- Small and midsize companies (SMBs) lagging behind large businesses in terms of customer experience management (CEM) initiatives

- But 70 percent of large businesses either don’t know/can’t measure the ROI from customer experience management or the ROI is unproven

London, April 17, 2012 – New research published today by Satmetrix®, the Net Promoter® software company, highlights that organisations of all sizes may be missing out on the business benefits of a best practice approach to customer loyalty. In fact, 64 percent of SMBs (revenues of under $150m) rising to 70 percent of larger businesses (revenues of over $150m per annum) either don’t know, can’t measure or can’t prove the return on investment (ROI) from CEM initiatives.

The research also shows that while larger businesses see current customers as their main priority (34 percent), SMBs would rather focus on acquiring new customers (48 percent). And, almost one in five (18 percent) of SMBs have no means of measuring loyalty in place.

Approaches to Customer Experience Management
The research, based on over 1000 responses from companies of all sizes around the world, shows that 16 percent of SMBs have no CEM initiatives in place compared to just five percent of  large companies. Of those that do, 73 percent of SMBs and 58 percent of large businesses have built the CEM systems in-house.

The research uncovers a number of other challenges for SMBs when it comes to delivering effective CEM programmes. When asked what they considered the biggest challenge when measuring customer experience, respondents identified a range of issues including:

- 24 percent find it hard to close the loop with customers. This means customers that give feedback may feel ignored, which creates diminished satisfaction since the respondent effort and time was not respected  (21 percent of large businesses)

- 14 percent struggle to get alignment about the right metrics to use (11 percent of large businesses)  – which may be one of the reasons why proving the ROI of CEM is so hard

- 14 percent find it hard to get employees engaged in CEM initiatives (12 percent of large businesses) – this means that improvements that are needed to keep customers loyal may not be properly implemented. Closing the loop with every employee transforms the organisation, creates the ability to pollinate best practices and creates a bond and conversation that engages the customer

- 7 percent have a lack of vision about how CEM will help the company. This doubles to 15 percent for large businesses – perhaps an indication of why the ROI is so hard to assess.

“This research shows that while businesses understand the strategic importance of delivering an excellent customer experience, they are struggling to make this a reality through best practice CEM initiatives,” said Steve Baxter, general manager of global mid-market solutions at Satmetrix. “It’s impossible to get true commitment to creating a ‘customer first’ culture if you can’t measure the ROI or agree on a simple metric for ROI, struggle to get employees engaged and fail to close the loop with customers. “

“All of these challenges are removed by our Net Promoter in the Cloud software applications which enable businesses to focus on building loyalty with existing customers whilst encouraging loyal customers to help attract new ones.”

Satmetrix Net Promoter in the Cloud applications provide the fastest path to Net Promoter System value for companies of all sizes
NPS® Go!, NPS® Go+ and Satmetrix Xperience make it easy for businesses of all sizes to do the four things they need to do to build a successful customer experience using Net Promoter: reduce customer churn, mobilise loyal promoters, generate more powerful insights and drive customer obsession through accountability.  Vitally, in terms of the issues uncovered by this research, they also enable businesses to link CEM initiatives to key business goals and financial KPIs.

Satmetrix CEM software applications provide a range of benefits to businesses, including:

- Survey Design to Customer Feedback in a matter of days – best-practice question libraries, proven survey design templates and time-tested email communication processes to obtain reliable customer feedback, combine to enable businesses to implement customer feedback systems very quickly, simply and correctly (quality as well as speed)

- Mobilising Promoters – the software enables businesses  to nurture promoters  and to attract new customers in their network by generating positive word of mouth via social media as well as traditional marketing methods

- Alerts and Action Planning – real-time alerts integrated and pushed to key employees via Microsoft Outlook enable companies to rescue detractors and drive accountability across the organisation. This helps to keep employees fully engaged and to drive cross-functional improvements

- Business View(TM) and Scorecards, Charts, Dashboards and Push Reports –a streaming web home page shows scores, trends, action items and comments from all detractors, customised to each employee from the front line to executives. Easy to use interactive charts, dashboards and automated “push” reports helps management to understand and take action on the current state of customer loyalty.  This helps to prove ROI and connect ROI to financial metrics

- Flexible Survey Configuration –enables businesses to benefit from built-in Net Promoter methodology and survey expertise whilst ensuring surveys fit programme needs and the corporate brand.

- Easy-to-use Administrative Tools – simplify and streamline programme management.

For detailed product information click on this link http://www.satmetrix.com/technology/product-editions/