Brands will fail to meet customer expectations unless they seize the opportunity to harness the power of real-time journey analytics and orchestration, according to new research.
The research from Forrester Consulting, commissioned by customer engagement technology firm Thunderhead, reveals that only 13% of businesses have the ability to orchestrate customer journeys at scale.
Brands cannot optimize experiences in real-time and struggle to use customer data to deliver connected and seamless experiences, and a significant 63% of brands are unable to take immediate action on available customer data. However, the study does show that 89% of firms are expecting to increase spending on customer journey analytics and orchestration in the next year, highlighting the critical importance of these key capabilities to more intelligent Marketing and enhanced Customer Experience.
The study surveyed 217 executives from well-known B2C brands in the U.K and U.S. to understand the their views on the state of adoption of customer journey analysis and orchestration. Most importantly, the survey sought to identify the barriers to successful implementation of customer journey initiatives in an environment where businesses across all sectors are facing a customer erosion crisis with declining customer satisfaction, increased churn, and high customer acquisition costs.
While brands recognize they must focus on customer journey analytics to connect with customers, they are hampered by very real problems: 63% of those surveyed identified the inability to take immediate action on available data; 56% identified the inability to optimize across silos; and 55% identified a lack of consistency across channels.
Ultimately, brands understand the need to act quickly and focus on improving their knowledge of the customer with 50% of those surveyed expected to increase spend in journey analytics and orchestration by more than 10% over the next year. Priorities include: improving customer data quality and gaining better insights from existing data (59%); focusing on customer journey research, design and measurement to drive engagement (48%); and improving their ability to act on customer intent in real-time (46%). Some 61% of brands expect to increase customer loyalty and 53% expect increased overall revenues as important outcomes of these initiatives.
Thunderhead’s ONE Engagement Hub and Intent Analyzer solutions address these challenges head on. Thunderhead’s ONE Engagement Hub is a new generation of cloud-based solution that works with and across existing systems and touchpoints to provide real-time actionable insight and customer journey-orchestration. Intent Analyzer is Thunderhead’s new solution for deep customer journey analysis and journey-based audience discovery.
In the Opportunity Snapshot, Forrester Consulting comment, “To meet the rising expectations of empowered customers, firms must know their customers in greater depth and understand their intent and unique journeys with the brand. Firms must focus on customer journey analytics to connect with customers and deliver the emotionally engaging experiences they seek. This fuels loyalty and growth: Meeting customer expectations and delivering superior experiences across varied touchpoints and journeys is challenging but necessary for brands to remain competitive. Customer journey analytics and orchestration unlock the power of customer data and insights to achieve seamless and connected customer experiences and better business outcomes.” – Orchestrate Customer Journeys To Drive Engagement, Improve Loyalty To Deliver Business Growth, an August 2018 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Thunderhead
Glen Manchester, CEO and Founder, Thunderhead said, “We believe that the Forrester Consulting study reinforces just how critical a customer journey approach is for marketers and CX professionals. Many brands aspire to an outside-in, customer-led approach, but still struggle to meet the needs of their customers throughout their individual journeys. It’s time to take action. Marketers and CX leaders should take advantage of the opportunity that real-time journey analysis and orchestration provides to truly understand customer intent and act on that insight in real-time to drive engagement at scale, increase customer satisfaction, and drive business growth.”