Business decision makers will pay up to 30 percent premium for improved customer experiences, according to an Avanade's survey.
Conducted in October 2013 by Wakefield Research, the survey indicates that organizations have begun to change processes and globally 44 percent of businesses have increased customer sales and support technologies.
40 percent of global businesses have increased the number of employees interacting with customers and 32 percent have automated their sales process.
Avanade’s global survey attempts to find the changing sales process and buying patterns of business and IT decision-makers. Findings clearly show that an enterprise decision-maker prioritizes customer experience as compared to price.
61 percent of global business decision-makers said that when they are making a purchasing decision they give more importance to feedback from business partners, industry peers or social channels as compared to conversations with a company's sales teams.
Having recognized the importance of managing the customer experience, companies are hiring professionals and creating departments to manage the customer experience.
While three years ago delivering customer experience was the major responsibility of call centers and customer support department, this area is now attracting attention of IT and marketing groups in an organization.
“Sales can no longer be clearly defined as B2B or B2C; it is now business-to-everyone,” said Dean Olmstead, Avanade corporate vice president, Canada Operating Unit.
70 percent of global respondents expect technology to replace human interaction with customers in the next ten years; and over 80 percent of companies have changed at least one business process in the past three years to improve interaction with customers.
Businesses that have invested in technology to support better customer service are seeing an increase in customer loyalty (61 percent) and revenues (60 percent).
Avanade was in news earlier this year when it signed a global distribution agreement with TVH Consulting, an ERP solutions expert in the multichannel distribution space.