Customer Experience Strategy and Approach

Next, we wanted to see exactly how invested these businesses were in promoting growth through delighting customers and how they’re doing it. It turns out that 92% are either “highly” or “extremely” committed to providing a superior CX. In addition, higher performing brands are more likely to indicate that they are extremely committed to providing a superior customer experience.

Commitment to providing a superior CX

Q2: How would you rate your company on its commitment to providing a superior customer experience to its customers? Base: All respondents. n=219.

Nearly three out of five businesses are ‘extremely committed’ to providing a superior customer experience to their customers.

Despite 92% stating that they are “highly” or “extremely” committed to providing a superior CX, only 62% are confident that they have a customer-centric culture.

Company has a Customer-Centric Culture

Q4: How much do you agree that your company has a truly customer-centric culture? Base: Customers only. n=167.

62% ‘strongly agree’ they have a customer-centric culture.

A customer-centric culture correlates with being extremely committed to providing a superior CX, as well as higher performance (as measured by brand NPS® and Google star rating).

That being said, only 58% of non-customers say that they have a formal CX strategy. Very surprisingly, 40% reported having no established CX strategy whatsoever. This marks a massive gap between the 92% reporting a commitment to a superior CX and those who are actually taking steps towards it.

Company has a Formal CX Strategy

Q39: Does your company have a formal Customer Experience (CX) strategy? Base: Non-Listen360 customers only. n=52.

58% of non-customers say their company has a formal CX strategy.

Of those who do have a CX strategy in place, NPS® is the most common method for collecting insights, followed by unsolicited feedback and other forms of email surveys.

Methods Used for Collecting CX Insights, Intelligence, and Feedback

Q5: Please indicate all the ways that your company collects insights, intelligence, or feedback on the customer experience. *Asked as ‘Listen 360’s NPS® survey’ in the Customer survey, and as ‘Net Promoter Score (NPS®) survey (text or email)’ in the non-customer survey. Base: All respondents. n=213.

NPS®/email surveys, unsolicited feedback, and transactional data are the most common ways of collecting CX insights.

Regardless of the method, the importance of gathering intelligence from customers can’t be denied. A whopping 83% indicated that customer feedback is crucial to their businesses. This reinforces the trend towards increasing feedback and CX efforts in 2019 and 2020.

How Critical Customer Feedback is to Business Success

Q0: How critical is customer feedback to the success of your business? Condensed from a 0-10 scale. Base: All respondents. n=189.

A majority indicate customer feedback is highly critical to their business success.

With such an emphasis on the importance of customer feedback, it’s not surprising that more than half of the respondents say customer feedback is “highly” or “extremely” influential in their decision making.

Influence of Customer Feedback on Strategic Decision Making

Q8: How influential is customer feedback (customer survey: from the Listen360 NPS® survey) to strategic decision making at your company? Base: All respondents. n=200.

Customer feedback influences strategic decision-making.

One in four say customer feedback is ‘extremely’ influential in strategic decision-making at their company.

While the vast majority of companies are collecting feedback from current customers, an impressive 59% are gathering feedback from former customers as well. There is something to be said for breaking up customer feedback into different segments to examine the customer journey.

From Whom Insights, Intelligence, Feedback are Collected

Q6: From whom does your company collect any insights, intelligence, or feedback on the customer experience? Base: All respondents. n=213.

In addition to collecting insights from current customers, 59% of companies also collect insights from past customers.

Customer-facing employees are a source of insight on the customer experience for 46% of companies.

Surveying at different points in the customer journey allows businesses to identify:

Practices to avoid or improve before, during, or after a service

Feedback often reveals details about your CX that you might not have noticed otherwise.

Customers often have strong opinions about things such as parking, scheduling, waiting times, employee behavior, billing, and other nuances of your service. Tweaking practices based on these responses can mean the difference between a loyal or a lost customer.

Why former customers left and if there is a chance to win them back

Did they leave because they moved or did something turn them away?

Are they still at risk of tarnishing your reputation?

Potential to win future business from past customers or prospects who aren’t quite ready to buy yet.

A post-consultation promoter is far more likely to become a customer than a post-consultation detractor.

Consider doing targeted marketing or sending special offers to this happy group.

2019-20 NPS® Customer Loyalty ReportTraits of CX Leaders