According to a 2021 Genesys report, nearly two-thirds of companies are increasing their investment in CX, even amid a pandemic-related resource crunch. In fact, three in four organizations had a bigger CX budget in 2021 than in 2022.
Why? Because customer experience management (CXM) drives better business results. A 2018 Forrester study underlined this, finding that experience-driven companies achieve 1.9x higher year-on-year (YoY) growth.
Of course, many CX teams will focus on building loyalty, lowering customer effort, and increasing satisfaction. Nevertheless, these will likely all equate to financial gain.
Such gains are not a guarantee, yet as CXM technologies evolve, it becomes easier for companies to take hold of this opportunity.
Defining Customer Experience Management (CXM) Platforms
A customer experience management platform is a solution that supports the discipline of designing, deploying, and managing customer journeys.
Therefore, the platform typically includes customer journey mapping, data management, and analytics features. Other capabilities help to support content management, personalization, and knowledge sharing/collaboration tools to improve CX and the experience of CX teams in modifying and enhancing customer journeys.
High-profile brands that offer CXM platforms include Salesforce, Oracle, and Adobe. Smaller players that also offer highly recommended solutions on a global scale are Acquia, Optimizely, and Sitecore.
Each vendor is well set to grow in a quickly expanding marketplace. Grand View Research underlines this, expecting the customer experience management software market to reach $27.12 billion by 2028, with an annual growth rate of 17.5% from 2021 to 2028
3 Key Features of a Customer Experience Management Platform
While there are many features within a CXM platform, here are three particularly pertinent examples.
Customer Feedback Collection
A CXM platform allows users to collect data at key points of engagement, so CX teams understand how critical metrics vary throughout the customer journey.
To do so, users can design a feedback collection mechanism that fits seamlessly into the CX, enabling the team to assess performance at various touchpoints.
Journey Mapping
A CXM platform makes it easier to identify where customer journeys fail through analytics. Using journey mapping tools, CX teams can then redesign experiences and add new rules.
For example, the team add a proactive message, so when a customer reaches a specific touchpoint, they receive an alert that prevents them from “stepping into” the pain point. IT teams may then action such rules and improve experiences.
Data Analytics and AI
The data analytics and AI capabilities of a CXM platform helps aggregate information from multiple touchpoints and channels and generate pertinent CX insights.
AI assists this process by transforming raw data into a machine-readable format. For instance, AI techniques like natural language processing can aggregate online reviews about brands and provide overall sentiment insights from just a few strategic words and phrases.
Benefits of Investing in a Customer Experience Management Platform
By investing in CXM software, users can:
- Boost feedback response rates – Customers are more likely to respond to surveys when they are targeted at the right time. CXM software analyzes the customer journey to reveal the most ideal points of engagement.
- Get a 360-degree understanding of the customer – CXM software consolidates information from multiple sources, channels, and stakeholders to run customer journey analysis.
- Make data-driven decisions – Users can make data-driven decisions to personalize CX. For example, if a customer responds negatively to a survey, they can configure an automated escalation flow.
Looking for a platform to manage digital experiences? Read our rundown of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms 2022
