Who owns the responsibility of customer experience?

Ownership of customer experience is fragmented across businesses and as result only 23% of marketers have a complete view of interactions across all stages of the customer lifecycle.

The findings are from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council which surveyed 245 senior marketers across 16 Asia-Pacific countries, including Australia.

It found just 25% of companies have conducted a customer experience management (CXM) audit across all touch points, life stages and operational areas and only 36% have a formal CXM strategy in place.

Only 11% said they were ‘highly satisfied’ with their ability to listen and respond to customers’ needs.

Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, said: “There is no point in wasting marketing resources on seducing customers with offers, incentives and captivating branding if there is a big disconnect on the product, business policy or service experience side.”

“You’ll just see churn, disaffection and bad word-of-mouth that can be quite damaging in a socially connected region like Asia.”

A major factor impacting customer experience is the fact it is fragmented across businesses.

The following roles all have some ownership of customer experience according to respondents: CMO (31%), head of service support (10%), vice president or director of customer sales and service (8%), chief operations manager (8%), chief sales officer (6%) and chief experience officer (5%).

However, only 39% of marketers said the above roles have the ability, be it authority or budget, to impact CXM.

Grace Ho, managing director of marketing for SAP Asica-Pacific/Japan, said it is easy for marketers to get caught in conversations about who owns the customer experience.

“ In reality, everyone across the enterprise bears a responsibility to deliver consistent, relevant and delightful customer experiences," Ho said.

"However, marketers have the unique opportunity to become the true champion of customer centricity by adopting customer-listening strategies and data-driven approaches that aid customer experience transformation.

“Today’s marketer is in a position to empower the organization with deep knowledge of the customer’s wants, needs and expectations," Ho added, pointing to social listening as an "excellent way" to glean customer sentiment. The social listening information, which can be captured in real time, can then be used to mould customer experiences as necessary.

"Insights from predictive analytics can foster understanding of the level of loyalty and attachment a customer has for your brand and help shape and unify the customer experience strategy for the entire organization.”

To download a free summary of the CMO Council's Maximise How You Individualize report click here.

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