Almost half of marketers believe that their customer experience isn’t up to the standards that customers expect, despite most of them identifying customer experience as a key to gaining a competitive advantage.
The Treasure Data and MarTech Alliance survey of 200 Chief Marketing Officers in the UK, France, and Germany found that 48% of marketers feel their organisation falls short when it comes to the customer experience delivers. At the same time, 79% recognise the need to deliver a premium customer to gain a competitive advantage.
For 53% of marketers, the biggest barriers to them achieving their customer experience goals lie in having insufficient skills in data management and/or knowledge of the right technology. Additional barriers that marketers point to include not having necessary vendor solutions to achieve their goals (43%), lacking the staff and resources (28%), and concerns around stakeholder buy-in and approval (17%).
“As it stands, businesses are sitting on a sea of data, but while modern marketers recognise its importance, they are not necessarily equipped with the skills to understand and unlock its potential,” said Andrew Stephenson, Director of Marketing, EMEA at Treasure Data.
A big part of delivering a sufficient customer experience lies in the data that marketers are able to collect, with 75% agreeing that customers now expect highly relevant, personalised, and integrated omnichannel messaging and experiences. And that’s why marketers want to focus on providing connected physical and digital experiences (50%), orchestrating omnichannel integrated marketing campaigns (37%), and delivering real-time experiences (35%).
The problem with these ambitions is that just 20% of respondents that indicated they had a 360-degree view of the customer, said that their data is online and automatically connected.
“It is concerning that so few organisations have a true view of their customer. Consumers have high expectations, and they rightly want to know that if they trade in their data, that they will get better, more relevant customer experience,” said Stephenson.
“Unless businesses upskill their marketing teams, and think seriously about their data collection strategies, consumers will be forced to decide whether that brand is still worth something to them.”
