• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 13, 2022

The same data lapses that often frustrate email teams are also hampering customer-facing employees, judging by The State of CX and Sales Frontlines, a study by performance intelligence platform Pathlight. 

Of the front-line workers polled, 88.4% crave metrics and feedback, but 85% say they aren’t getting them.  

In addition, 78% complain that they do not receive feedback on a weekly basis. Yet  43% say they would perform better if they had real-time performance data insights against their goals, and 34.7% feel they need performance insights compared to peers—insights that may be tougher to deliver in a hybrid work environment.  

Of course, these issues also bother marketers in general: A recent poll by Salesforce found that 33% of marketers feel data insights are delivered too slowly for effective decision-making.

Why is this happening?  According to 72.5% of customer-facing employees, it’s because their company’s spend on feedback and performance management technology has stagnated or even been reduced since the pandemic. 

This lag in investment is not isolated to customer-facing operations. For instance, only 7.14% of firms have implemented a customer data platform, while 7.14% are conducting a POC and 45.85 are considering a customer data platform (CDP), according to a recent study by Lemnisk. Another 42.86% are not even mulling such an investment. 

Lagging data capabilities now prevent six out of seven customer-facing employees from getting feedback in real time when it would make the most impact. 

The result? Brands are having trouble retaining customer-facing employees. Some workers are ready to jump, although in general 51% have no idea what their next career move is, the study continues.  

On a more positive note, Salesforce also found that 52% of brands are investing in marketing analytics and measurement technology in response to recent privacy developments like Apple Mail Privacy Protection, while  50% are spending on CDPs and 45% on real-time interaction and personalization technology. 

Pathlight surveyed 483 customer-facing employees.