E EAS
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A key player in the channel has
released a new report that urges
organisations to address the
‘customer experience disconnect’.
ID
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CX DISCONNECT IN AN ‘EXPERIENCE
ECONOMY’ IS PUTTING BUSINESSES
AT RISK
D
imension Data, the US$8 billion
global technology integrator and
managed services provider for hybrid
IT, has revealed the findings of its annual CX
Benchmarking Report.
It urges organisations to address a
‘customer experience disconnect’ that could
lose them business or even jeopardise their
chances of survival in competitive markets
where consumer loyalty can no longer be
taken for granted.
Research from Dimension Data shows
that 68% of respondents said customer
experience is not represented at board
level, with lower-level management
or multiple managers often assuming
responsibility. Furthermore, only 20% said
their organisation takes a fully integrated,
centralised approach to customer experience.
However, the research found that most
business respondents recognise customer
experience as an important competitive
differentiator (90%) that’s also vital for
driving loyalty (85%), revenue growth (73%)
and cost reduction (55%).
Despite this, the research revealed that
nearly a quarter of respondents (24%) are
dissatisfied with the customer experience
they deliver and only 10% believe they’re
delivering experiences that would lead
customers to recommend them to others.
This is resulting in an ‘artificial reality’
where companies are talking about CX but
not delivering on it, creating a gap between
their CX ambitions and actual CX capabilities.
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
Issue 22
Businesses are looking at several CX
technologies, such as customer analytics,
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital
integration, but aren’t currently able to
implement them properly.
Nemo Verbist, Group Executive for
Customer Experience at Dimension Data,
said: “Customer experience must be higher
on the agenda for every business and the
whole organisation should get behind it.
Brands acknowledge how crucial customer
experience is, yet so few are making it a
board level responsibility, leaving it siloed or
delegating it to individual managers. There’s
an artificial reality between organisations’
CX ambitions and making real change that
benefits the customer. This disconnect must
be resolved. Brands must make customer
experience the priority they say it is.”
Nemo Verbist,
Group Executive for
Customer Experience at
Dimension Data
The research also revealed that many
brands are turning to technology to improve
customer experience, but often without
a clear strategy. Some 24% of businesses
said the digital solutions they’ve rolled out
(such as chatbots and AI) don’t provide the
functionality their customers need, while
around half of respondents (61%) said
customer awareness of such technologies is
the biggest barrier to adoption.
Verbist added: “Rolling out a technology
only to claim it doesn’t provide the
functionality required, or that customers
are unaware of it, isn’t a failure of the
technology, but a failure of the planning.
Technology can give businesses many
powerful tools to improve and support great
customer experience, but it’s not simply a
case of flicking a switch and it will work.
Brands need to back their investments in
technology with investments in their people,
processes, and planning.”
Nancy Jamison, Principal Analyst for
Customer Care at Frost & Sullivan, advised
that brands should look to address these
areas of disconnect within their business and
measure, benchmark and report effectively to
ensure such disconnects don’t creep back in.
“Customer experience benchmarking is
more important than ever. Brands need to
invest in customer experience but they also
need to know that those investments are
paying off. And if they’re not, they need to
know what to change.”
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