CMO Priorities Conflict With Delivering On Customer Experience

New data from the CMO Club and Signal paint a conflicting picture of CMO priorities and what they plan to spend to retain existing customers and make new friends. 

Nearly half of CMOs say they will spend between 30% and 50% of their budgets on retention and loyalty. Only 1 in 3 admit to spending between 10% and 30% of their budget to keep existing customers happy.

The group cites Customer Identity Data as the most important asset for delivering a custom experience to help improve retention rates, yet only 19% have the means to track customers through a variety of devices and locations.

The data comes from surveying CMO Club members from companies within the B2C industry. The findings fielded 61 responses in various business to consumer industries such as automotive, entertainment, retail and travel.

The report defines "identity" as "the connecting point between all consumer interactions, online and off, past and present," calling it the foundation for all customer engagements across the Web, mobile apps, stores and other physical locations, along with email, digital ads, and beyond.

Some 61% of those participating in the study say they are unsatisfied with the retention rate of customers, yet 74% said their top priority for 2017 is acquiring more new customers, rather than motivating existing customers to engage more frequently or increase the amount they spend.

More than half, at 62%, are satisfied with the cost per acquisition, while 56% are satisfied with the return on investment; 36% are satisfied with customer lifetime value; 42%, Net Promotor Score; and 39%, customer retention rate.

Consumers want new and engaging experiences from the brands in which they purchase products and services. They want brands to recognize them, know their likes and dislikes, and understand their needs. It sounds easy, but it's not . This requires the technology to identify specific customer needs and the infrastructure to act on them.

The survey shows that marketers lack the technology to make it work, although most know what they need. One view of the customer at 64% ranks the most critical piece to deliver relevant customer experiences, according to survey participants. Web sites at 43% follows, with mobile apps ranking No. 2 at 39%; analytics, 36%; personalization and recommendations, 34%; social media, 33%; SEO, 23%; other, 5%; chat, 3%; and SMS, 2%.

Some 74% of survey participants describe their technology know-how as mid-level or beginner, organized to deliver experiences throughout the customer lifecycle, or equipped to optimize mostly stand-alone customer experiences. Only 26% consider their organization to be sophisticated or advanced, heavily invested in creating  one-to-one customer experiences, or connected seamlessly across offline and online, which seems to be the major hurdle when it comes to improving retention rates and making existing clients feel that they want to stick around.

1 comment about "CMO Priorities Conflict With Delivering On Customer Experience".
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  1. James Smith from J. R. Smith Group, April 25, 2017 at 9:19 p.m.

    Laurie,is the actual sample size 61 respondents? If so, that almost places results in qualitative rather than quantitative area. Do I have the primary takeaway right--sure we are consumer-centric...we just don't have tech tools or staff in place to execute so we keep our traditional ad spend habits.   

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