LinkedIn Poll by Medallia Shows the No. 1 Challenge to Effective Customer Experience Management is Lack of Corporate Strategy

MENLO PARK, Calif., May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite global economic conditions that have forced many enterprises to explore means to reduce costs and increase top-line revenues, a series of LinkedIn polls conducted by Medallia, the global leader in Software as a Service Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions, found 33 percent of respondents cited a lack of clear corporate strategy and 26 percent of respondents cited a lack of internal cooperation as the primary obstacles to improving customer experience.

Over several months, more than 1,000 CEM decision makers and operational managers responded to poll questions on the biggest obstacles to improving their companies' customer experience and how they measure success.

The top insights from poll respondents include:

• Many companies pay little more than lip service to CEM because they fail to see the strong correlation between a loyal customer base and long-term success or survival. As a result, building and executing a CEM program is delegated deep down in an organization, with inadequate top-level buy-in.
• Gaining genuine commitment from the C-suite is critical to bringing key internal stakeholders on board and removing functional silos that often obstruct improvement of the customer experience.
• Organizations implementing a technology tool without addressing the strategy, communication, and process required are often destined to spend a lot of money for very little ROI.

The survey findings revealed 49 percent of respondents measure the success of their CEM programs by the increase in customer satisfaction scores, while 30 percent measure by growth in incremental revenue. The ability to prove the impact of CEM programs on revenue is becoming increasingly important to winning the support of the C-suite.

"Customer Experience Boosts Revenue", a report from Forrester Research, Inc. published in June 2009, estimated that "modest improvements can bring in $177 million to $311 million per year."

Additionally, research from McKinsey Company shows satisfying and retaining current customers is three to 10 times cheaper than acquiring new customers, and a typical company receives around 65 percent of its business from existing customers. Despite this, only 8 percent of LinkedIn survey respondents associate their CEM program with its ability to save at-risk customers. Making CEM a strategic priority is one of the most readily available means for executives to increase bottom-line revenue.

"The poll results indicate growing industry awareness that customer experience management cannot be executed in a vacuum. Its success hinges on being integrated with companywide operations, and on being understood and supported everywhere —from top executives to frontline employees," said Amy Pressman, president and co-founder of Medallia. "It's no coincidence many of our customers who have achieved impressive results through their CEM programs are revered, iconic brands. They have built CEM into their long-term success."

Brands such as eBay, Fidelity, Hilton, Hyatt, JPMorgan Chase, and Sephora rely on Medallia's CEM solutions. Medallia captures and analyzes qualitative and quantitative customer experience data from every customer touchpoint, uniting entire companies on one CEM platform and prompting action from the executive suite to the frontlines. For more information on these solutions and accompanying services, visit www.medallia.com.

About Medallia

Medallia (www.medallia.com), the global leader in SaaS customer experience and enterprise feedback management, provides solutions to Global 2000 companies. More than 50,000 businesses and business units around the world use the Medallia system to track customer satisfaction. Medallia's solutions enable companies to gather, monitor, and act on feedback from customers, partners, and employees. Customers include global financial services, retail, high-tech, business-to-business, and hospitality companies. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley.

SOURCE Medallia, Inc.