• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 15, 2023

C-level executives have wised up: More now prioritize customer satisfaction over profits, according to a new white paper from IDC, sponsored by Twilio: A Platform Approach Is Critical to Customer Engagement Success and Building Trust. 

Of those polled, 43% of CEOs now focus most on customer satisfaction -- down from a high of 63% in August 2021, but still more than the roughly 40% who now put operational efficiency first. Even fewer are emphasizing profits.  

The question is: How do they achieve customer happiness and trust?

The seeming purpose of this study is to explore (and perhaps promote) use of customer engagement platforms (CEPs).

A CEP is defined by the study as “a flexible, interoperable set of customer data tools (such as a customer data platform) and omni-channel communications tools (such as email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice, and video).”  

But only a minority of companies now have fully operational CEPs. The roster is as follows:

• Platform with fully interoperable set of data tools and communication — 33%
• Platform with the majority of tools interoperable — 48%
• Customer engagement tools that are somewhat interoperable — 14%
• Tools with very limited interoperability — 5% 

Still, 98% say their organization is working toward establishing a CEP. How will they get there? They expect to include these tools and solution elements in their tech stack over the next two years: 

• Marketing tools (orchestration, organization, content management, etc.) — 50% 
• Communications software (CPaaS, email, chat, conversion bots, etc.) — 50% 
• Customer support software (contact center, customer engagement, etc.) — 46%
• Supply chain management software (data warehouse, logistic, ecommerce, etc.) — 38% 
• Customer data platform — 34%
• Sales software (revenue intelligence, etc.) — 34%
• CRM — 26% 
• ERP Systems — 24% 

What do they hope to gain from these investments? The respondents list these desired outcomes among their top three measures of success:

• Customer satisfaction — 34%
• Customer acquisition — 26% 
• Improved operations efficiency — 24%
• Employee productivity — 24%
• Profit — 24%
• Innovation — 23% 
• Shorter time to market — 23%
• Revenue — 23%
• Sustainability — 22% 
• Reduced costs — 20%
• Rate of consumer interaction — 20%
• Improved operations risks — 19% 
• Business resiliency — 18%

IDC surveyed 1,600 respondents from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, and Mexico in the summer of 2022. The full study can be accessed here.