Survey Report by Cyara and CXPA: IT and CX Collaboration In Delivering A Great Customer Experience
IT and CX Collaboration in Delivering a Great Customer Experience—surveyed hundreds of customer experience (CX) and IT/digital professionals to understand how the CX team (business requirements) and the IT/digital team (technology to deliver those requirements) can better collaborate to deliver a great customer experience.
There are four key findings, which I'll summarize here for you:
1. Digital transformation is mainstream and is data-driven
Many organizations are undertaking digital transformation initiatives to overcome disruption caused by new competitors, as well as the change in expectations from customers. The survey found that 82 percent of respondents are in the midst of some form of digital transformation initiative. Respondents noted the focal point for these digital transformation initiatives is the customer experience. Encouragingly, 60 percent of the more than 350 respondents report that they are grounding their digital transformation initiatives in customer input to a high degree. However, almost one-fifth of them said that their digital transformation initiatives were not driven by customer data, but rather were based on executive direction or best practices.
2. Experience and maturity contribute to digital success
Not surprisingly, those organizations that have more maturity and capabilities in CX are able to deliver a better experience for their customers. Interestingly, as organizations evolve in their CX maturity, the challenges they face change also evolve. CX veterans say their top challenge is pressure to execute quickly on their digital transformation goals, whereas CX newbies are focused on more basics such as getting their initiatives funded. CX veterans are 87 percent more likely to strongly agree that “Our IT and business teams have a common view of customer journeys, and effectively manage the experiences within those customer journeys.”
3. Speed causes mistakes or poorly designed CX
Fifty-eight percent of respondents reported that “Pressure to execute quickly has resulted in errors or poorly designed CX in my organization.” The need for speed is generally driven by rapidly changing customer expectations as well as competitive pressure. Two of the respondents’ best-practice advice included: (1) collaborate early and often to reduce development cycles; and (2) employ DevOps tools for greater speed and quality.
4. Collaboration is key for CX success
When asked to describe the quality of inter-department collaboration, most respondents report having a solid working relationship with their peers in IT. However, 92 percent reported that the relationships have been affected by poor collaboration associated with various challenges and disappointments, including creating inferior experience, missed deadlines, and failing to match to original project specifications. Worse, one in five organizations reported that executives had left the organization as a result of poor collaboration.
“Successful businesses win by delivering exceptional customer experiences across all channels. This requires deployment of advanced customer-facing technologies and then continually innovating these systems to stay ahead. So it’s vital that business and IT teams collaborate effectively,” said Linda Chen, CMO at Cyara. “This report provides useful guidance for enterprises looking to meld the vision of their CX team with the technical expertise of their technical team.”