ANNUAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE REPORT

Data tells the story

Customer experience management is a multi-faceted initiative requiring various tools and services to help create a 360-degree view of the customer. Utilizing mystery shopping programs, field audits, and brand reputation management services are all key to building this understanding of how your customers perceive your brand and how satisfied they are when they engage.

Another critical element of this picture is direct feedback from customers – customer surveys. As with any successful business, 360 Relay has made many efforts and investments in revising and improving services to our customers this year, and we’ve seen some great customer success as a result.

Each year, we survey our clients in the interest of learning if we are meeting expectations, providing the value of service we strive to achieve, and learn where we can invest in improvements the following year. We don’t just preach the practice of customer experience management – we practice what we preach (or drink our own champagne, if you rather).

These results are not only material to us for our planning for next year, but also identify industry trends and forecasts in how companies are executing customer experience management programs. This report is the culmination of those trends, with some findings and projections based on real customer data.

More of a visual person? Click the image to the right to view the infographic for visual highlights of the report.

Results Highlights

Survey results provide visibility into our internal operations and the success of our teams. A summary of key highlights of the results are shared below.

Investment in customer experience next year

The majority of clients plan to keep their budget for customer experience management the same for 2019, with 62% reporting it will stay the same. However, over a quarter (28%) state they will be somewhat or significantly increasing budget, with only a minimal few (3%) stating they will reduce somewhat or significantly.

Finding the Most Value

The tools offered to clients to monitor and manage their customer experience vary, but about two-thirds (67%) rank customization of their program as the most valuable, and 71% rank individual reports as such.

Brand Reputation Improvement

A hefty 65% responded their customers’ experience with their brand has greatly or somewhat improved since using our monitoring and management services, while another 45% believe their brand reputation has overall improved, with 68% reporting they feel they have the data and tools they need to strengthen their brand.

Findings

These results not only validate the many changes and adjustments made throughout the year, but also paint a picture of the state of customer experience management through the eyes of our customers. Interpreting these results, below are the leading findings:

Using MSP Data for Annual Report Presentations

There is an upward trend in teams integrating data collected from their mystery shop, surveys, audits, or brand reputation management programs into their overall corporate annual plans. By doing so, these best-in-class companies track a direct correlation of how their customer experience initiatives impact the bottom line. This not only elevates the program to high-level executives who can then begin to understand the program’s impact, but also sets the stage for prioritization of budget.

Cross-departmental Use

Successful companies are not just leveraging customer experience data in one department, but cross-functionally, most often between marketing and operations. This allows teams to correlate departmental efforts to the success of their customer experience program and creates a unified approach that puts the customer’s experience first.

Best Practices

Reading the individual report is just the beginning for successful companies. Leveraging best practices for trend reporting and survey configuration sets high performing companies apart. To do so, these teams work in partnership with their 360 Relay team to learn what similar companies with similar objectives do to be sure they are asking the right questions to capture the right data, and then configure custom reports to monitor expectations.

Robust Reporting

Not unrelated to the previous, we found that the most successful clients not only read individual shop reports, but also leverage the reporting platform to benchmark their locations or compare time periods.

Customer Experience is Underfunded

Various sources have stated customer experience is a top objective for companies, however when it comes to the bottom line, often there is a contradiction between objectives and budget. Getting top-level visibility for customer experience programs and their ROI is critical for companies to get the budget to successfully prioritize.

Brand Reputation Management

Monitoring and managing a company’s online brand reputation continues to be a critical issue for businesses as we go into the new year. The business impact of not successfully managing an online reputation is material – resulting in lost customers, reduction in sales, or an irreparable reputation. Companies need to prioritize investing in online reputation management before it’s too late.

And now for a little humble bragging

We were pleased to learn 89% of responding clients replied we were very responsive to their needs, with 85% likely to refer us to a peer. While these results validate the many changes made throughout the year, we are continuously looking at areas for improvement, and expect to continue the evolution throughout 2019.

Learn more about becoming a 360 Relay client, and how we can help you ensure amazing customer experiences for your brand.