A new global research report from MIT Sloan Management Review (SMR) Connections, Delivering Experiences That Win Business and Build Loyalty: CX Champions Share Their Strategies, sponsored by SAS, has revealed that customer experience (CX) champions gain better returns from their CX tech investments than competitors by managing CX across the enterprise through cross-functional teams, clearly defined workflows and extensive use of analytics and AI.
“With more than 40% of survey respondents planning to increase CX technology investments by as much as 25% over the next two years, and some 35% expecting to boost investments by up to 50% from current levels, companies must have a roadmap on how to get the most payoff from these tools,” said Lisa Loftis, Principal Product Marketer for SAS Customer Intelligence. “The research findings offer a caution against ‘random acts of technology’ because value is created only when the technology helps to fulfil customer expectations. In today’s world, this means adding MarTech that enables companies to capture digital activity at a customer level and dynamically manage identities, to make the most of first-party data by managing journeys and to incorporate analytics and AI into real-time decisions.”
AI emerges as the power tool of CX
CX champions lead the pack in terms of sophisticated use of analytics and AI. More than 80% of CX champions make significant use of analytics throughout the customer journey, from research to adoption to ongoing engagement.
Champions are also ahead of the game when it comes to the adoption of CX tools. Some tools will be nearly ubiquitous for CX champions within the next two years:
- 86% will have adopted personalisation technology
- 84% will have adopted real-time data collection
- 81% will have adopted AI-powered chatbots
- 72% will have adopted connected omnichannel experiences
The research also found that champions are significantly more likely to employ ‘smart’ approaches to improve CX, including smart assistants embedded in goods and services. They also expect to outpace the competition in their use of Edge computing, using its ability to boost real-time analytics.
Digital strategy and collaboration key
Strong CX performance isn’t predicated on having a single executive in charge of the activity. Instead, research shows that tying CX strategy to a company’s digital strategy makes the biggest performance difference. Doing so ensures the creation of enterprise-wide CX goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) that cascade through the organisation.
By elevating CX strategy to the level of corporate and digital strategy, CX champions can build highly empowered cross-functional or decentralised teams. To keep everyone on the same page, 70% of CX champions also have documented workflows of their CX processes.