The 2018 version of the Customer Experience Industry Report published by User Testing for the last five years was released recently with the title "CX Goes Mainstream". Over the course of creating the report, 3900 professionals from various industries were asked rather detailed questions about their customer experience processes.
The data obtained as a result of the report revealed once again that a better customer experience design is becoming more important every year. We can summarize the outputs of the report with the following 6 items:
- There is a consensus that the customer experience has a critical importance for the road to success.
- There is strong support for making customer experience surveys more widespread.
- Customer experience surveys offer very valuable insights beyond numerical data.
- The frequency and budget of customer experience surveys are showing an increase.
- Some organizations that place great importance on quantitative data are trying to balance it with customer experience surveys.
- Artificial intelligence is expected to play an effective role in the future of the customer experience industry.
Now let's examine the survey questions and the percentage distributions of answers more closely.
The Importance of a Good Customer Experience on the Road to Success
95.7% of managers think that a good customer experience plays a critical role in the success of their organization. 90% of managers think that their organizations compete on a basis of customer experience.
At this point, managers can be overly confident in themselves and their organizations. Because as we go down in the corporate hierarchy, a significant decline is observed in the proportion of employees who think their organizations are providing a good customer experience. One of the reasons for this may be that senior executives do not have enough information about the shortcomings of the customer experience they are providing. Employees who are personally involved in the customer experience design processes naturally have more knowledge about the shortcomings and problems of these processes.
As we have mentioned in our previous article titled CEO's Guide To The Galaxy: Customer Obsessed Management Model, some CEOs with the top position in the corporate hierarchy are changing their job titles to "Customer Experience Officer" and saying that their primary task is to provide a good experience for customers in order to avoid this problem. Managers who are personally involved in the customer experience design processes can assess the level of their organization more accurately and make better decisions. At this point, Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos come to the fore with his unique approach.
Gain Valuable Insights with Customer Experience Surveys
As in the past years, 95% of senior executives think that customer experience surveys improve their products or services. These surveys can enable organizations to gain consumer insights quickly and practically. At the same time, 91% of senior executives say that they want to employ more employees who can work in surveys.
According to surveys, 55% of consumers say they can pay more for a guaranteed better experience. Consumers want to be guaranteed from now on that organizations will offer them a good service or product rather than paying for a promise or an idea. This type of data, which can be determinative in the strategic decisions of organizations, is obtained as a result of customer experience surveys.
The data from which almost all departments of an organization can benefit are obtained as a result of customer experience surveys. The primary purpose of a customer experience survey is to better understand the customers and their wishes. Its other developing areas of use include testing customer responses to marketing content and categorizing customer behaviors and lifestyles.
Is Sufficient Budget Allocated For Customer Experience Surveys?
In the five-year period during which the User Testing customer experience industry report was created, the budgets allocated to customer experience surveys increased every year compared with the previous one. Almost half of the organizations that participated in the survey said they expected that the budget they allocated for customer experience surveys this year will increase compared to the previous year.
Which Trends Are More Popular in the World of Customer Experience?
As we have mentioned in our previous article titled "Bring Your Customer Experience to the Future with Artificial Intelligence", artificial intelligence is increasing its influence in the world of customer experience day by day. While 51% of participants in 2017 named artificial intelligence as the trend that had the most impact on customer experience, this number shot up to 64% in 2018. Voice interaction technology also showed a big increase. While 43% of participants thought that artificial intelligence was one of the most influential trends of the customer experience industry in 2017, this number shot up to 54% in 2018.
What Are the Marketing Department Employees Thinking About Customer Experience?
These are the results that are obtained when only the responses of marketing department employees are taken into consideration:
- They believe that the customer experience surveys are very useful for marketing.
- They say that the investments made in order to design a better customer experience are increasing.
- They use customer experience surveys to better analyze customer journeys.
- More than half say that the marketing department assumes the responsibility for a customer experience process that is poorly designed.
The Customer Experience 2018 Industry Report once again proved the growing importance of customer experience. From senior executives to employees, organizations are putting in more and more effort each year to design a better customer experience. The budgets allocated for improving the customer experience processes are regularly increased. Customer experience surveys can provide qualified answers to many questions that the organizations have and provide insights that can be the base of strategic decisions.
The secret to designing a better customer experience is knowing your customers better. Learn more about the innovative technologies of Pisano, a customer experience management platform that will enable you to communicate with your customers at all touchpoints and carry your organization to the future with firm steps!
