A new global research report from MIT Sloan Management Review Connections, Delivering Experiences That Win Business and Build Loyalty: CX Champions Share Their Strategies, sponsored by SAS, reveals that customer experience (CX) Champions gain better returns from their CX tech investments than competitors by managing CX across the enterprise through cross-functional teams, clearly defined workflows. and extensive use of analytics and AI. The report is based on a survey of 2,670 respondents of which just 15 percent qualify as CX Champions.
“With more than 40% of survey respondents planning to increase CX technology investments by as much as 25% over the next two years, and some 35% expecting to boost investments by up to 50% from current levels, it is imperative that companies have a roadmap on how to get the most payoff from these tools,” said Lisa Loftis, Principal Product Marketer for SAS® Customer Intelligence. “The research findings offer a caution against ‘random acts of technology’ because value is created only when the technology helps to fulfil customer expectations. In today’s world, this means adding martech that enables companies to capture digital activity at a customer level and dynamically manage identities, to make the most of first-party data by managing journeys, and to incorporate analytics and AI into real-time decisions.”
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AI emerges as the power tool of CX
CX Champions lead the pack in terms of sophisticated use of analytics and AI. More than 80% of CX Champions make significant use of analytics throughout the customer journey, from research to adoption to ongoing engagement. In fact, Champions are more than three times more likely to rely on AI than the ones the study called “Laggards,” where it’s less than 40%.
Champions are also ahead of the game when it comes to adoption of CX tools. In fact, some tools will be nearly ubiquitous for CX Champions within the next two years:
86% will have adopted personalization technology.
84% will have adopted real-time data collection.
81% will have adopted AI-powered chatbots.
72% will have adopted connected omnichannel experiences.
Antonio Grasso, founder and CEO of the digital transformation consultancy Digital Business Innovation, emphasized the importance of CX tech. “We have the technology to achieve real-time insights, which are essential to adapt to a changing customer landscape,” he told MIT SMR Connections. “Our world is accelerating so much that companies also need to rely on real-time insight to manage and improve CX.”
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