A seamless, customer-centered, advocacy-building customer experience (CX) is the pursuit of nearly every enterprise, and the organizational leaders championing it are hot on the trail to getting there. The past year has accelerated the need for CX transformation and the operational nimbleness it is founded on, as demand for more digital experiences has increased due to pandemic restrictions. At the same time, the maturing practices of identifying customers, managing data, and providing some level of personalized customer interactions has improved in digital channels, even as the data privacy and identity technology landscape changes year to year.

Companies want to be good at CX, and many think they are. In fact, according to this new research, 86 percent of companies believe that their organizations already understand and meet their most valuable customers’ needs. But consumers aren’t so sure. According to Merkle’s recent Consumer Sentiment report in 2020, only 35 percent of consumers felt like marketing and advertising met their needs. Most companies are proud of what they’ve achieved, but according to customers, they still have a long way to go. Will CX leaders’ overconfidence hinder their ability to move forward properly?

While the CX vision evolves, the ability to execute and operationalize CX initiatives are an ongoing and often elusive pursuit. Companies’ ability to operationalize their efforts, whether that relates to resources, competencies, or a culture of shared vision and measurement, is their most significant hurdle. To measure how companies are progressing, Merkle conducted a survey of more than 800 marketing and technology executives in the US and UK to understand their perceptions. Merkle examined three areas of transformation critical to successful customer experiences: data transformation, digital transformation, and organizational transformation.