Much has been written about customer experience management (CXM) and the importance of social media. But the question still remains: How do customer experience leaders utilize social data and insights to drive agile and effective decision-making?
New research from Harvard Business Review, sponsored by Sprinklr, aims to answer this question (disclosure: I work for Sprinklr).
Here are ten ways leading companies are using social to power their business.
1. Leaders anchor successful customer experiences in social media
42% of companies believe that social media is extremely important in providing incredible customer experiences.
75% of companies believe that social media will be extremely important in providing incredible customer experience three years from now.
Why? Because social data can provide you with real-time, relevant insights on consumers’ needs, preferences, concerns. And social engagement with these consumers allow the companies to show that they are present, they do listen and engage, and that they care about their customers and their communities.
2. Leaders use social media for many bottom line objectives
Leaders have significantly higher usage of social media for identifying new sales leads, gaining insight, mitigating risk, creating personalized interactions, and engaging with customers across channels. This is important not only in providing the best service across customer journeys, but for longer-term brand health.
3. Leaders rewire their structure and processes to integrate social and CX
Internal structure/process change is highest in marketing and advertising, where 67% of leading companies reported making internal changes to integrate CX and social into their strategies. 58% of companies report making changes in communications/PR, and 51% changed internally for customer care.
But the most critical change for each of the leading companies was to look at digital insights holistically. Each undertook some sort of digital transformation initiative that aligned all of the functional teams internally and connected the dots across people, processes, and technology. Every one of the leaders is tackling the issue of internal silos and cultural resistance when it comes to driving digital transformation across the company.
4. Leaders are better at managing brand risk with social media
Leaders report a higher impact of social media on helping manage reputational risks. They also find that their risk and crisis management is more effective overall than companies falling behind in terms of social and CX integration.
5. Leaders invest in all areas of the customer journey
49% of leading companies strongly agree that they systematically identify touchpoints and set improvement goals for each.
CXM leaders understand how, when, and where people engage with them. This helps them drive relevance and personalization. They build their strategies to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time on the right channel in a non-intrusive way.
6. In leading organizations, the C-Suite cares a lot about social
CEOs at leading companies are in charge of customer experience a quarter of the time. And they are responsible for social media nearly 10% of the time.
CMOs are in charge of social media nearly a quarter of the time, and for customer experience 15% of the time.
It starts at the top. Leaders have executive support – and sometimes oversight – when it comes to building holistic CXM and digital strategies.
7. Leading companies work cross-functionally to drive CX
60% of leaders say that sales, customer service, and marketing all work together on customer experience. Only 20% of followers claim that this is the case, and 15% of laggards.
8. Leaders end up providing a better customer experience
Companies that invest in social are better at delivering superior customer experiences. 78% of leading organizations rate the quality of their customer experience delivery higher than that of their competitors. And their business growth numbers support their belief.
9. Leading companies report higher revenue growth
More than half of companies leading in CX and social integration reported greater than 10% revenue growth in the past two years. This is reported by 35% of followers, and 41% of laggards.
10. Leading companies understand the higher purpose of social
68% of leading companies say that their executives support the integration of CX and social media because they understand that social media is a massive component of customer experience.
Conclusion
With the accelerated pace of innovation and increased consumer expectations, it isn’t enough to know your customer's purchasing history to create the world-class consumer experience. You also need to incorporate real-time social and behavioral insights into the fabric of the day-to-day business.
Leading companies have built a business intelligence center that is powered, in part, by social data and is accessible and utilized across the organization (including sales, marketing, and customer service). This has put them ahead of their peers in terms of market position, quality of customer experience delivered, and revenue growth.