New Oracle Global Research Study Finds that Brands Could Lose up to 20% of Revenue Due to Poor Customer Experiences, Yet Many Struggle to Develop Successful Strategies
Today Oracle announced the results of its "Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era" report. This global survey of 1,342 senior-level executives from 18 countries in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America yields new insights on the challenges, strategies and lessons learned for succeeding in the customer experience era.
Key Findings
Global Strategic Priority with Huge Financial Stakes: Ninety-seven percent of executives agree that delivering a great customer experience is critical to business advantage and results, and respondents estimate that the average potential revenue loss for not offering a positive, consistent and brand-relevant customer experience is 20% of annual revenue.
Businesses Stuck in Idle: Ninety-three percent of executives say that improving the customer experience is one of their organization's top three priorities in the next two years, and 91% wish to be considered a customer experience leader in their industry. However, many organizations are stuck in an execution chasm; 37% are just getting started with a formal customer experience initiative, and only 20% consider the state of their customer experience initiative to be advanced.
The Perception Chasm: The study revealed that business executives underestimate the impact of customer experience on behavior. Forty-nine percent of executives surveyed indicated that customers will switch brands due to a poor customer experience, but a full 89% of customers say that they actually have switched brands due to a bad customer experience. (1)
Social Media - A Key Driver for the Future: Social media amplifies the customer voice, and businesses are scrambling to answer. Eighty-one percent of executives believe that delivering a great customer experience today requires leveraging social media effectively. But, 35% do not have social media for sales channels, and 35% do not have social media for customer service.
Technology, People and Processes Present Significant Obstacles: Executives cite limitations from inflexible technology, siloed organizations and systems, and insufficient investment as the biggest obstacles to delivering the best possible customer experience.
Businesses Are Investing in Customer Experience: On average, businesses estimate that they will increase spending on customer experience technology by 18% in the next two years. Improving the cross-channel experience and customer analytics are top priorities.
Lessons Learned: A good customer experience strategy requires fundamental organizational changes. Successful initiatives that have improved the customer experience span people, process and technology. Executives at organizations that consider their customer experience initiatives as "advanced" appear to have been most successful in engaging their employees by:
Building training programs and incentives for employees to offer a great experience
Updating company core values to include customer experience
Implementing a specific technology to improve customer service
Access the full report -- which delves extensively into the obstacles organizations face and the programs they are putting in place to deliver excellent customer experiences.
Supporting Quotes
"This report demonstrates that organizations around the globe and across many industries are beginning to understand the real business impact of not offering great customer experiences, but are facing execution challenges. We recommend that organizations map their customers' journeys to identify specific improvement areas that will help them cross the execution chasm. By empowering customers and employees, breaking down organizational silos, and implementing flexible processes and technology tools, organizations can deliver personalized, seamless customer service through the entire experience lifecycle," said David Vap, group vice president, Oracle.
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Footnotes (1) According to The 2011 U.S. Customer Experience Impact (CEI) Report by RightNow (acquired by Oracle in March 2012)
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