One Transaction at a Time: Businesses Fail to Deliver on CEM Programs

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 29, 2014) -

• Avaya survey finds strong correlation between CEM and increased profits
• 81 percent of organizations have seen their CEM initiatives fail in the last three years
• Only 59 percent of organizations have a comprehensive CEM program

A new study from Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions and services, investigates the emphasis companies are putting on customer experience management (CEM) and finds that increasingly high expectations are creating a business environment where the majority of organizations are struggling to keep up. While CEM programs are being undertaken on a global scale by businesses of all sizes, the Avaya survey found that China leads the pack with 84 percent of businesses having a CEM solution followed by U.S. (73), India (72), Brazil (63).

CEM activities are strongly tied to business success and growth trajectories. The study found a solid correlation between a strong CEM program and increased profits. Eighty-one percent of those who have seen a significant increase in profits have a CEM program in place, compared to those who have seen profits remain static (46%) or suffered a decrease in profits (35%). Companies see the biggest improvements in customer satisfaction, loyalty, retention and repeat purchasing, which the survey finds is largely attributed to the fact that 88 percent of customers would rather spend their money with companies that make it easy for them to buy.

Despite the fact that 95 percent of business managers say CEM will be important to their organization in 2014, only 59 percent of those surveyed have a comprehensive plan in place. Even with a plan in place, there is no guarantee a CEM approach will garner results, considering 83 percent of companies can only deliver some elements of a personalized customer experience automatically and in real time. In addition, a staggering, 81 percent of organizations have seen their CEM initiatives fail in the last three years. Moreover, 43 percent of Managing Directors, CEOs and owners think the top reason for CEM failure is project misalignment with customer preferences, indicating communication barriers within organizations themselves. Another possible explanation is that companies do not typically associate functions like finance, R&D, IT and operations as dealing with customers. This could be a blind spot in the way they approach and plan CEM initiatives given that people across all departments within the company have direct or indirect contact with customers and prospects and not just the roles typically seen as customer facing.

Today's multichannel/multidisciplinary way of working with customers requires strong support from enabling technology. Of companies without a CEM program, 31% blame its absence on a lack of appropriate technology in place -- a figure that rises to 35% of multichannel companies. Avaya's expertise and insights from working with thousands of companies and organizations has resulted in a portfolio of Customer Experience Management solutions and services that enables the end-to-end experience customers want. 

To this end, the company also today announced Avaya Contact Center Select, a "right-sized" solution for midmarket businesses which enables a multichannel customer experience with the simplicity and affordability needed by this segment. Avaya also announced that TeleTech Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: TTEC), a leading global provider of analytics-driven, technology-enabled customer engagement solutions, will base its new Cloud offering on Avaya's partner-hosted CEM solution, allowing TeleTech to offer sophisticated contact center solutions as a service to their end customers.

Quotes:
"A majority of businesses acknowledge the need for a comprehensive CEM program, but somehow fail to deliver on what it takes to implement one. Yet, the benefits are bankable. Breaking down functional silos, tapping the expertise of internal and external resources and investing in technologies that bring customers and employees closer together will help put companies on the path to success."
Brett Shockley, SVP and CTO, Avaya

Additional Resources:
Avaya CEM Research Infographic on Slideshare
Avaya CEM Research Media Summary Report

Tags: Avaya, customer experience, contact center, consumer, business communications, customer service, research

Survey Methodology:
The survey was conducted globally across 13 countries by independent market research firm Dynamic Markets on behalf of Avaya including: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, China, Singapore, Japan, India and Australia. 1,268 businesses with more than 1,500 employees were interviewed, 54 percent of who are at senior-management level or above. 8,500 adult consumers were surveyed; 49 percent of who are male and 51 percent female.

About Avaya
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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