Changing Customer Journeys Are Impacting CX Strategies

January 18, 2023

Almost two-thirds of marketing leaders around the world say that the digitalized customer journey has either extremely (21%) or very (42%) much changed their customer experience (CX) strategy, according to a report [download page] from the CMO Council and SAS.

There’s less agreement regarding preparedness to deal with that modified journey, however. Only about one-third (35%) of the study’s 1,000 participating marketing leaders (more from B2B than B2C companies) reported being extremely (9%) or very (26%) confident in their organization’s CX strategy for winning and retaining customers given today’s digitalized customer journey and heightened consumer expectations.

The importance of digital CX has certainly risen in recent years: separate research indicates that more than 8 in 10 (84% of) executives agree that excellence in digital customer experience (CX) is critical to business survival.

In this latest study, marketers indicated that their organizations’ level of maturity varies by CX outcome. They tend to be most confident in turning customer insights into actionable outcomes, with 28% reporting maturity and another 66% working on this. Likewise, 28% say they’ve reached maturity in coordinating messages and interactions across all channels, with an additional 64% working on this.

However, there’s less confidence in some other areas. Only 1 in 5 report maturity in hiring and retaining digital/analytical skills (an ongoing problem), and even fewer report the same for coordinating CX across all departments (12%).

Meanwhile, the primary objective for marketers’ use of technology is to improve the customer experience. So what technologies are respondents investing in to address the digital customer journey? The most popular is marketing analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), with almost two-thirds (65%) saying this is a tech investment of theirs for the digital customer journey.

Beyond analytics, AI and ML, about half (52%) of marketing leaders are investing in marketing attribution and measurement technology, and close to half are investing in digital data collection and personalization technology (47%) as well as customer data platform (CDP) tech (47%). This makes sense as CDP investments are typically made with CX in mind.

Finally, the biggest CX technology challenges cited in the report are: too many dis-integrated CX/marketing technologies; inability to integrate customer data sources; inability to link online and offline customer identities into a single customer profile; and poor data quality.

For more, download the study here.

About the Data: The results are based on a global survey of more than 1,000 marketing leaders at B2B (52%), B2C (23%) and hybrid (25%) companies.

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