Need to catch up on the customer experience

In a joint study, Nexa Consulting and the HWZ (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) analyzed the status quo with regard to the customer experience at Swiss companies. Swiss CEX Study 2017Lack of vision, inadequate processes and a conservative corporate culture often prevent companies from further developing the area of customer experience. This is despite the fact that 75 percent of the companies surveyed are convinced of the importance of customer experience, at least in theory. Innovations are urgently needed, "because too many companies are still in the Middle Ages in this respect", comments Prof. Dr. Michael Grund from the HWZ.However, there are significant differences between the language regions: While 83 percent of the companies surveyed in French-speaking Switzerland rated customer experience as important or very important, only 67 percent in German-speaking Switzerland did so.The challengesCompanies in all regions - but particularly in French-speaking Switzerland - cite the "lack of vision" as the biggest challenge. They also emphasize the "difficulties in measuring ROI". In German-speaking Switzerland, "corporate culture" is clearly ahead of "lack of processes". The latter issue is also one of the most important concerns in French-speaking Switzerland. A "lack of data" and the "lack of support from management" were not perceived as major problems by the companies surveyed.Self-assessment of the maturity levelThe number of employees influences the importance and degree of maturity. "Smaller companies with up to 49 employees are obviously closer to customers and their needs than larger companies, although the latter have the resources to tackle the respective challenges. Medium-sized organizations (250-999 employees) are currently the furthest behind. The results of the self-assessment of maturity confirm the low importance of customer experience for this category of company", states Anne-Laure Vaudan, Managing Partner Nexa Consulting.The priorities for 201874% of the companies surveyed are considering investing in the area of customer experience in the next 12 months (79% in German-speaking Switzerland and 70% in French-speaking Switzerland) and all companies surveyed agree that the priorities for 2018 should be on analysis and customer knowledge (40%). This shows that big data or smart data is a key topic: Only those who understand customers based on data can provide them with tailored offers.