San Ramon, Calif. – February 23,
2012 – Ventana Research has
released its latest Benchmark Research, “In Pursuit of Excellent Customer
Relationships: Achieving maturity in managing the customer experience,” assessing
the maturity of organizations’ ability to manage customer relationships.
The CRM
field has dramatically changed how organizations manage relationships across
multiple channels, and a whole new field of business processes and technologies
has been developed to help organizations deliver the best customer experience. Thanks
to the Internet, customers have more ways to buy products, more outlets to buy
from, more ways to contact these outlets regarding customer service concerns
and a diverse set of channels to provide comments and opinions about the
products or services.
Ventana Research undertook this benchmark research to acquire
real-world information about how organizations are managing customer
relationships and to determine if they have been maturing in order to adapt to
a new world of challenges in meeting customer expectations. It explored how organizations
are expanding their customer service strategies, processes they use to improve
customer-facing activities, channels of interaction they support, how they are
managing their customer data, and the tools they use to take customer-related
actions and decisions to today’s situations.
The
research shows that while 91 percent of companies identified as
customer-focused or very customer-focused, many organizations are still very lacking
when it comes to CRM. For example, just 19 percent of organizations have
created a cross-functional team to develop their customer service strategy,
despite the fact that today’s customer service is likely to span across several
business units. On the positive side, 64 percent of organizations are using
customer personas and over half are developing customer service processes by
customer segment.
“In
the last fifteen years, CRM has made steps in the right direction, but has not
reached its ultimate goal of managing customer relationships in a satisfactory
manner. The current diversity of interaction channels, along with new methods
for customers to communicate their opinion and experience, places demand on
organizations to invest into customer relationship processes more significantly
than ever before,” said Mark Smith, CEO and Chief Research Officer of Ventana
Research. “This research provides the undeniable facts and education required
for organizations to adopt the best practices and technology to improve its
processes efficiently.”
"Most organizations would agree that their customers are more important than ever," said Richard Snow, Head of Customer and Content Management Research at Ventana Research. "However, at a time when social media and mobility are having a major influence on customer expectations and behavior, this research shows that most companies have a lot of catch-up on if they are going to build successful, long-term customer relationships."
Ventana Research will expand on the key findings of this
benchmark research during a live interactive webinar on Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 10:00am Pacific
Time. To participate in the webinar, or view it
after it has taken place, visit: http://www.ventanaresearch.com/CRMWebinar/
Those interested in learning more about this
benchmark research and the education to help organizations improve can find
additional information at http://www.ventanaresearch.com/CRM11/.
As a part of your registration you will receive
insights and education from Ventana Research on using technology effectively in
business. Ventana Research provides guidance to organizations in business applications
and technology to improve customer relationships through its Ventana OnDemand (http://www.ventanaresearch.com/ondemand) and with its
assessment and educational services offerings. (http://www.ventanaresearch.com/services/).
About Ventana
Research
Ventana Research is
the most authoritative and respected benchmark business technology research and
advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream
and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings
including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education
workshops and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our
unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business
processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our
rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and
technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark
research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of
technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our
clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while
reducing time, cost and risk.
Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage
in the industry; business and IT professionals worldwide are members of our
community and benefit from Ventana Research’s insights, as do highly regarded
media and association partners around the globe. Our views and analyses are
distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook,LinkedIn and Business Week’s Business Exchange.
To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations’ use of
information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory
services, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.
Media: Copies of benchmark research report and interviews are available upon
request.
Media Contact:
Bailey Donoghue
(925) 242-2412
marketing@ventanaresearch.com