European businesses lose 18% on poor customer experience

Oracle's study reveals that executives in European businesses believe the average potential revenue loss, resulting from not offering a positive, consistent and well branded customer experience, is 18% of revenue. It also finds that, despite the impact on revenue, only 36% of respondents are starting a formal customer experience initiative, with only 20% considering the state of their customer experience initiative advanced. Of those working on initiatives, says Oracle, respondents say they plan to increase spending on related IT by an average of 15% in the next two years, with the key solutions being technology that integrates the customer view across all channels (28%), business and customer analytics (27%), and loyalty management systems (26%). "European businesses are increasingly finding that their customers are more empowered than ever before," comments Danny Rippon, CRM business solutions director at Oracle. "The study shows the majority is aware of this, but not doing enough to bring customer experience up to the standards required by the modern market," he continues. "Organisations should deploy platforms that enable them to communicate with customers across multiple channels using open and integrated technologies." Oracle's report, Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era, surveys 1,342 senior executives from 18 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific and provides a view of the financial impact of not keeping pace with customer expectations. It also analyses the challenges that businesses face in delivering good customer experiences, the types of programs that are most effective and priority investment areas.