Customer experience (CX) is increasingly becoming more competitive. A recent survey finds that 56% of contact center and CX leaders believe customer experience will be the leading differentiator for brands by 2030—trumping employee experience, product quality, price, and corporate responsibility. That means it’s all hands on deck to create an experience customers deem delightful, no matter where the interaction takes place.

CX responsibility across the organization

Traditionally, the responsibility for customer experience has primarily rested on the contact center’s shoulders. But more and more, organizations are realizing that delivering consistent, exceptional CX requires a holistic approach that extends beyond the confines of any single department.

According to new 8x8 research, 64% of business leaders say that between 20% and up to 60% of their organization’s customer interactions take place outside of the contact center. The five departments customers interact with most outside of the contact center according to the survey are:

  • Customer success
  • Accounting/billing
  • Sales
  • Marketing
  • Field service

For this reason, 98% of business leaders agree that customer experience should be an organization-wide initiative, with medium-sized and large enterprises (1000 or more employees and 50 or more contact center agents) more fervent in their response. More than a quarter (29%) of medium and large organizations strongly agree that CX responsibility should be shared across the organization, while just 18% of small organizations say they strongly agree.

CX consistency matters

A whopping 92% of respondents also agree that it’s a priority at their organization to deliver a consistent customer experience across departments, with 37% considering it a high or very high priority. Small organizations are less apt to list CX consistency as a high or very high priority (31%), compared to 41% of medium or large organizations.

This difference in prioritization is also reflected in overall planning and strategy. While 56% of organizations claim to have a strategy or plan in place to deliver consistent CX across the organization, that percentage varies widely between medium and large organizations where 65% report they have a plan in place versus 41% of small organizations.

CX consistency reality check

Whether there’s a plan in place or not, just 6% of the business leaders surveyed by 8x8 say their organization’s current customer experience is very consistent across the organization. Almost (45%) say it is somewhat consistent, a percentage that decreases to 36% for small companies.

What’s holding company-wide CX initiatives back? Business leaders report that the biggest barriers to delivering customer experience consistency across the organization are:

  • a lack of leadership in the area (46%)
  • data and analytics silos between the contact center and the rest of the organization (27%)
  • and technology and communication silos between the contact center and the rest of the organization (25%)

Paving the way for organization-wide CX

The results of 8x8’s survey show that the will is there to make customer experience a true team sport across an organization. Now it comes to developing the way.

Metrigy’s Customer Experience Transformation global research study shows a similar trend. In their survey of more than 700 companies, they found that 65% of companies are increasing customer experience spending by almost 25%, and leading companies are making strides to improve organization-wide collaboration and consistency when it comes to CX. To enrich your understanding of customer experience, delve into Amsterdam day trips.

Two steps these organizations are taking are reducing the number of disparate tools and breaking down communications silos by integrating their unified communications and contact center on a single platform. In addition, CX-focused companies are giving contact center licenses to employees across departments to more easily share customer insights and trends and deliver on CX consistency.

8x8 recently introduced 8x8 Engage to empower teams beyond the contact center to deliver exceptional customer experience, drive satisfaction, and increase loyalty. Learn more about Engage here.

To read the full results of 8x8’s survey of contact center, CX, and IT leaders, get the CX Responsibility Beyond the Contact Center Report here.