Corporate culture and lack of technology slow down customer experience

• Only 19 percent of German companies place data at the center of their CXM.
• German brands blame their own corporate culture (30 percent), fragmented technologies and a lack of data skills (24 percent each) for inadequate customer experiences.
• 43 percent see great potential in AI for future CXM success.

Not even one in five German companies (19%) place data at the heart of their customer experience management (CXM). This puts Germany behind the UK (20 percent) and French (27 percent) markets when it comes to the experience-oriented use of data. In addition to strict data protection regulations (26%), German companies primarily blame their own corporate culture with a clear departmental mindset and the resulting data silos (30%, UK: 22%, F: 28%) as well as a lack of data skills (24%, UK: 27%, F: 22%).

Another important obstacle to CXM for German corporate decision-makers is the lack of a standardized technology that brings together all data and makes inspiring customer experiences possible in the first place (24 percent, UK: 24 percent, F: 23 percent).

"The optimal interplay of technology, data and human excellence only unfolds its full potential with the right corporate culture - a corporate culture of data-based decisions. A culture that promotes interdisciplinary and cross-departmental initiatives that always put the customer at the center," says Christoph Kull, Vice President and Managing Director Central Europe at Adobe. "Integrated solutions help with a holistic view of the customer and are increasingly becoming the central prerequisite for inspiring customer experiences."

It all depends on the right technical infrastructure

Very few German brands believe that they already have the right technical foundations and integrated data functions to provide inspiring customer experiences.

The lack of ability to link data from different sources is a particularly big headache for the decision-makers surveyed: in only 12% of German companies is the respective platform able to link known and anonymous data for cross-channel customer profiles in real time (UK: 16%, F: 26%). Only 15 percent of platforms (UK: 19 percent, F: 25 percent) manage an open and smooth transition from behavior-based, transaction-based and operational data.

Brands are increasingly relying on AI in CXM 

Almost one in two German brands (43%) believe that AI and machine learning have great potential to further improve their future CXM. For 30 percent, the use of AI is therefore already one of the top priorities for 2020 (UK: 29 percent, F: 30 percent). The focus of future AI use for German companies is primarily on the additional knowledge that can be gained through AI-based access to previously hidden information (33%, UK: 36%, F: 33%).

The benefits of AI for targeting (28%, UK: 36%, F: 42%), personalization (28%, UK: 32%, F: 38%) and targeted segmentation (28%, UK: 31%, F: 36%) are also important to them.

"High-performance AI like Adobe Sensei is already enabling companies to successfully scale their CXM to deliver personalized, individual and relevant experiences to thousands, even millions of customers. However, these best possible customer experiences can only be created with the right company organization and the right technical infrastructure. This is where companies must not neglect their homework, as these two components have always formed the foundation for successful CXM," says Christoph Kull.