Customer experience (CX) professionals are interested in learning about all phases of the customer journey, though they appear to de-prioritize the post-purchase stage, according to a report from NetBase [download page]. The study suggests that CX professionals are missing out on some opportunities to gauge their efforts across different channels and data sources.
The report, which is based on a survey of more than 130 CX professionals, found respondents saying that the top business priority for CX data is to improve customer satisfaction. That’s supported by recent research, which likewise found that customer satisfaction is CX leaders’ top KPI.
But what data are CX professionals relying on to make their decisions?
A majority cited the following sources:
- Surveys (74%);
- Social media data (68%);
- Web analytics (66%); and
- Employee feedback (58%).
The reliance on surveys probably relates to their use as a measurement of customer satisfaction. Passive data such as social media data and web analytics are also important, as they may avoid biases that could be found in surveys. NetBase points out, though, that CX professionals may be underutilizing forums: just 1 in 4 (24%) are relying on data from forums for their decision-making.
That’s potentially problematic, as consumers are heavily reliant on word-of-mouth and reviews, and research has demonstrated that forums can be areas of significant conversation activity about brands.
Likewise, slightly fewer than half (48%) of respondents are using online reviews to make CX decisions. This could reflect the lesser prioritization of the post-purchase stage of the journey, which respondents aren’t as interested in learning about as other, earlier phases.
There is some room for improvement in the integration of data sources, too: only half are confident that their company is effective in bringing different data sources together to make better customer experience decisions. But with the vast majority agreeing that customer experience analytics is an essential business development tool, it seems that this may change.
