According to new research released by Zendesk in partnership with Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), companies that have continued to invest in their customer experience (CX) over the past year are 10 times more likely to have maximised their resiliency during the pandemic and three times more likely to have grown their customer base year over year.
“This research confirms what our customers across industries, sizes and life cycles all tell us: that customer experience requires continuous investment and innovation to truly set their business apart,” said Jeff Titterton, Chief Operating Officer, Zendesk. “The way the customer service function is viewed is changing – it’s the hub of your customer relationships in this digital-first economy. Having the tools for proactive service, information sharing and cross-selling are now just as important as issue resolution. These are the skills that will shift your call centre from being a cost centre to a revenue driver.”
The 2021 State of CX Maturity Report surveyed more than 3,000 CX decision makers with more than 15% of these from North America to understand the characteristics and benefits of customer experience leadership. ESG built a CX maturity scale to identify common patterns and behaviours that separate high-maturity CX organisations – what ESG calls the ‘Champions’ – from three levels of less-mature ones: ‘Starters’, ‘Emerging’ and ‘Risers’. The report outlines what businesses need to do to move up the maturity scale.
The research found that the number of Champions within midsized and enterprise companies has more than doubled from 6% to 14% since 2020. The greatest gains in the region were seen in the United States – shifting from 7% in 2020 to 17% in 2021. Meanwhile, Canada shifted from 4% in 2020 to 7% in 2021.
“The findings indicate that the shift to digital and remote work during the pandemic served as a trigger for companies to accelerate their adoption of new technologies, policies and processes to benefit from a higher CX Maturity,” added Adam DeMattia, Director of Custom Research at ESG. “Across North America, Champions recognise that service excellence can be a differentiator and are actually accelerating investment in CX projects.”
There also continues to be a clear correlation between improved CX maturity and the benefits of increased customer satisfaction (CSAT), faster response times and effective customer service. Notably, the study also calls out the connection between CX maturity and greater business growth and revenue.