The role of data in today’s customer experience (CX) landscape has become increasingly important, granting a competitive advantage to organisations in every industry.
Not only is it necessary to the crafting and delivery of personalised experiences – something customers expect from the companies they interact with by default – but collecting and analysing the right customer data is also what enables businesses to deliver the CX that keeps customers coming back…or not.
Struggling to meet the shifting customer expectations, many organisations are still in the early stages of their maturity when it comes to this critical data.
Indeed, the CX industry has endured a handful of unprecedented events in a relatively short period of time. Balancing out the implementation of advanced AI-powered solutions with the growing need for empathy could be causing a strain for many CX leaders, no matter the sector. And when employee experience (EX) is added to the equation, the expectations from the customers’ side and within the company skyrocket.
Thankfully, the CX puzzle is solvable. According to the findings of CallMiner’s inaugural CX Landscape Report, the puzzle breaks down into four pieces: data collection, data analysis, employee experience, and technology.
Let’s take a deep dive at the first two pieces of the puzzle, including how data helps organisations better understand customers’ needs and the challenges it may solve.
Collecting the right data
Living in a highly connected world where people can sync a piece of information across almost every device, it is understandable that customers expect companies to be in sync as well.
Similarly, customers nowadays provide a substantial amount of data even during the first interaction with brands, so it is natural to anticipate a seamless experience. This is in addition to the regular CX surveys that organisations collect, as well as interactions that happen within customer success or contact centre.
One would think that organisations would have a deep arsenal of customer data. However, the reality is a bit different. The research reveals that 62% of organisations are not collecting enough data to provide a good experience.
While companies do collect data, the types of data, as well as the amount, should be much vast and varied than it is today.
In collecting customer data, organisations opt for traditional tools such as customer reviews (58%), interviews (54%), telephone (33%), and in-app surveys (28%).
A potential issue in using these tools can be bias or a tendency to respond to questions in a certain way that might not reflect the accurate sentiments customers have towards a product or a service.
Referring to unsolicited feedback, such as those conversations that happen within a contact centre, Eric Williamson, Chief Marketing Officer, CallMiner, looks at it as ‘the missed opportunity’:
“There are organisations who are attempting to collect different types of feedback and customer data, but the majority of these are still focused on solicited feedback, such as via surveys.
“While there is value in those data sources, currently a large percentage of organisations are not capitalising on unsolicited data collection, like recording calls for analysis to understand what customers are talking about even if they’re not being directly asked. There is definitely a gap in collecting solicited data versus unsolicited data.”
Indeed, only 48% of organisations reported they record customer calls for feedback purposes. Many are still only doing this for quality assurance and compliance reasons, missing out on raw, unbiased customer feedback.
Worryingly, only 12% of surveyed organisations say they collect an equal amount of solicited and unsolicited feedback.
The good news is that 64% of companies collect feedback to better understand customer preferences and feature requests, followed by 59% that measure customer satisfaction through NPS, CSAT, and CES.
Meanwhile, fewer organisations are hunting for negative feedback from which they may make the most improvement. Namely, only 47% collect complaints or bug reports, followed by 30% that want to know reasons for churn.
You’ve got data, now what?
Maximising the potential of customer data comes with efficient analysis. This is where various AI-powered solutions can streamline the process and help organisations gain valuable insights.
Yet, an overwhelming 96% of surveyed companies reported using manual analysis to process data. As a result, this inefficient and costly method of analysis prevents organisations from adapting to changing CX landscape in real time.
More importantly, organisations fail to create a complete view of the customer and overall CX by not collecting solicited and unsolicited feedback equally. In line with this, 70% of companies report they need significant improvements to how data is used for enhanced CX.
A lack of substantial analysis critically slows down the process of making better decisions across senior leadership.
Another challenge with treating data in regard to CX is misalignment between departments within organisations. The report reveals that customer-centricity is not deemed important by all departments equally, creating general dissonance within a business.
Customer service centres place the most value on CX (57%), followed by business development and sales departments (44%) and marketing and communications (39%).
On the other side of the spectrum are HR and recruitment teams which do not see much value in it, with only 23% prioritising CX.
Breaking down data silos can raise awareness of the importance of CX company-wide and not only for customer-facing teams. Once all departments are informed of the impacts of their service on CX, organisations can then truly make progress in the CX landscape.
Solving the CX puzzle
While data makes up half of the CX puzzle, employee experience and technology combined are also one of the main drivers of excellent CX.
Download the CallMiner CX Landscape Report today and stay tuned for our second article to discover how these add up.
