Customer experience optimisation is critical for higher engagement and conversion rates

The power of consumers means that customer experence is more important than ever for the modern marketer. 

41% of company and 26% of agency respondents see CX as critical to their organisations. 

Q: How important is customer experience optimisation?

The 59% of company respondents who see bigger priorities might want to consider the benefits of optimising customer experience. 

94% of companies see higher engagement and conversion rates as benefits of a commitment to customer experience. 

Businesses still have work to do to improve CX

Most organisations are just starting to use the tools, processes and techniques required to provide an excellent customer experience. 

  • Less than a fifth of organizations are using a single customer profile (SCP) for ‘most’ of their marketing applications.
  • 45% are not making use of a single customer profile at all.
  • Just 3% of businesses claimed they have a strong capability when it comes to using crosschannel or cross-device data for either real-time website or mobile app personalization.
  • No more than one in six respondents even claimed that their capabilities here were ‘average’ (16% and 12% respectively).

Volume of data can be too much for some organisations

The inability to manage or maximize their data is proving to be a barrier for many organisations, and there is a clear gap in resources that must be addressed. 

Q: What is preventing you / your clients from optimising customer experiences as effectively as you / they would like to?

51% of companies cite insufficient resources (including budget and staff) as a significant barrier to optimising customer experiences.

The second most common obstacle to customer experience optimization was data quality, with 44% of companies raising this as an issue.

Brands are slow to ‘join the dots’ and to tackle integration issues

Optimizing and personalizing customer experience requires a technological infrastructure that joins up different applications and automates processes.

As is often the case with new technology, legacy systems and antiquated business practices can be a hindrance when it comes to implementing change.

However, integration is a requirement that businesses cannot afford to ignore if they want to optimise effectively.

Q: When it comes to integrating data for the purpose of customer experience optimization, which of the following best describes you / your clients?

One in ten businesses have tied together customer data from multiple channels, technologies and databases.

In comparison, 70% are only just starting the process of integration and admitted they have a long way to go in this area.

Though 34% claim to have become more effective at integrating user data from different systems into one profile store, just 9% claim this as a ‘strong’ capability. In comparison, 45% rated this capability as ‘weak’ and 23% do not have this capability at all.

A note on methodology

There were 613 respondents to our research request, which took the form of an online survey in November and December 2014.

Respondents included both companies or in-house marketers (55%) and supply-side respondents, including agencies, consultants and vendors (45%).

Information about the survey, including the link, was emailed to Econsultancy’s user base, advertised on our website and promoted on Twitter. The incentive for taking part was access to a complimentary copy of this report just before its publication.