Latest news with #TheLeader'sGuidetoCXTrends
Forbes
23-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Address ‘Monumental' Tech Debt The Right Way: With CX Front And Center
Customer Experience Software This year, companies across the world are working to tackle a problem that has been eating up a big chunk of operating costs and lowering profits every year: technical debt. It's about time. The heavy debt has weighed down organizations far more than many realize. The global consulting firm Protiviti reports that technical debt is a 'critical burden' in the business landscape. 'On average, an organization invests more than 30% of its IT budget and more than 20% of its overall resources to manage and address technical debt,' the company wrote in a study. 'Further, nearly seven out of 10 organizations believe technical debt has a high level of impact on their ability to innovate. Our team surveyed more than 1,000 business leaders for The Leader's Guide to CX Trends in 2025. We found that in 2025, 'more companies will work to reduce the amount of tools and technical debt they've accumulated over the years, simplifying their vendor landscape and optimizing total cost of ownership.' While reducing technical debt is crucial, so is doing it the right way. Changes must be designed to improve and expedite the customer experience (CX). Otherwise, they're unlikely to have the desired effect. As Protoviti put it, 'Focus on the experiences of users and consumers (both positive and negative) to drive interaction through a modern, innovative operating model. Decisions based on insightful customer and user analytics are more likely to achieve business success.' While different organizations use slightly different definitions, 'technical debt' generally refers to the losses that businesses experience when they go for quick technological solutions that have long-term downsides. As three authors (Neil Ernst, Rick Kazman and Julien Delange) of a book on the subject put it, 'Technical debt in software is incurred when developers take shortcuts and make ill-advised technical decisions in the initial phases of a project, only to be confronted with the need for costly and labor-intensive workarounds later.' Given the speed with which new tools have been coming to the market, it's no surprise that businesses have accrued more of this debt. Each new tool promises to make business better and save money quickly. But 'today's cost savings might add to your technical debt later, especially if you mainly use multiple tools in your support ecosystem,' our team at Nextiva has explained. Often, additional tools require 'extensive resources to manage, connect (via APIs), or sync with other applications in your tech stack.' Businesses are better off with a unified solution that includes support, allowing them to build the best possible customer experiences across a range of channels. Case in Point: New York State For a powerful example of erasing tech debt while vastly improving the customer experience, look at an achievement of the New York State Office of General Services. 'The challenge was immense, with hundreds of websites and thousands of applications contributing to what was described as 'monumental tech debt,'' the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University explains. The team transformed the state's digital ecosystem not only by reducing this debt, but by following an approach in which technology is 'just one piece of the larger puzzle, where the true challenge lies in empowering agencies to take ownership of the customer experience (CX).' The office also created the role of chief CX officer, reflecting this commitment. The woman who holds this position, Tonya Webster, 'champions a customer-centric organizational culture, ensuring that every initiative prioritizes meaningful outcomes for the public,' the Beeck Center wrote. Excellent customer service experiences have become a cornerstone of successful business. And while short-term steps have long been enticing, organizations large and small are now seeing the price they pay. The good news is that there does not have to be any conflict between improving CX and adopting technology that will avoid long-term tech debt. Today, single platforms can provide a wide range of tools that seamlessly work together. When designed well, these platforms can also evolve as new and more advanced technologies become available. This kind of flexibility is particularly essential in the age of AI. The revolution underway is coming at such a rapid pace that businesses can't know what's in store. If they choose solutions that are designed to function with minimal or no friction and the ability to adapt rapidly, they'll be empowered to stay on the cutting edge -- and their customers will feel the difference.
Forbes
17-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
With Businesses Experiencing A ‘Major Shift,' It's All Hands On Deck For CX
In 2025, businesses need to transform how they look at the customer experience. It's no longer a function of a dedicated department focused on CX. Now, it's the domain of virtually all functions. Organizations that understand this, and strategize accordingly, are far better positioned to beat the competition. This is one of many key findings in a new study, The Leader's Guide to CX Trends in 2025, from my company, Nextiva. In partnership with Dimensional Research, we went looking for the biggest CX trends of 2025, surveying more than 1,000 decision makers responsible for CX, strategy or operations. Their responses show how much the landscape has changed, and where businesses have work to do. After years of being relatively sidelined, the customer experience has become a dominant -- often the dominant -- force in business success. Virtually everyone we surveyed (96%) said their company leadership now believes CX is a key driver of business outcomes. 'In fact, more survey respondents named CX as an important driver of business results than they did operational efficiency or even product quality,' the report explains. 'It's a major shift from years past, as reflected by two-thirds of CX leaders reporting that it's easier now to get approval for CX investments than it was five years ago.' While businesses are ready to invest, they also need to be careful about which investments they make. With so many businesses now jumping on the bandwagon, differentiation comes from addressing the most important needs. For example, organizations may be tempted to focus on hiring more staff in a customer experience division. While this may be part of the answer, it isn't enough. That's because now, a wide range of departments and functions have a dramatic effect on whether CX efforts succeed. 'Today, multiple customer-facing and back office teams play a role in the customer journey, influencing the way users behave in-app, make buying decisions, and receive support,' the survey finds. Respondents 'called out sales, product, digital, marketing, and a handful of other teams as part of delivering a great customer experience.' When asked which functions deliver a great customer experience, nearly three quarters of respondents included traditionally 'back office' teams. More than four in ten cited product development and management. Nearly a third pointed to operations. Eighteen percent said they think of business operations such as legal, finance, and HR. More than a quarter of people surveyed named five or more different teams as part of delivering CX. Many business leaders understand intuitively that people across the company impact what the customer experience is like. But that doesn't mean their organizations are doing enough to get all these departments involved in CX efforts. The overwhelming majority (85%) of people we surveyed said their organizations need more shared responsibility for the customer experience. This new paradigm has practical implications. When people in a wide array of functions are aware of CX as a priority, they're more likely to develop ideas and solutions that help improve it. Unifying communications to improve CX The involvement of so many people across functions makes it more necessary than ever for everyone to share information instantly. People need access to the latest details of customer journeys, requests, pain points, efforts to resolve problems, and more. So a unified customer experience management platform that brings together data from across all different channels must be a staple. It should also be powered by AI, helping everyone glean insights instantly. Numerous studies have explored how valuable a unified communications strategy can be on the customer experience. A new study, published in the Journal of Systems and Information Technology, looked into the success of a chatbot tool embedded in a unified communications framework. Researcher Fernando Almeida found that this model improves completion rates. She also found that when digital marketing organizations use unified chatbots, they improve 'the quality of customer interaction, message personalization and continuous learning throughout the process.' This is just one of myriad ways that integrating communications helps companies improve CX. In deciding which steps your organization should take, 'Take a close look at your data and start with use cases that will produce the most value for your company rather than follow any single trend,' our survey recommends. This could prove to be businesses' biggest opportunity this year. Customers are up for grabs, ready to leave a brand over one bad experience. Businesses that empower their entire workforce to be a part of improving CX in practical ways will have the upper hand.
