If you’ve read even a shred of a business publication in the past year, you’ve seen headlines pointing towards CX being the trendiest commitment of businesses everywhere. Many studies indicate that more spending and data projects should be focused on CX in 2019 and 2020 than ever before. That’s all well and good, but are companies actually putting their money where their proverbial mouth is?

It turns out, the answer is: not exactly…

Let’s clarify this a little. Very expectedly, almost every company out there is “dedicated” to a superior CX. And with that in mind, most probably think that their spending is going into CX. We drilled into that question a bit more in our benchmark.

Yes, 92% of companies who responded reported being “highly” or “extremely” dedicated to CX, as expected. However, only 62% of companies agreed that they had a customer-centric culture, and a whopping 40% admitted that they had no formal CX strategy whatsoever.

If we’re talking dedication versus execution, that’s a 52% delivery gap in CX aspirations to CX actuality. Why is there such a disparity? “Dedication” and “mission” seem like a ubiquitous sentiment in business these days. But that emotionally appealing language is just ad copy, right?

Wrong. It’s real, and it’s quantifiable. Every other aspect of your business is data and strategy-driven, so CX should be as well. Consider gathering customer feedback (a lot of it) and analyzing your customers’ responses to find trends to help you strategize. Look at what your competitors are doing with things like, say, our 2019 Customer Loyalty Benchmark Report! Almost every company will say, “we know our customers.” But the best brands understand that a gut feeling is never a substitute for actionable data.

Click HERE to read the full benchmark report!

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