• by Ray Schultz , July 20, 2022

Email ranks far down the list of channels deemed important by CX professionals, according to “The future of customer experience,” a study by Netigate. 

On a scale of one to five, marketers rated the following as “very important” to their CX strategy. 

• Feedback surveys — 4,15 
• Website (Forms, chat, content, etc.) — 3,92 
• CRM system (e.g. segmentation, trend and sales people and account managers — 3,88 
• Sales people and discount managers — 3,8 
• Social media — 3,35 
• In-app or in-product channels — 3,1
• Email marketing — 3,08 
• In-person events — 3,03 
• Online events — 2,8
• PR (media, radio, TV (non-paid) — 2,45 
• Paid advertisement online — 2,42 
• Paid advertisement offline — 1,95

Granted, the firm surveyed only 79 CX professionals, and it seems no surprise that surveys would top the channel list given that Netigate specializes in them.   

With that caveat, only 52% of those polled are proud of their company’s CX strategy, versus 38% who are not and 10% who don’t know. 

In addition, 72% now evaluate customer satisfaction at touch points during the customer journey. Yet only 49% have mapped up their customer journey so that it is well known with their company. 

At the same time, 39% say their main goal in 2022 is to increase customer satisfaction.  

Their key focus areas to improve CX are:

• Product and/or service improvements
• Customer service
• Company communications 
• Personalization 
• Employee training 
• Increased brand awareness 
• Marketing 
• Technology and artificial intelligence 
• Buying process 

Netigate is a Europe-based provider of cloud-based services for online surveys.