A study from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council found that many execs feel their companies are failing when it comes to integrating the voice of the customer into their operations.

Of the 480 executives surveyed for the Giving Customer Voice More Volume study, 58 percent said their companies do not compensate any employees or executives based on customer loyalty, satisfaction improvements or analytics. Thirty-eight percent said there are no programs in place within their organizations to track or create positive word of mouth among customers. And just 29 percent give high marks to their firms’ ability handle and resolve customer problems or complaints.

As taken from the organization’s press materials, the study, which was sponsored by Satmetrix, San Mateo, Calif., uncovered deficiencies in the way companies measure, optimize and leverage customer experience to drive loyalty, improve brand value and increase business performance and growth, including:

•  insufficient availability and aggregation of real-time customer experience data across touchpoints that should be shared across the organization;

•  poor use of customer interactions to collect insights and intelligence or maximize up-sell and advocacy opportunities;

•  lack of Internet processes and systems to track online word of mouth and drive customer advocacy;

•  intermittent monitoring of customer experience, which fails to provide timely insights into problems and opportunities;

•  too few compensation programs tied to customer experience, loyalty and satisfaction gains.

“Customer experience is one of the most critical determinants of brand strength and business growth. Yet most organizations and senior marketers suffer from major blind spots and gaps in the way they interact, handle and respond to customer issues or problems,” said CMO Council Executive Director Donovan Neale-May in a press release. “CMOs must assume ownership for the customer experience and establish enterprise-wide measures and disciplines to ensure continuous improvement. We are missing a major opportunity to turn customer pain into competitive gain at every touchpoint through better use of Web and contact-center technologies and processes.”

Other findings of the study include:

•  nearly two-thirds of companies do not have a formal voice-of-the-customer program in place;

•  only 13 percent use real-time systems to collect, analyze and distribute customer feedback;

•  while 74 percent say they receive customer feedback via e-mail, only 23 percent say they track and measure the volume and nature of these messages;

•  customer voice has gone online, but only 14.5 percent track word of mouth on the Internet;

•  only 12 percent are using a word-of-mouth marketing platform to drive online customer advocacy.

The Council argues that the drive to create and use systems to take in and disseminate customer inputs and viewpoints needs to be part of an institutionalized corporate culture. But as the survey found, many companies are not taking advantage of the types of company-wide performance improvement and business growth that can be driven by absorbing and acting on customer input.

Isolated events

Rather than viewing customer input as an ongoing resource, most firms see customer interactions as isolated events driven by service situations and incidents that need quick resolution. Thus:

•  only 38 percent of companies gather customer insight from customer engagement situations;

•  just 32 percent look for ways to turn problems into new sales opportunities and only 15 percent introduce new products or services to further monetize the relationship;

•  only 17 percent use the opportunity to identify and cultivate potential customer champions and advocates.

Though their firms have a long way to go in turning detractors into brand advocates, senior marketers are clearly aware of the importance of customer experience. Eighty-three percent of respondents said it is either “essential” or “increasingly important” in driving brand advocacy and business performance. Further, 84 percent said positive customer experiences and word of mouth have helped their brands and businesses grow. High-profile negative customer experiences have at some time compromised their brands, according to 44 percent of respondents.

Getting better

While just 31 percent rate their company’s commitment to customer listening highly, 35 percent say it is “getting better.” Although 34 percent of respondents said their companies have made no changes to the way they track and analyze customer experience in recent years, 45 percent say their companies have taken steps to better integrate and analyze customer data. Another 39 percent have increased personalization and intimacy in their customer communications, 20 percent say they have begun using Internet analytics and 18 percent are capturing real-time information at the “point of pain.” For more information visit www.cmocouncil.org .