These days, everyone dreams of superior customer experience (CX), especially customers. Next in line are business leaders, who have finally started to see the light. Of course, that means the renewed pressure to pump up CX to, yeah, you guessed it -- IT managers and professionals. However, getting everyone on the same page to deliver the goods is the hardest part of all.
The challenge was surfaced in a survey [1]of 1,420 IT decision-makers released by RackSpace Technology, which found that focusing on CX implementations helps companies see greater rewards. Organizations that adopt a CX-led focus enjoy 1.6x higher brand awareness, 1.5x more employee satisfaction and nearly double their rates of customer retention, repeat purchases, average order values and customer lifetime value. "The research underscores the impact that modernizing applications to provide better customer experience can have on competitiveness and growth," the survey's authors add.
The rub, of course, is that building better CX systems is the easy part. Half of the IT executives in the survey, 50%, report that it can take weeks to gain consensus before implementing technology changes, such as deploying new applications or launching a transformation project. Another 42% say it takes months. "This lag in consensus building negatively impacts time to market. If teams can't move agile and fail fast, they'll be beaten to the punch by competitors who can move through concept, development and release faster," the researchers report.
Even when people and strategy are aligned, CX technology teams still face technology-related barriers, the survey shows. As is common with adopting new technology, legacy IT (26%), budget (24%), skills gaps (22%) and expertise (18%) rank as top barriers. Cultural issues also weigh heavily in the list as represented by resistance to change (16%), lack of buy-in (16%)