Focus on customer experience ensures sustainable growth

A new study by Accenture Interactive titled "The Business of Experience" takes a close look at the topic of "experience" - customer experiences. A large majority (77 %) of CEOs surveyed on the subject said they will fundamentally change the way their companies interact with customers to drive business growth. The report, published by Accenture Interactive, is based on a survey of more than 1,550 executives from 21 countries and 22 industries.

Corona pandemic put customer experience in the spotlight

The goal was to understand the role customer experience plays in long-term business growth, consistency and relevance. According to the study, companies that align their entire business to create exceptional experiences for their customers, employees and communities outperform their peers by six times year-over-year in profitability. "COVID has further elevated the customer experience and reinforced its importance to every function and every employee," said Brian Whipple, group chief executive of Accenture Interactive. "Simply put, when you improve the customer experience, you improve the quality of life and, in turn, the business."

"Not only are expectations of brands changing, but also of companies as a whole. Everyone today wants to know how to interact with their customers in the current economic and healthcare crisis. Digital and hybrid customer experiences need to be reinvented. In the company, this affects not only the channels, but the entire value creation, via data, processes, technologies and employees, and ultimately the way value is created. The added value then lies in the experiences they enable," says Benjamin Tück, Managing Director of Interactive Switzerland.

Rapidly evolving customer needs drive the urgency of a new approach

While the focus on customer experience (CX) has traditionally been more about transactions with customers, the general focus on customer experience is a new way of working that is increasingly supported by senior management, the study found. Accenture Interactive calls this new holistic approach - which is becoming a key business imperative - the Business of Experience (BX).

The study finds that BX has become a CEO focus as it is linked to every aspect of the company's operations - unlike CX, which has traditionally been the domain of the chief marketing officer (CMO). In addition, more than half of chief operating officers (COOs) (56 %), chief strategy officers (CSOs) (53 %) and chief financial officers (CFOs) (51 %) also said their company will fundamentally change the way it interacts with its customers.

"To grow in the coming year, every company and every leader must rethink experience - especially as almost everything we do, from how we shop to how and where we work to how we interact with others, has been structurally transformed," said Baiju Shah, chief strategy officer, Accenture Interactive. "A fundamental redefinition of the customer experience is underway, and those companies that put customer experience at the center of their organization will drive growth and be the market leaders of the years and decades to come. "Becoming a business of experience requires investing differently, not more," says Benjamin Tück, managing director of Interactive Switzerland. "To compete for customer attention, funds must be consistently focused on improved experiences without compromising profitability and sustainability."

How companies become the "Business of Experience

The study shows that leading companies (i.e., companies that independently perform well in terms of financial growth and business cycle consistency) think and act differently about the customer experience than their competitors. These leading companies are far more likely to adopt the following BX approaches, consistently outperforming their peers.

1. Get to know your customers through and through. Customer needs are also likely to evolve, often in unpredictable ways, regardless of the impact of the pandemic. Consequently, companies should invest in ways to identify unmet customer needs of any scale. The study found that leading companies are twice as likely as others (55 % vs. 26 %) to say they are able to incorporate customer data into appropriate measures. But many of these leading companies also say there are limits to their data and the opportunities it can provide. That's why this point is so important - to be truly customer-centric, companies need better means to drill down and uncover those needs.
2. Make experiential innovation a daily habit. The study shows that leading companies feel better prepared to seize the opportunity to innovate on a large scale. Compared to their peers, they are more than twice as likely to have the agility to shift to new models that add value and relevance to their customers.
3. Expand the scope of responsibility for the customer experience. Experience is not just the responsibility of the CMO or COO - it's everyone's business, from the executive level down. All employees and all areas of the business should be connected and collaborative, functioning as a cohesive, customer-centric unit whose ultimate goal is to deliver the best customer experience.
4. Align IT, data and people. Becoming a "business of experience" doesn't mean investing more, it means investing differently. Leading companies are managing data, IT, and people to create agility that continuously unlocks efficiencies that can be reinvested in new performance and growth opportunities. Of the leading companies, 61 % said they have a clear understanding of what technology platforms they need to leverage to remain competitive and relevant to customers, compared to only 27 % of their peers.

Source: Accenture Interactive