Email teams sensing a disconnect between marketing and the customer experience are correct: Only 29% of firms say their marketing, sales and customer success units are fully aligned, according to The RevOps Difference, a study from Pedowitz Group, conducted by Ascend2.
Of course, 69% are trying to align them, including 77% of marketers, but they have a way to go.
The problem is that firms tend to focus on marketing-sales alignment, and not as much on customer success, the study says.
The outlook varies by department: Only 21% of customer success respondents feel there is full alignment, versus 32% in sales, and 36% in marketing.
The failure to align may explain why only 18% rate their customer experience as excellent, or best in class. Still, 54% say their experience is above average.
Full alignment provides many benefits, including:
Moreover, 86% strongly agree that providing an exceptional customer experience significantly improves revenue growth.
On the downside, misalignment can result in these consequences:
And it’s not easy to provide an exceptional customer experience. The mail obstacles are:
On another front, 33% expect to far exceed their revenue goals in the year ahead, while 50% believe they will be slightly ahead. Another 15% say they have met their goals and few foresee a decline.
In contrast, 16% said their revenue came in far above their goals last year, while 46% said it came in slightly ahead. Another 26% basically met their goals, and 12% failed to meet them.
Marketers are the most optimistic, with 73% expecting to beat their goals.
The top means of improving revenue growth in the year ahead are:
The greatest challenges to providing an exceptional customer experience are:
Marketers are more likely to complain about inaccurate data (36%), while customer success people gripe about ineffective leadership (34%).
Ascend2 surveyed 507 professionals.