a happy customer after a meeting

Keep your employees happy, they are the ones who will drive your CX efforts. Source: Shutterstock

Trouble with your CX? Motivate your employees, says new study

CUSTOMER experience (CX) is important in driving your business. Many organizations consider undertaking CX improvement projects. However, those technological investments are for nothing if employees are not engaged in it.

According to a research by Gartner, 86 percent of CX executives rate employee engagement as having a greater impact on CX than factors like project management and data skills.

The successful delivery of a CX improvement project relies on an employee having a good understanding and commitment towards the project.

“CX is a people issue,” said Olive Huang, research vice president at Gartner. “In some instances, the best technology investments have been derailed by employee factors, such as a lack of training or incentives, low morale or commitment, and poor communication of goals.”

The survey showed that organizations are considering many different potential CX projects, however, few can be funded. Respondents rated personalization, voice of the customer (VoC), metrics and multichannel-related projects as the highest priority activities in 2018.

“The data tells us there is no CX silver bullet,” Huang said. “CX leaders face a wide range of choices over project priorities and the mix of technology projects and skills needed to be successful. You need to prioritize investments based on ROI, and benchmark and measure customer experience improvements over time.”

Concerning technology, customer analytics remain the most critical investment for CX improvement projects. Customer journey, customer needs and digital marketing analytics are still priorities for businesses.

In the future, over a third of organizations say they are considering using virtual assistants to improve CX. This includes virtual customer assistants (VCAs), virtual personal assistants (VPAs), and chatbots.

Some businesses are also considering the use of blockchain and AI for CX improvement efforts.

Majority of the businesses focus on measuring return on investment (ROI) on their CX improvement projects. More than half of them said they have received expected ROI from CX improvement projects in the past year.

Successful CX projects have led to increase in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. Beyond that, organizations themselves also benefit from CX efforts, with increased revenue and profitability, as well as customer retention.