Businesses need them, yet struggle to create great experiences

Marketers know they need great digital customer experience, but few know how to get it. 

While 84% agree that businesses must deliver excellent digital customer experience to survive, only 38% say they have clearly defined goals and strategies for it, a Forbes Insight survey found.

Also, more than 80% say it is an important competitive differentiator, as essential to a company’s success as products, services and pricing.

The return on CX is well established, with 83% of respondents saying improved experience boosts profitability. Additionally, 77% said they could demonstrate the link between digital CX investments and improved business performance.

Stumbling blocks. One of the reasons so few businesses have a strategy is that few have an overall leader in this area. Just 36% have established ownership and delegated responsibility for digital customer experience. This explains why only 34% are confident that their digital experiences are optimally personalized.

The top barriers to long-term digital CX success?

1. Privacy and security (69%)
2. Legacy analytics practices (66%)
3. Talent retention (65%) 
4. Cross-team collaboration (65%).

Why we care. Without a detailed strategy, it is nearly impossible for digital customer service to reach its full revenue and retention boosting potential. There must be clearly defined goals and metrics, and assigned digital CX leaders if a company hopes to compete.

Read next: Why data-driven decision-making is the foundation of successful CX

About The Author

Constantine von Hoffman is managing editor of MarTech. A veteran journalist, Con has covered business, finance, marketing and tech for CBSNews.com, Brandweek, CMO, and Inc. He has been city editor of the Boston Herald, news producer at NPR, and has written for Harvard Business Review, Boston Magazine, Sierra, and many other publications. He has also been a professional stand-up comedian, given talks at anime and gaming conventions on everything from My Neighbor Totoro to the history of dice and boardgames, and is author of the magical realist novel John Henry the Revelator. He lives in Boston with his wife, Jennifer, and either too many or too few dogs.