Published on the 05/04/2017 | Written by Newsdesk

Organisations around the world are failing to implement effective digital customer experience (CX) strategies…

That’s according to new research from IT services provider Dimension Data. It said that just 1 in 10 organisations considers its digital business strategy to be optimised, leading to disjointed CX solutions. It also said that as digital and automated channels fail to meet user needs, digital is not displacing traditional phone interactions – or reducing cost obstacles – at the speed companies desire.

In other words, CX could be standing in the way of digital transformation.

These are among the findings of the Didata’s just-released 2017 Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report.

In a statement, the company said the report addresses all aspects of the CX spectrum – from strategies to operations to technologies and more. It polled 1,351 organisations across industries and in 80 countries.

The report showed up ‘an uncomfortable truth’: that while lip service is paid to the value of CX – with 71 percent citing it as their top strategic performance measure and 81 percent naming CX as a competitive differentiator, there may be more talk and less action.

Just 13 percent self-rate CX delivery at 9 out of 10 or better. One in 3 don’t have a manager appointed who is responsible for all customer experiences. Half of organisations don’t have a digital business strategy at all – or, at best, are in the process of developing one.

“The digital dilemma is deepening, and organisations need to choose a path between digital crisis or redemption,” said Joe Manuele, Didata CX and collaboration group exec. “The world has formed a digital skin, and business, service, technology and commercial models have changed forever. However, organisations are strategically challenged to keep pace with customer behaviour.”

The top factor driving digital transformation is improving CX, followed by customer demands for digital – with companies reporting benefits associated with improving CX including:

• Increased customer loyalty (92p ercent)
• An uplift in revenue (84 percent)
• Cost savings (79 percent)

Other highlights from the report include:

• More channels for engagement – Customers have, on average, a choice of nine channels with which to engage. This will rise to 11 channels by 2018.
• Omnichannel as a top technology trend – Connected customer journeys via omnichannel (integrated) solutions are the top-ranked technology trend for 2017. Omnichannel solutions, alongside customer analytics, were listed as the top factors to reshape CX capabilities within the next five years.
• But… gaps in omnichannel strategies – Only 8 percent of organisations report having all channels connected, with 7 in 10 (70 percent) having no or very few channels connected – severely hindering visibility into customer journeys and preferences. One in 3 organisations (33 percent) reports being unable to track customer journeys at all.
• Siloed channel strategies – 58 percent of organizations report that their channels are being managed in silos, and 42 percent say channel data is not actively shared between teams. Furthermore, 72 percent fail to collect data to review and optimize journey patterns.
• Analytic inaction – Only 29 percent of organisations use analytics to inform their channel/contact management strategy; 42 percent say their analytic systems don’t meet their current needs.
• Areas of growth – Emerging CX robotics are creating a new reality, with virtual assistants (chat bots) voted the top channel growth focus for 2017 (with nearly a 250 percent increase in deployments forecast over the next year). In addition, Internet of Things (IoT) deployments are set to double within the next year.
• Increased reliance across channels – Over the next two years, 78 percent of organisations predict they’ll see a rise in their assisted-service volumes, 71 percent say they’ll see a rise in fully automated digital contacts and 70 percent in CX via social media. In addition, 62 percent of companies anticipate overall customer interactions to grow across channels.

Manuele said: “Pioneers of the digital age have reimagined business models and processes that have changed customer behaviour, and the choices organisations make with their CX and digital strategies will define their future success.”

A summary of the report is available.