CEM2023: Telcos and Insurance Companies Celebrate in the International Customer Experience Management Benchmark

Based on CEM Benchmark, the international study of the current state of customer experience management, hotel chain Sokos Hotels is this year’s leading organisation investing in customer experiences. The number one in the previous study, telecom and digital service provider Elisa finishes second, and insurance company Fennia third. Telecom operator DNA and online retailer Verkkokauppa.com shared fourth place.

In the international study by CXPA Finland, the Finnish local networking community of the Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA), the other organisations reaching the top ten are telecom operator DNA, which shared fourth place with Finland’s most popular online retailer Verkkokauppa.com, employment pension company Elo (6th), insurance company Pohjola Vakuutus (7th), and four companies sharing eighth place: energy company Fortum, Norwegian non-life insurance company Gjensidige, the Port of Helsinki and Vaisala, a specialist in weather, environmental and industrial measurement solutions.

The average Shirute CEM index score is slightly lower internationally (51) than in Finnish organisations (52). As many Finnish respondents as international respondents – about six out of ten – say they intend to invest more in CX development projects in the next 12 months.

The CEM 2023 Benchmark report announced today by CXPA Finland and the Finnish customer experience design agency Shirute has been running in Finland for ten years, and an international comparison has been made for a couple of years. Again this year, respondents from all over the world took part in the survey: from the Nordic countries and the Baltics to Central Europe and Korea, and from the United States and the Caribbean to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The level of maturity in customer experience management has decreased due to resource pressure

A quarter (25%) of the organisations that responded to the survey reached the second highest (Executive) level in the overall score this year. The second lowest (Apprentice) level is reached by half (50%) of the respondents. As many as 22% of the respondents remain at the lowest (Survivor) level. Even though two organisations reached the highest (Visionary) level, this means that there is still room for improvement.

The results show that the level of maturity of customer experience management has decreased slightly from previous reports, when viewed internationally. On average, the index number of the respondent organisations is now 51 in the international comparison and 52 at the Finnish level (scale 0-100).

“It has been typical for the overall index to change slowly. The results are characterised by a kind of ‘waiting buzz’. A lot of activities are going on, but it remains to be seen to what extent visible development can be achieved. However, the budget is no longer the number one problem. CX leaders and developers need the management’s support and vision – the customer must be brought back to the management’s agenda. Hopefully, organisations will be able to hire more CX professionals again soon, so that we get back on track with the good development that was going on before Covid hit, and organisations are able to offer meaningful encounters to their customers and employees”, hopes Sirte Pihlaja, head of team at CXPA Finland and CEO of Shirute, which carried out the survey.

Overall, 86% of organisations aim to differentiate themselves from other competitors by developing customer experiences, but only 15% aim to be pioneers across industries. Some 65% of the respondents feel that the activities related to customer experience management have had a positive effect on the company’s results during the past year.

Almost six out of ten of all respondent organisations (55%) see primarily other goals competing for resources, and four out of ten the lack of a CX strategy (40%) and budget (35%) as the main challenges to the development of customer experience management. In particular, the proportion of those mentioning other competing goals has increased significantly, as in the previous survey 40% stated them as an issue.

CX teams have increased development activities, but are still working with more limited resources than before

Customer experience management has been raised to the strategy level in the overwhelming majority (92%) of the respondent organisations, but it is seen as a strategic main goal only in 58% of the organisations anymore.

Jaana Matikainen, concept and development director of SOK travel chain management of the hotel chain Sokos Hotels, which was number one in the international results and returned to the top in Finland, emphasizes the importance of customer experience amid change:

“Thank you very much for this fine recognition! It warms our hearts especially in these times. The operating environment has been exceptionally volatile in the entire travel and hospitality industry in recent years. Fluctuations in demand, cost structure and workforce have kept us on our toes and in a constant state of change. I am grateful to the entire Sokos Hotels family for their unwavering work towards common important issues. Making our guests happy has remained a matter of the heart and at the core of our value base even during this time.”

“I am happy that we have been able to develop and enrich the customer experiences we deliver even more. Among other things, our constantly renewed hotels, concepts, and digital services have received a great reception. For this, a big thank you to our guests as well! Thanks to their feedback and strong participation, the work continues,” asserts Matikainen.

The results show that more than seven out of ten organisations (74%) have a lot of CX development projects underway. At the Finnish level, the corresponding figure has grown to 77%. It seems that the level of activity has increased since the previous survey also internationally.

“As we estimated in connection with the latest report, the activities related to CX projects have increased and soon development work will hopefully be done at the previously accustomed level. However, there are fewer resources than before, and respondents see other competing goals as the most important challenge to progress. Many are now also calling for a missing CX strategy, when it would be critical to know where the available resources should be invested,” Pihlaja says.

“Management should take this situation seriously, absorb information and increase its customer understanding, so that it can make good strategic decisions to enable sustainable growth in the long term. Every member of the management team and in a board of directors role should be actively involved in planning how new technologies – e.g. Artificial Intelligence that has taken over our consciousness and everyday life like a tidal wave – can be utilised in the development of customer and employee experiences so that IT does not become an end in itself, but genuinely benefits the different parties involved.”

“At Elisa, we emphasise continuously improving customer perceived value, and this is one of our most important strategic goals. We actively listen to our customers’ voices in all our encounters with them, whether that’s face to face or through digital channels. We analyse a comprehensive amount of feedback, including by utilising AI, so that we can predict our customers’ hopes and expectations, allowing us to become ever more customer oriented in our operations. Creating excellent customer experiences is a matter of honour for all Elisians”, comments Noora Lainio, VP for Customer Experience and Growth at telecom and digital service provider Elisa’s Corporate Business.

Even a good half of the respondent organisations (63%) now have their own budget for customer experience management reserved or under consideration, according to the international benchmark results. In Finland, the corresponding figure is 61%. Almost half (53%) of the respondents have their own budget, which corresponds to the level before the corona years.

The most common number of full-time CX developers that companies have is between 1 to 2, currently this is the case in almost a third (29%) of organisations. Similarly to the previous report, 18% of organisations have teams of 3-5 employees. There are CX managers appointed for developing customer experiences in 69% of the respondent organisations. In Finland, a CX leader in charge can be found in 65% of the respondent organisations.

CX leaders want to develop customer-centricity in their organisations, and operations are managed with the help of customer intelligence

This year, like before the corona virus, many projects are underway again, and investments in development work are continuing.

Six out of ten respondent organisations (61%) intend to invest more in developing their customer experience management, and a good fifth (22%) intend to invest significantly more in it than before. In Finland, just as many believe in the growth of investments. The most important areas for development in terms of customer touchpoints are digital channels and multi-channel. Social media development related aspirations come only a long way behind.

“A warm thank you for the great recognition! Our strategic goal is to develop our business with “customer value first” -based thinking. We invest in the comprehensive development of customer experiences in both the short and long term. For us as a mutual operator, it is of the utmost importance to consider our customers, who own us. We just launched a new annual discount for our customers at the beginning of the year – we want to thank especially our long-term customers with this for their loyalty”, says Director marketing and customer experience Heidi Nurminen at insurance company Fennia, who placed third in the total points.

“We are currently building our future services to be even smoother and invest in designing both our products and services to be more customer-oriented. We are also strongly developing our ability to listen to the voice of our customers and measuring their customer experiences, so that we can produce versatile data to support our business decision-making. Our goal is to make the customer’s experience even smoother, easier to understand and more empathetic”, Nurminen promises.

Based on the results, many customer experience developers intend to continue investing in human-centered development activities. When asked about their planned top activities, the respondents mention the promotion of a customer-oriented corporate culture, as well as employee communication and employee engagement. The number one activity in this study, however, revolves around data. During the next 12 months, 74% of the respondents intend to develop the Analysis and monitoring of customer data, just like Fennia is planning. The next most popular development activities are Customer-focused corporate culture (70%) and Employee communication and employee engagement (67%). Almost as many (66%) plan to develop the Measurement and monitoring of customer experiences.

“Management based on customer information is the order of the day. We are living in challenging and at the same time very interesting times, when customer experience people must also be able to validate the results of their work with financial measures. Therefore, the value of data continues to grow. We are already able to utilise the customer understanding gained from listening to customers with modern tools, for example in sales forecasting and building risk and potential forecast models. CX metrics play an important role in various projections. In the best case, we will be able to understand the customers better and plan operations based on verifiable facts”, explains Pihlaja.

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With the help of this study, the current state of customer experience management (CEM, Customer Experience Management) was mapped in Finland and around the world. 

The participating organisations were evaluated against the Shirute Customer Experience Management Index™ to understand the level of CEM maturity. This index measures, e.g. how systematic and goal-oriented the activities are, how well the respondents are organising themselves, how much they co-ordinate their various CX development projects, how customer experiences are measured, and how much they invest or plan to invest in customer experience management.

It is important to notice that the index evaluates only how systematic the intentions of the participants are, as reported by themselves. It does not take a stand as to the content of the customer experiences, nor their quality from the point of view of customers, i.e. the results of the CEM activities. This aspect can be measured with other indexes that are based on exercises such as focus group interviews, customer journey mapping or audits in various CEM competency areas.

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The data was gathered through an online form and phone interviews in May-December.

The target group consisted of top 500 companies, public administration and the most famous brands in Finland and around the world. Altogether, 119 CX professionals from 103 organisations from over 30 different industries participated. Three out of ten (29%) of these organisations average a turnover of more than 100 million euros, and about almost a half (44%) over 20 million. A good third of them (35%) have over 1 000 employees.

The CEM 2023 Benchmark is the most comprehensive study evaluating the CEM capabilities and competences of international and Finnish organisations. CXPA Finland and Shirute have been studying the current state of CEM in Finland since 2013. The study was originally based on research by Temkin Group. This year, it was conducted internationally, and for the10th time on the Finnish level.

The study has been conducted for the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) Finnish local network by the customer experience agency Shirute (www.shirute.fi). CXPA Finland and Shirute are also partnering with Surveypal, CX Magazine, CX Network ja Women in CX.

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CXPA Finland (CXPA.fi) is the local network of the international, non-profit Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org) network in Finland. We operate as a community of customer experience management professionals. Our goal is to get companies to offer even better customer experiences and increase their success. We regularly organize exciting events and business cooperation related to the theme. Our activities are based on volunteer work and corporate donations. 

The Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org) is an international, non-profit umbrella organization for anyone interested in managing and developing customer experiences. There are currently more than 4,000 members in 80 countries, most of them in the United States and the United Kingdom. The founders of CXPA are Bruce Temkin, former head of Forrester’s Customer Experience, and Jeanne Bliss, a veteran customer experience management consultant. Activities at the local level are the responsibility of active members of the CXPA.

Shirute (shirute.fi) is Finland’s first design agency focusing on customer experience management. Customer Experience Path® is a registered trademark of Shirute. We are a founding member of the international CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association).