A new report on emerging trends in the CX industry underscores the strategic importance of customer experience management (CXM) solutions as businesses strive to find ways to attract, maintain, and expand their customer base, while continuing to navigate uncertain terrain.

Surveying more than 2,200 CX professionals in both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations across 26 industries, the 2022 State of CX Report found CXM solutions were increasingly becoming a “must-have,” with nearly half of the industry’s professionals in the US deploying such programs for the purpose of customer engagement.

The report is from GetFeedback, the San Francisco-based provider of an online survey application that allows people to create mobile-ready surveys. Founded in 2013, GetFeedback was acquired in 2019 by SurveyMonkey, which was relaunched as the company currently known as Momentive. In conducting the survey, GetFeedback said it sought to understand how CX leaders can attain new heights in cultivating customers two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the report said made an already difficult job even harder.

Because of the pandemic, accelerating digital transformation efforts became the top strategy that CX professionals adopted as organizations were forced to reduce or eliminate in-person customer interactions. Of the CX professionals in the US who chose to use CXM solutions, a majority—70%—reported a “high” or “very high” rate of return on investment (ROI). And for CX leaders, a single tool with advanced features—or robustness—and the speed to achieve insights are the key features of a desirable CXM solution to help achieve insights.

For the survey’s respondents, the most important CX metric is customer loyalty, defined by parameters like customer lifetime value, customer retention, and the net promoter score (NPS), the report declared. The second most important measure is quality metrics, including the customer effort score and the customer satisfaction score; followed by operational metrics, as defined by factors such as agent performance and web pages per visit.

The biggest obstacle to the success of CX programs is employee experience (EX), including components like employee motivation and skills and training. The smaller the CX team, the more considerable the problem when it came to the issue of motivation, the report stated. The need for training and developing better skills among employees also presents a hurdle, as does collecting feedback in real time.

In describing what to expect next in the CX space, the report identified agility and speed as the principal themes in 2022 for the CX space, with CX teams expected to rely on robust technology, more metrics, and new digital channels as they strive to increase customer stickiness.

Agility will also be a key to success for the CX industry in navigating the pandemic, the report mentioned, and both agility and the prioritization of more personalized experiences will drive CX strategies this year.

Boosting customer loyalty remains the top CX priority for 2022, the report maintains, and digital transformation will continue to be top-of-mind on business agendas. The report concludes by urging CX professionals to undertake opportunities with confidence in order to drive meaningful change in their organizations’ CX offerings. The 52-page report also devotes significant portions of its research to examining various topics, including the current state of CX professionals; issues related to career longevity, fair compensation, teamwork, and cross-collaboration; and how CX professionals can succeed today.