Companies do not collect all the data they need in order to drive positive CX, and the limited data collection is holding back organizations from effectively analyzing data to uncover insights and intelligence that result in meaningful action, declares a new global report from CallMiner, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based provider of a conversation intelligence platform for analyzing customer interactions at scale.

In its inaugural CX Landscape Report, conducted in partnership with technology market research specialist Vanson Bourne, CallMiner reveals that up to 70% of contact center and CX decision-makers acknowledge that some improvements are needed to the ways their organizations use data to enhance CX. More than 3 in 5 (62%) respondents believe their organizations do not collect all the data that is needed, and only about 1 in 10 (12%) say their organizations collect an equal amount of solicited and unsolicited feedback, indicating that organizations are missing out on a significant opportunity to gain a holistic view of CX. Solicited feedback can come in the form of answers to customer surveys, while unsolicited feedback can be obtained through customer interactions that occur within customer contact or service centers.

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Paul Bernard, president and CEO at CallMiner, says the new report provides a critical lens into the CX industry and gives decision-makers the insights they need to succeed. “The CX industry is rapidly evolving. Businesses are navigating an increasingly complex technology market, while looking to meet changing customer expectations,” Bernard points out.

Major Gaps in CX and Other Findings

The report also finds major gaps in CX strategy and implementation. For instance, almost all respondents (96%) surveyed say their organizations use manual analysis to some extent, such as hand-coding feedback or aggregating data using Excel or PowerPoint. And even though nearly all respondents (94%) believe their organizations to be customer-centric, more than half (58%) report that their CX departments and teams do not align completely with the rest of the business.

As long as organizations have departmental silos and are using outdated methods to analyze customer data and feedback, firms will be limited in their ability to identify key trends and adapt to customer needs, ultimately making it hard to connect the dots and drive enterprise-wide CX improvements that showcase the return on investment (ROI) in their efforts, the report notes.

A strong connection is likewise established by the report between employee experience (EX) and successful CX, with near-universal acknowledgment that improving EX is critical to improving CX. Among those surveyed, a third (34%) say that disengagement of customer service staff or lack of productivity easily rates as one of their organization’s top three biggest challenges.

Finally, the report raises the vital importance of artificial intelligence (AI) to the future of CX. In fact, three areas that organizations say will be positively impacted by AI are how effectively departments can share insights and data with one another (41%), brand reputation and crisis management (38%), and employee engagement and productivity (36%). Even so, organizations say they need more guidance and support to invest in AI or to implement the technology, with almost half of respondents admitting they have yet to fully realize the benefits of AI.

“At CallMiner, we recognize the value and importance in being able to build better customer experiences,” says CEO Bernard. “Working with CX leaders across industries, we have a deep understanding of the needs of our customers and with the launch of this annual survey, we have the opportunity to share that knowledge with the industry at large.”

For this CX report, CallMiner surveyed 450 senior decision makers from contact center and CX departments in the US, UK, Ireland, and South Africa. Respondents hailed from organizations that had a contact center, with 100 or more employees in the healthcare, financial services, or retail sectors.