As more signs point to strengthening economic activity in the US and selected regions of other parts of the world, corporate austerity is fading and growth is back in the spotlight. Acquiring customers, improving the customer experience, and growing revenues have returned to center stage. Forrester Research recently asked more than 2,000 global business decision-makers at large organizations what their “critical” and “high” priorities are for the next 12 months. We found that:
- Their top priority is acquiring and retaining customers (73%).
- Tied for the top spot is growing overall company revenue (73%).
- The third most important priority is addressing the rising expectations of customers and improving customer satisfaction (68%).
- Lowering operating costs now only takes sixth place on the priority list (63%).
It is evident from these data that effectively managing customer relationships has become the top priority for business success.
Better customer experiences drive improvement for three types of loyalty: willingness to consider another purchase, likelihood to switch business to a competitor, and likelihood to recommend to a friend or colleague. Forrester's models estimate that the revenue impact from a 10-percentage-point improvement in a company’s performance, as measured by Forrester's Customer Experience Index (CXi) score, could exceed $1 billion.
