Zendesk Study Finds Customer Experience Maturity Leads to Business Resilience, Revenue Growth and Agent Retention
New research by Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN) and Enterprise Strategy Group reveals that firms investing in customer experience (CX) are 10 times more resilient during the pandemic and three times more likely to grow their customer base. The study, surveying over 3,000 CX decision-makers, shows that Champions in CX maturity increased from 6% to 14% since 2020, with notable growth in North America. Companies that prioritize CX see improvements in customer satisfaction and revenue, highlighting the importance of investment and innovation in this area.
- Companies prioritizing CX reported being 3.4 times more likely to grow their customer base in six months.
- CX Champions are 3 times more likely to have profitable service teams where revenue exceeds customer service costs.
- Champions are 7 times more likely to use service data extensively, impacting sales success positively.
- Investments in CX led Champions to 10.3 times more confidence in decision-making during the pandemic.
- None.
“This research confirms what our customers across industries, sizes and life cycles all tell us: that customer experience requires continuous investment and innovation to truly set their business apart,” said
The 2021 State of CX Maturity Report surveyed more than 3,000 CX decision makers with more than
The research found that the number of Champions within midsized and enterprise companies has more than doubled from
“The findings indicate that the shift to digital and remote work during the pandemic served as a trigger for companies to accelerate their adoption of new technologies, policies and processes to benefit from a higher CX Maturity,” added
There also continues to be a clear correlation between improved CX maturity and the benefits of increased customer satisfaction (CSAT), faster response times, and effective customer service. Notably, the study also calls out the connection between CX maturity and greater business growth and revenue.
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Related to their peers, midsized and enterprise Champions in
North America were 3.4 times more likely to have grown their customer base over the past six months, and 6.4 times more likely to have increased per-customer spend over the same time period. -
Champions are also changing how the customer service function is viewed across their organization. With digital interaction being the main connection point with many customers, Champions in
North America are 3 times more likely than Starters to operate profitable service teams, where direct revenue exceeds the cost of customer service.
Other key imperatives for CX Maturity that the research identified include:
CX-led innovation is a competitive differentiator
The vast majority of respondents in
- Champions are 7 times more likely to be using service data extensively.
- When used, that data is delivering results - Champions are 12.7 times more likely to identify the impact on sales success as “game changing”.
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Champions in
North America are also 2.5 times more likely than Starters to have accelerated major CX projects over the past year.
Conversations, not transactions, create stronger customer relationships
Nearly all Champions (
- Champions are three times more likely to prioritize delivering conversational customer experiences that can build deeper customer relationships.
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Organizations in
North America have increased the number of service channels year-over-year from an average of 6.6 to an average of 7. -
Many anticipate that preferences and changes will continue to shift as well:
63% of organizations predict that chat and social channels will be most used by customers in the future, up from50% who say this is the case today.
Investment in CX leads to better agent retention
Agent turnover, training, flexibility and wellbeing all emerged as areas of investment and focus for teams over the course of the past 18 months. This led Champions, in particular, to move quickly to implement tools to support overwhelmed service teams.
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More than a quarter of organizations (
35% ) say staffing turnover continues to be a challenge, up from29% in 2020. -
Organizations expect an
8% increase in the number of remote agents, even after the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer an issue. -
Investments and process changes made by Champions in the early stages of the pandemic include increased mobile device use by agents (
46% ); increased utilization of public cloud services (62% ); more flexible work policies (56% ); adoption of new collaboration tools (56% ); and expanded mental health/wellbeing initiatives (54% ). -
Between accelerating CX investments and adapting service policy changes earlier in the pandemic, Champions in
North America are 10.3 times more likely to believe they made the right investment and policy decisions during the pandemic to maximize their resiliency. - Champions across the region are nearly 4 times more likely to have excellent agent retention.
Additional Resources
- For more information, download the report, The State of CX Maturity, here
- Read the blog content series on how businesses can achieve CX maturity here
Methodology
In the second quarter of 2021, ESG conducted a double-blind survey of 3,250 line-of-business decision makers who were responsible for ensuring and enhancing the customer service at their organization. Organizations represented spanned all market segments, from small businesses to large enterprises, and multiple industry verticals like retail, consumer and corporate services, financial services, healthcare, education, and technology companies, among others.
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About ESG
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