It’s clear that the experience a customer has when engaging with a brand shapes their perception of that company. This has become an extremely important measure of business success as a consistently good customer experience is directly correlated with positive business outcomes.

But when planning the budget for new customer experience initiatives it is helpful to be able to estimate just how much effect those efforts will have. What’s the Return on Investment (ROI) of spending more on improving the customer experience? A new study detailed in ZDNet attempts to explain the real business value of investing in the customer experience. Some of their highlighted findings were:

  • US $3 return on investment expected for every $1 invested in customer experience
  • Almost six in ten (58%) have seen increased customer satisfaction over the last 12 months
  • Close to four in ten (37%) have seen improved sales cycles

40% of the companies surveyed (almost 700 companies) found their revenues increased within a year of focusing their strategy on CX improvement. In addition there were several benefits that are specifically customer related, such as:

  • Improved customer satisfaction (58%)
  • Increased customer loyalty (45%)
  • Increased customer retention or acquisition (45%)
  • Improvement in lifetime value of customers (38%)

The complete ZDNet report also highlights many of the challenges faced when trying to make CX a key component of corporate strategy. After presenting the data featuring both opportunities and challenges the report author concludes: “In this day and age, can anyone seriously question the importance of developing relationships with customers that lead to engagement?”

With supporting statistics like this, it’s clear that this conclusion is correct. How can any executive ignore the benefits that a focus on CX brings? Yes, there are challenges with technology systems, skills, and data, but by placing the CX at the heart of your corporate vision these other business areas can approach the problems in a coordinated way.

What do you think of the ZDNet approach to measuring the ROI of CX? Can you add more? Leave a comment here or get in touch via my LinkedIn.

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http://www.zdnet.com/article/cio-workshop-roi-of-customer-experience/