Highlights:

• Only 40.6% of the global respondents agree that their company deserves the customer's loyalty, as opposed to 55.5% in 2003.
• 65.4% state that company's executives do not meet frequently with customers (a significant increase from 2003 at 53.8%)
• 54.1% state that their relationship with the customer is not well defined (as opposed to 59.6% in 2003)
• 46.1% state that their company takes any customer that is willing to pay (up from 42% in 2003). In B2B and service businesses, the numbers are 42.2% and 39.7% respectively (down from 72% and 69% respectively, in 2003)
• Only 18.8% state that their compensation is tied to quality of service (compared to 32.8% in 2003)
• Only 31.4% agree that they have the tools to service and resolve customer problems (down from 37.2% in 2003)
• Only 24.3% agree that their company invests in people more than in technology (down from 36.9% in 2003)
• 57.8% of the respondents agree that their employer deserves their loyalty (down from 73.4% in 2003)

Figure 1: Data demonstrates executives hold a superficial commitment to a true customer-centric culture.

The 2004 Global Customer Experience Management Study, conducted throughout 2004, indicates that the company / customer relationship is deteriorating. Executives surveyed indicate that this year, as in the past, their companies continued to take the customer for granted. Despite the general upward trend in the economy, companies have not increased or improved their investment in their customer relationship. They did not exhibit the caring and commitment which would have resulted in them deserving the customer's loyalty. Only a minority of the executives (40.6%) believe that they actually do deserve the customer's loyalty based on the total value provided by the company.

Almost half of the companies continue to take any customer that is willing to pay and they do not select customers based on more sophisticated criteria such as a mutual match of interests, potential relationship longevity, profitability and potential growth. This lack of selectivity has a severe impact on the resources required to service the customers and therefore the profitability of companies.

Another area where we see a significant decline is the state of employee experiences. Only 31% of the respondents affirmed that they have the tools and authority to actually serve their customers. This is a drop from 37% the previous year. This drop indicates that organizations are enforcing stricter procedures in lieu of empowering employees to serve customers. In addition, this indicates a lack of understanding on the part of organizations as to how critical employee interactions with customers are. In fact, this lack of understanding of the employee/customer interaction has a significant impact on the company's branding, customer loyalty and ultimately, repeat business and profitability.

"Companies are more committed to customer strategies than they were 3 years ago". This question, added this year, indicates that 76% of the companies have put customer strategies higher on their agenda than they did 3 years ago. As customer strategies are crucial to growth, this result seems to be in line with executives' general business agendas. However, this agenda seems to have remained at the strategy level and the tools to implement these strategies have not filtered down to those who need to execute them.

Figure 2: Importance of customer strategies

For complete survey results, please contact Lior Arussy at Lior@StrativityGroup.com