CX maturity can lead to business success

A report released today by the Enterprise Strategy Group, in partnership with Zendesk, matched CX criteria against business outcomes, finding that small businesses were likely to have grown customer spend — even during the pandemic — if they scored highly on CX-related capabilities.

The score was established through surveys of over 1,000 companies, including 500 companies with fewer than 100 employees in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S. and Canada. Relevant questions focused on the training of service and support employees, ability to respond to customer feedback, and metrics, KPIs and technology.

Read more about the importance of customer feedback.

Comparing businesses with six or more key capabilities with place against those with three or less, the report found 9.2 times the likelihood of significant growth in customer spend, and 3.6 times the likelihood of growing customer base among small businesses. Mid-size to enterprise businesses were 8.7 times more likely to have seen significant growth in customer spend, and were 3.3 times more likely to have grown their customer base.

However, less than half (47%) of small businesses have moved beyond the lowest level of CX maturity. The report finds less ambition in the CX sphere among smaller businesses: while organizations with 100 or more employees were more likely to be working to boost customer interaction, and also more likely to be focused on use of customer data (33% against 20% of small businesses).

Also, small businesses showing high levels of CX maturity were 7.8 times more likely to have been successful in switching to remote working during the pandemic than those with the lowest levels.

Why we care. CX, rather than product, service and price, is where businesses can compete. The experience extends from brand awareness and top-of-funnel messaging, right through to post-sale service. Small businesses can benefit even more than the enterprise, this report suggests, but may be lagging in ability to invest in CX.

About The Author

Kim Davis

Kim Davis is the Editorial Director of MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for over two decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Prior to working in tech journalism, Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.