• by Ray Schultz , June 11, 2019

Over 90% of brands believe that a journey-based approach is key to their success. But many face challenges, including breaking down data silos, according to 2019 State of Customer Journey Management & CX Measurement, a global study by Pointillist. 

Data is the foundation of customer experience marketing, yet wide disparities exist between companies in their ability to integrate it.  

The survey breaks down companies into three categories: High performers (24%), average performers (50%) and underperformers (26%). 

Of the high performers, 72.8% say their journey-based approach is mostly or completely data-driven. In contrast, 47.8% of the agree, along with 23.6% of the under-]performers.

And 56.1% of those top performers rate themselves as very effective in integrating data across all tools and sources into a single, unified view of the customer’s journey. But only 13.7% of the average performers and 5.6% of the underachievers say the same.

In addition, 66.7% of high performers are likely to analyze customer interactions across channels and overtime and engage customers with the right experiences at the right time. And 71.1% can engage customers at the right time through the preferred channels. 

On average, brands use 3.8 data sources to analyze cross-channel interactions. High performers use at least one more source than underperformers. 

Data from email is used by 41% to analyze customer interactions across channels. But brands are more likely to use data from CRM (56%), customer support (44%) and voice of the customer (42%). 

In addition, brands employ an average of four different data and analytics technologies. But fewer than 25% of the firms surveyed are satisfied with their ability to integrate data. And 40% rate breaking down organization silos as a top challenge.

Brands face the following hurdles in integrating customer data:

• Quantifying customer experience ROI 
• Breaking down organizational data silos 
• Identifying & prioritizing high-impact opportunities to improve customer experiences 
• Generating actionable insights quickly 
• Delivering personalization at scale

They also have difficulties with measurement:

• Lacking a single view of the customer and customer journey
• Generating actionable insights quickly, in real-time
• Lacking access to siloed data across multiple sources 
• Lacking sufficient internal time or resources
• Lacing the right tools or technology to collect and/or analyze the data

Failure to properly track the customer experience can result in many negative outcomes:

• Loss of customers — 61.5%
• Damaged brand reputation — 52.5% 
• Loss of repeat business — 43.3%
• Reduced customer lifetime value — 42.8%
• Negative customer reviews — 34.3%
• Decrease in customer acquisition — 33.9%

Pointillist surveyed over 700 customer experience, marketing and analytics processionals worldwide.