Forty to 45 percent of European companies are investing in mobile, online, and social channels to interact with customers, but most say they’re still at an early developmental stage with respect to effectively using and integrating digital channels.
That’s among the important findings of a 2015 survey of 455 digital CX decision-makers in the UK, France, and Germany. The survey was conducted for Adobe Systems Inc. by Pierre Audoin Consultants.
PAC found that although digital CX is a major topic of interest throughout Europe, only about one-fourth of companies are currently pursuing a comprehensive digital strategy that provides company-wide customer focus and collaboration, integrated customer interaction channels, and integrated analytics and access to customer data throughout the organization. According to PAC, all of these elements are required to deliver an optimized digital experience to customers.
Half of the surveyed companies are implementing digital projects to support marketing or sales, PAC found, but have not yet defined a companywide digital strategy.
In companies with centralized authority for defining and implementing a digital strategy, the chief marketing officer is usually in charge. However, PAC found that in 31 percent of companies no single person or group is in charge of coordinating digital policies and initiatives.
While the UK leads France and Germany in business-model innovation, digitized back-end processes, and agile company culture, only about 60 percent of UK companies rate their efforts in these essential disciplines as “good” or “very good”.
About 58 percent of UK companies say that CX is a strategic issue that is addressed by top management within their companies, compared to 69 percent in Germany and 82 percent in France. More than half of UK companies say they have not yet defined an overarching CX strategy that goes beyond marketing to involve different business units such as billing, shipping, and customer service.
“Customer experience,” PAC says, “is determined not only by front-end operations such as marketing and customer care. Customer experience is also strongly affected by back-end functions such as billing and invoicing or product development and R&D.” The conclusion? “Fropnt-end and back-end departments have to work hand-in-hand to make their customers happy. However, in most companies the collaboration of the various departments regarding a stronger customer focus needs to be significantly improved.”
The inescapable conclusion of all this data is that European companies are still in the early stages of applying digital technology to CX. Opportunities to innovate, achieve, and reap rewards still lie ahead. There’s a lot of hard work to be done, but there are great benefits to enjoy also. The time is right for an investment in a comprehensive digital CX strategy.
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