Merkle Report Highlights Importance of Customer-First Cultures

Merkle, dentsu's leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company, today released the second instalment of its 2024 Customer Experience Imperatives Report research series, titled Winning in Today’s Experience Economy: What CX Leaders Do Differently. The findings explore the attitudes and priorities of 820 global business leaders across eight industries through the lens of customer centricity.

"With the second instalment of this year’s Imperatives series, we wanted to explore the characteristics of CX leadership that seem to hold true across regions and industries,” said Pete Stein, global president of Merkle. “Success in customer centricity requires effort and excellence across a range of related disciplines, including strategy, data management, and technology-powered innovation.”

The research explores four common attributes of CX leadership, across industry verticals and geographies:

1. Leading CX organisations have codified CX strategies and customer-first cultures.

2. CX leaders’ investments are more focused on customer feedback than competitor activity.

3. Leading CX organisations have well integrated technology. 

4. CX leaders implement AI-driven CX solutions at a much faster rate than other groups.

This report also reveals which global regions and industries are most likely to embody these attributes. 

"I hope this report helps CX-minded business leaders understand where they are in their journeys and where they may need additional focus to achieve their vision,” Pete adds. “We’ve seen over and over that small tweaks to strategy and internal alignment can help put laggards on the path to becoming leaders.” 

Merkle has released its CX Imperatives report for the past 12 years, and this is the first year its forward-looking, agenda-setting publication is supported by comprehensive research across both global consumer and CX practitioner populations. The survey, conducted in late 2023, included 2,100 consumers and 820 business leaders across 18 countries. 

Visit here to download the report, Winning in Today’s Experience Economy: What CX Leaders Do Differently.