Customer Experience

CXM Without a CRM? No Problem

CXM technology builds a comprehensive record of a customer's entire customer journey, from beginning to end. 

It serves as an organization's source of truth by drawing in data on interactions from multiple systems that may include CRM, legacy systems, or partner platforms. When data flows freely among the enterprise and its partners, customer support is more robust, and customer satisfaction is higher. 

Forrester reported a drop in customer experience (CX) scores in 2021 in their US 2022 Customer Experience Index. It was the largest drop since they launched the report.

As organizations grapple with financial outcomes that follow unhappy customers and seek quick fixes, they are hit with nearly 2 billion search results on "customer experience." No wonder they are unclear on the best path to effectively address CX.

"Guiding customers along their journey and solving their challenges in the moment, not after the fact, is the most powerful way to build satisfaction and loyalty."

Top Challenges To Fixing Poor CX

Customer experience management (CXM) platforms have emerged to help companies identify problems in their customer journeys. Most use customer feedback surveys after the fact to discover where there is friction and to implement future changes. 

But change is difficult. According to research from CMSWire in its State of Digital Experience 2021 report, a third of organizations surveyed reported some type of significant roadblock to delivering an exceptional customer experience that included technology, collaboration or communication. In other words, even when they know what is wrong with their CX, they don't have the tools to fix it.

Roadblocks to delivering exceptional customer experience chart
Source: CMSWire State of Digital Experience 2021 Report

As we talk with organizations about CX initiatives, several questions always come up:  

  1. "Do we need a CRM to use CXM?"   
  2. "Do we need a CXM if we have a CRM?" 

These questions miss the real point.

CXM technology is important for both types of organizations - those with existing CRM systems and those without one. In organizations today, customer data is spread throughout various internal tools and external partner systems, creating a nightmare around visibility - this includes data in CRMs as well as other technology used to store information. When you can't see customer information from CRMs and other existing systems in one place, how can you effectively track a customer's journey and take quick action to course-correct before customers become frustrated?

Therefore, whether your organization has a CRM to store customer information or uses other tools to house data, CXM technology is still necessary. Plus, CRMs do not accommodate every piece of the customer's information.

Hence, as support teams guide customers through their onboarding and activation journeys, they notoriously rely on toggling between various systems, third-party partners, and communication channels to patchwork a decent experience for the customer. That's where CXM technology comes into play.

CXM Optimizes Customer Journeys by Unlocking Data 

OvationCXM's CXMEngine is the first CXM platform to approach customer experience proactively, leveraging data to optimize customer journeys in the moment, not after the fact. 

It's done by unlocking customer information housed in distributed systems in the organization and across the ecosystem in partner platforms and existing internal tools. By combining all of the data into a single pane of glass, a more detailed customer snapshot emerges to track the customer's journey step-by-step and fast-act, in the moment, to prevent customer problems before they happen.

72% of sellers need to have at least three screens or windows open at once to coordinate a sales process. (Oracle 2020) 

In that same pane of glass, additional functionality empowers support teams to communicate with customers in their preferred channels, view partner communications, and deliver curated knowledge articles for effective sales enablement.

CXMEngine Delivers Positive Business Results 

OvationCXM's CXMEngine customers, both with CRMs and without, have experienced profound business results, including lower churn, higher retention, revenue growth, and higher Net Promoter Scores for customers and employees. When it takes a village to get a customer over the finish line, CXM can help.

Schedule a discovery call and a complimentary customer mapping session.

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