In its Q4 Channel Pulse Report, 360insights, has taken a deep dive into customer experience (CX), based on a survey of more than 1,000 North American senior executives from a range of industries who directly oversee channel management.
“While the CX bar is clearly rising across industries, the struggle for differentiation remains a key theme, along with evolving juxtaposition of customer acquisition vs. retention,” said Paul Yantus, VP of Marketing at 360insights. “All-in-all, however, channel involvement in moving CX initiatives forward is essential to success,”
The overwhelming majority of respondents (94 percent) agreed that CX is a crucial part of their marketing strategy. When asked to share the biggest CX benefits, customer acquisition fell behind customer retention, with 69 percent of respondents believing that CX is more valuable for retaining customers.
More than half of respondents (52 percent) named Competitive Differentiation as their primary motive for upping their CX focus, while 71 percent rated their CX as slightly ahead of their closest competitors, with less than one-fifth significantly differentiating themselves from the competition.
Nearly 90 percent of respondents believe that channel enablement plays a big role in achieving great CX, while 59 percent said their channel cares as much about CX as they do and a quarter calling their channels “passionate advocates” of CX.
Most survey respondents are still leveraging very traditional methods to measure CX, including Surveys (33 percent), Customer Engagement Metrics (26 percent) and QBRs (23 percent). By updating measurement tools, companies can more effectively prioritize CX as a key KPI.
Based in Whitby, Ontario, 360insights is a global channel incentives company offering rebate processing, SPIFF programs, co-op advertising and channel analytics.
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