Customer experience is money

Published on the 30/06/2017 | Written by Newsdesk


CX is money

8 in 10 people will pay more for a better one…

A study of more than 3000 consumers and 450 executives at the companies that serve them has revealed a gap between how businesses and consumers perceive the quality of their customer experience. While three-quarters of organisations believe themselves to be customer-centric, only 30 percent of consumers agree.

Frustrated by organisations that don’t listen to feedback or reward loyalty, most consumers are willing to increase spend in return for a better experience (81 percent). Yet, 31 percent of businesses say they face a challenge in keeping up with the rapidly evolving technology landscape and consumers’ digital expectations.

Those are among the key findings of ‘The Disconnected Customer: What digital customer experience leaders teach us about reconnecting with customers.

The report surveyed 3,300 consumers across Australia, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, UK and US. It provides a reality check for big businesses in their efforts to deliver better customer experiences through digital.

Not only is there a disconnect between businesses and consumers on what represents customer centricity but also on whether the customer experience is improving. Report author Capgemini used the industry standard Net Promoter Score model to gauge consumer satisfaction; 90 percent of companies believed their NPS had increased by 5 points over the last three years – but only 54 percent of consumers agreed.

The report also highlighted significant differences between industries. Internet services companies and their customers are almost in step and setting the bar for other organisations, while utilities and consumer products companies have a long way to go to meet consumer expectations.

Only three in ten of the 125 unique organisations identified in the study are matching their customers’ expectations. For the remaining 70 percent, the rewards for delivering a better experience are high as 8 in 10 consumers indicate that they are willing to spend more with an organisation for a better customer experience, and 1 in 10 consumers would increase spend by more than a half.

For consumers, digital is key to meeting expectations. Capgemini’s Digital Transformation Institute evaluated organisations across 80 different digital experience attributes – ranging from the ability to view and edit personal data to personalising products and services on mobile devices – to create a Digital Customer Experience (DCX) Index.

The more digital attributes an organisation has deployed – and the more advanced those digital attributes are – the higher its DCX Index score. When mapped against consumers’ willingness to spend more and NPS, Capgemini discovered that for each single point increase in the DCX Index score consumers would be willing to spend 0.6 percent more with an organisation – and the NPS then also increases by nearly 5 points.

The report shows that the DCX Index is strongly correlated to the NPS of a company (correlation coefficient: 0.73). The study also found that the top ten companies with the highest DCX Index saw their share prices increase by 16 percent per year over the last five years whereas the bottom ten players increased their share prices by only about 6 percent on average.

Companies which closely link their business operations with customer experience (6 percent) enjoy a 14-point NPS advantage compared to companies whose business operations are not connected to customer experience (33 percent). Companies with close linkage also experienced double the increase in their NPS (12 points) over the last three years.

In a statement, Pierre-Yves Glever, Capgemini DCX global lead said: “Digital has enabled new ways of engaging consumers but is also driving new behaviours and creating new expectations. It’s clear that many organisations are struggling to keep up with the pace of change. As our research reveals, experience is the new battleground, and how you connect will determine how you win. Organisations that tightly link their business operations with customer experience will reap the benefits in both streamlined operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.”

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