Of the five new research reports profiled in this roundup, three focus on what is not being done correctly by new technologies or approaches today. The objects of contention include customer data platforms, artificial intelligence (AI) and its adoption, and CX program success. The remaining two reports strike a far more positive tone on their subjects: real-time data streams, and data strategies. Details follow.

Zeta Global: Majority of Users Feel CDP Solutions Fall Short

The majority of marketers and users of customer data platforms (CDPs) believe that today’s CDP solutions fall short of expectations and capabilities, according to the findings from a study by Zeta Global, the data-driven marketing technology company headquartered in New York City. Instead, users seek a more robust CDP that spans data aggregation and management, as well as execution of critical marketing functions, such as personalization and omnichannel activation.

While 66% of respondents believe that CDP adoption is a strategic priority or important initiative for their organizations, only 10% feel the product meets all needs, and just 1% believe their current CDP answers future requirements. And even though data management is important with CDPs, marketers also cite the need to analyze data, derive insights, personalize messaging, tailor campaign strategies, measure performance, and activate the data across all marketing channels.

A CDP, according to resource site cdp.com, provides various benefits.

Christian Monberg, chief technology officer and head of product at Zeta Global, says the increasing complexity of today’s marketing landscape reveals large and growing gaps between the needs of users and current CDP functionality. “We believe that marketers today have a need for an upgraded CDP that can go beyond data management and also activate across all channels, generate insights, and measure results—comparable to integrating a modern marketing cloud,” Monberg notes.

The study, the result of a custom survey of 313 CDP decision-makers in the US, confirms that to meet top strategic goals, CDPs need integrated capabilities that unify customer data management with marketing execution capabilities, such as personalization, unified dashboarding, and real-time data processing. The study also underscores the importance of CDPs in generating top-level results, such as higher revenue, improved customer acquisition and retention, more personalized interactions, and increased trust from customers.

LiveVox: Contact Centers Increase Adoption of AI But Struggle to Capture ROI

While the adoption of AI has increased in contact centers resulting in improved CX, measurable return on investment (ROI) has been delayed by a number of significant challenges, states a new report from LiveVox, the San Francisco-based provider of a cloud-based contact center platform designed for small and medium businesses (SMBs).

The top-ranked obstacles preventing contact centers from achieving AI-derived ROI include the high cost of implementation (43%), not having access to necessary customer data (40%), and a lack of skilled in-house staff (38%).

On average, executives report using three AI tools in contact centers today, with a quarter of respondents reporting the use of more than four tools. Even so, only a small number use chatbots, AI virtual agents, real-time speech and text analytics, and agent assist. Overall, contact centers with 100 to 250 agents lead the way in AI adoption and use a range of tools, including robotic process automation, chatbots, and virtual agents.

Louis Summe, CEO and co-founder of LiveVox, says that to remove the barriers around AI adoption and implementation, contact centers need to partner with technology companies that understand the application of practical AI and how the technology can be seamlessly integrated within agent workflows. “AI is not a silver bullet,” Summe says. “The technology must be easy to implement and manage, informed by data, supported by informed people, and consistently applied throughout the customer journey to deliver tangible, measurable ROI.”

The findings come from the report, Contact Centers and Ai: Sounds Like You Need Help Unlocking Full Benefits, which published the results from a survey of 315 IT and operations leaders responsible for AI contact center technology in the US.

Gartner: CX Programs Cannot Focus Only on Path to Purchase

Organizations that associate customer satisfaction with growth, margin, and profitability are more likely to report CX success and secure CX budgets, according to a survey by Gartner, the technology research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut.

For instance, CX marketing efforts with a primary focus on the customer journey after acquisition are 2.3 times more likely to exceed management expectations than efforts emphasizing the path to purchase. Augie Ray, vice president analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice, says that journey maps focusing merely on the purchase funnel cannot uncover the opportunities that influence customer satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term advocacy—all of which are important stages in an end-to-end customer journey.

The survey of 362 global CX practitioners also shows that the CX programs that exceed management expectations are those with customer persona development initiatives in place for more than three years. In contrast, persona development is immature in many organizations.

Similarly, journey-mapping processes improve with time and experience, and maturity is a common theme, the survey notes.

To improve customer-centric culture and enhance CX strategy, Gartner suggests CX leaders consolidate customer inputs, invest in developing customer personas and journey maps, and reinforce the organization’s focus on the customer.  

Confluent: Real-Time Data Streams Generate Higher Revenues

Organizations around the world are tapping into real-time data streaming to thrive in today’s digital-first landscape, the results of a survey from Confluent show. The Silicon Valley-based company provides a streaming platform that enables companies to access data as real-time streams, emphasizing how data in motion can underpin businesses that excel at serving, retaining, and attracting customers.

Data in motion—or real-time data streams with a modernized data infrastructure—is thought to enable continuous movement and processing of data for better workflows, more automation, real-time analytics, and differentiated digital customer experiences. But harnessing the technology is difficult for many organizations, because data becomes harder to wrangle as it quickly grows in volume and the variety of places it is pulled from and stored, notes the report, State of Data in Motion.

A key finding is that data in motion boosts customer engagement and the bottom line. Most IT leaders have access to some degree of real-time data streams (97%), but those with widespread access (66%) see higher revenues. And despite the pandemic, a large segment (63%) of those with widespread access to real-time data saw annual revenue growth of 10% or more between 2020 and year-end 2021.

Other key findings from the report are that real-time data streaming is essential but challenging without the correct technology, and that success in the cloud demands secure data streaming between clouds.

Precisely: CX Leaders Are Investing in Data Strategies Post-Pandemic

CX leaders say they are investing in data strategies to support post-pandemic customer interactions, which are expected to continue growing at a rapid pace, reveals a new study from Precisely, the New York-based provider of software products for data quality, integration, and enrichment.

While many organizations are equipped with the appropriate in-house resources to optimize data, more than half (51%) are partnering with providers of hosted managed services (HMS) to achieve core competences that can reduce costs (63%), provide better customer communications (55%), and improve operational efficiency (33%). HMS providers can introduce modern integrated customer communications management platforms that leverage cloud-enabled technologies, anchored in data, the study notes. Overall, 96% of CX leaders say they have invested–or plan to invest—in data integration, integrity, or enrichment technologies.

To be sure, many organizations still do not have a data infrastructure in place to glean valuable insights, despite the doubling of enterprise volume data in the last two years because of a pandemic-induced boom in online interactions, the study shows. Only 37% of survey participants believe they have a well-developed enterprise data architecture that enables high-quality, data-driven, and personalized CX. For many, data becomes siloed across the various touchpoints, making it difficult to access the data (48%). Of the data that is accessible, 45% of survey participants believe it isn’t relevant or current, and they believe an insufficient investment in CX is the problem (41%).