New research from Gobeyond Partners, the consulting and services business focused on customer journey transformation, today reveals that customer experience is largely perceived as a strategic issue and one that should be driven at board level (81%).

The research which surveyed over 450 managers and above across retail and wholesale, financial services and banking, private healthcare, and insurance, found that 86% of UK businesses are currently measuring customer experience and that 81% of respondents believe customer experience to be a strategic issue which requires more senior level accountability.

The results highlight a clear need for senior executives to be knowledgeable about customer experience, and importantly, measure it across the entire customer journey. The results revealed that 36% of organisations surveyed only measure customer experience at specific touchpoints, and not across the entire customer journey, whilst 12% of UK businesses are still not measuring customer experience at all. Rather it was those companies who do indeed measure customer experience across the entire customer journey (50%) who were found to be 1.4 times more likely to report revenue increases over the last 12 months, than those that don’t.

Mark Palmer, CEO of Gobeyond Partners explains:

“We were pleased to see that our recent survey findings validate the work we have been doing with our clients; namely that customer experience is a human issue which should be addressed strategically and prioritised by the board.”

Palmer continues:

“We regularly recommend looking at the end-to-end customer journey through a more human lens. Our findings clearly highlight that introducing the human touch – at all levels of the journey – can radically transform the way you deliver service. For organisations to win in the race for customer loyalty and stronger profitability, they will need to successfully marry great technology and innovation with a major focus on what this means for customers and employees in the transformation journey. Taking this ‘human lens’ will differentiate the quality of solutions offered, drive greater efficiency in getting there and will better engage their people on the change journey.

Other interesting findings from the Gobeyond Partner’s research include:

  • Of those who agreed customer experience should be driven at board level, only 37% strongly agreed that their company utilises customer feedback to improve service design and delivery;
  • 86% of retail respondents agreed that customer experience should be driven at board level and was the most likely industry to see customer experience as a strategic issue. This was followed closely by 85% of insurance respondents, 77% in banking, 72% in private healthcare and 85% insurance;
  • 12% of UK businesses are not measuring customer experience at all;
  • 11% of businesses said they had no senior manager with accountability for customer experience

About the research:

The research was conducted amongst 450 managers and above, across retail and wholesale, financial and banking, private healthcare and insurance.

  • 61% of respondents work for B2C (Business to Consumer) companies.
  • 38% work for B2B (Business to Business) companies.
  • 37% of those polled work for medium-sized companies with 101-1000 employees.
  • 24% work for small companies (1-100 employees)
  • 21% work for large companies (1001-5000 employees)
  • 17% work for enterprise companies (5001+ employees)