professionals — from frontline agents to executives — who wish to improve customer experiences and increase efficiencies at every level of the contact center. Since 1985, ICMI has helped more than 50,000 organizations in 167 countries through training, events, certification, consulting, and informational resources.
