Executive Summary

Companies have made great strides in aligning their organizations around customer experience efforts, but progress is still needed.

How advanced are companies’ customer experience efforts today?

Many are still in the early-to-mid stages of creating a culture and strategy that centers on the customer. Few companies consider themselves masters of the customer experience, and for good reason.

Why is it so hard for companies to deliver a solid customer experience?

Many things that are central to building a successful customer experience—such as having a single customer view, an omnichannel view and a more real-time understanding of one’s audience—are still difficult to execute. The same organizational silos, data silos and technology challenges that have plagued marketers since the beginning still hold. And privacy regulation creates new challenges.

What can companies address now to improve the customer experience?

There are incremental gains companies can make by understanding their value proposition, identifying their top customer channels and even prioritizing email.

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report explores the challenges and opportunities that marketers face when focusing on the customer experience and shares success stories for making select pieces of the customer experience work.

KEY STAT: A cohesive customer experience matters, or so consumers say. Last year, 72% of internet users worldwide said a disconnected experience would make them change service providers or brands, according to MuleSoft and Opinium Research.