WABAN, Mass., April 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Temkin Group released a new report, State of Customer Experience Management, 2014, based on a study of more than 200 large organizations. The percentage of large organizations that have reached the two highest levels of customer experience maturity has grown from 6% in 2013 to 10% this year. During the same period, the percentage of companies in the lowest level of maturity has dropped from 40% to 31%.

Temkin Group's research has identified six stages of customer experience management maturity: 1) Ignore, 2) Explore, 3) Mobilize, 4) Operationalize, 5) Align, and 6) Embed.

The research also revealed a significant focus on improvement. While only 6% of companies believe that their organization currently delivers industry-leading customer experience, 58% have a goal to be an industry-leader within three years.

"Few companies have mastered all of the competencies required to deliver and sustain great customer experience, but it's great to see the strong improvements and ambition," states Bruce Temkin, Customer Experience Transformist & Managing Partner of Temkin Group.

Temkin Group's Customer Experience Maturity Model is based on four customer experience core competencies:

• Purposeful Leadership: Operate consistently with a clear set of values.
• Employee Engagement: Align employees with the goals of the organization.
• Compelling Brand Values: Deliver on your brand promises to customers.
• Customer Connectedness: Infuse customer insight across the organization.

Here are some additional findings from the research:

• Over the previous year, companies with good or very good ratings in Purposeful Leadership rose from 39% to 45%, the largest improvement for any customer experience competency.
• Sixty-five percent of companies have a senior executive in charge of customer experience.
• More than half of companies have at least six full-time customer experience professionals.
• Almost two-thirds of respondents rate customer experience with phone agent as good or very good, the highest rated interaction. Less than 30% rate mobile phone and cross-channel experiences at that level.
• The top obstacle to customer experience is the same as it has been for four years, "other competing priorities."
• We compared companies that have strong customer experience maturity with those that are weaker and found that customer experience leaders have better financial results, have more senior executive commitment, and focus more on their organization's culture.

This research report can be accessed from the blog, Customer Experience Matters, at ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com or at the Temkin Group's website, www.TemkinGroup.com.

For more information about Temkin Group, visit www.TemkinGroup.com.

About Temkin Group: Temkin Group is widely recognized as a leading customer experience research and consulting firm. Many of the world's largest brands rely on its insights and advice to steer their transformational journeys. Temkin Group combines customer experience thought leadership with a deep understanding of the dynamics of organizations to help accelerate results. Rather than layering on cosmetic changes, Temkin Group helps companies embed practices within their culture by building four critical competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Employee Engagement, Compelling Brand Values, and Customer Connectedness. The firm's ongoing research identifies leading and emerging best practices across a wide range of activities for engaging the hearts and minds of customers, employees, and partners. Temkin Group also publishes Temkin Ratings (wwwTemkinRatings.com), an annual evaluation of companies based on consumer feedback. For more information, contact Bruce Temkin at 617-916-2075 or send an email.

About Bruce Temkin: Bruce Temkin is widely recognized as a customer experience thought leader and is Customer Experience Transformist and Managing Partner of Temkin Group. He is also the co-founder and Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management. Bruce is also the author of a very popular blog, Customer Experience Matters®. Prior to forming Temkin Group, he was a Vice President at Forrester Research for 12 years where he ran the customer experience, eBusiness, financial services, and B2B sectors and was the most-read analyst for 13 consecutive quarters.

Customer experience matters is a registered trademark of Temkin Group.

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SOURCE Temkin Group