CIO Monitor from adesso: Customer experience management is still not addressed by many IT managers

Many IT departments still do not work on customer experience management. That is the conclusion of a survey conducted by adesso. It is clear that many companies do not include their IT team when addressing the topic. That could become a problem.

Experts agree that in the “age of the customer”, companies will struggle without customer experience management. In the scope of its CIO Monitor, adesso investigated the extent to which IT departments are engaged with the topic. The IT service provider asked CIOs and IT managers about the state of customer experience management (CEM), their plans and the greatest obstacles.

Implementation of CEM in companies

The results were sobering: Just 38% of those surveyed said they had considered the topic at all. That means two thirds of those questioned didn’t even have it on their radar. Considering the paramount importance of the customer experience management, that is an astounding result.

One explanation is that many specialist departments implement CEM without involving their in-house IT experts. Increasing IT competency in the field of marketing and the user-friendliness, easy procurement and straightforward operation of cloud-based stand-alone solutions make that approach possible. But, in the long term, it can lead to problems. Only a centralised, consistent IT concept guarantees a holistic approach to customers – a prerequisite for successful customer experience management.

IT managers that do work on CEM see the lack of a digital and agile mindset as the greatest obstacle by far (72%). Accordingly, the adaptation of organisational structures and employee training (each 48%) currently represent their areas of focus when it comes to CEM. The good news: Many of them expect increased investment. Almost half of that group (44%) expect their IT budget for customer experience management to increase over the next few months. Only a small proportion (4%) fear that their budget will decrease.

Prioritization of CEM topics

“We have to assume that many companies are working on CEM without involving their IT department,” says Michael Kenfenheuer, CEO of adesso AG. “That means things are moving in the wrong direction, because a consistent customer experience requires IT competence. IT managers and their departments have to position themselves as the first point of contact for specialist departments. A company can only optimise its CEM activities if its IT experts intercept as many initiatives as possible and combine them in the form of a consistent IT concept,” he adds.

Michael Kenfenheuer, CEO adesso AG

Hurdles in the introduction of CEM

The CIO Monitor was based on an online survey of 65 selected CIOs and IT executives conducted by IMB Institut für Marketingberatung on behalf of adesso.