AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Oct. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Decision intelligence company Gongos, Inc. recently initiated a partnership with GDS to roll out its proprietary Decision Intelligence Customer Experience (DICE) Assessment tool at GDS’ September 2017 CMO Insight Summit in Mexico. The exercise was designed to help executives assess how their organizations perform on 11 key measures related to operationalizing customer centricity.
Fueled by results from each surveyed executive, Gongos delivered an interactive workshop, enabling participants to review peer averages, discuss common pain points, understand near-term opportunities to evolve approaches, and learn how to overcome barriers to adopting customer-centric strategies.
According to Sarah Tarraf, Director of Customer Experience & Analytics for Gongos, results from the data showed notably high agreement among all respondents with respect to the survey’s two foundational statements (a) “the customer perspective is foundational to our growth strategies as an organization.” and (b) “I personally believe bringing in the customer perspective is important to any organization’s strategy.” All respondents rated either a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale, with average scores of 4.8 and 4.9, respectively.
Interestingly, however, executive responses to the 11 statements that measure the company’s performance on key strategies and tactics for operationalizing customer centricity were far lower, with average scores ranging from 2.9 to 3.8.
“This points to a discrepancy in beliefs and behaviors,” said Camille Nicita, president & CEO of Gongos, “It’s not surprising when you consider that a study conducted by Russell Reynold Associates and cited by Forbes in 2016 suggested that only 39% of companies either have one or more senior-level executives leading the charge on customer experience or have a similar ‘customer-first’ mandate.”
“Knowing and acting on customer needs is perhaps the most important competitive advantage an organization can build,” she added. “And while most organizations claim to be customer-centric, few have the checks and balances in place to ensure customer centricity is operationalized as a strategy for growth.”
Results from the DICE Assessment survey also revealed the three top measures that executives were least satisfied with inside their organizations. Specifically, of the 11 statements, their biggest pain points are:
- Satisfaction with return on investment in consumer information (e.g. primary insights, enterprise data, customer experience metrics, trends and syndicated reports.)
- Employee empowerment at all levels to make decisions based on consumer information.
- Complete understanding of who owns customer information streams throughout the organization.
While room for improvement clearly exists to better humanize the customer, it is critical to note that common challenges are largely attributed to organizational barriers, rather than a lack of customer understanding.
Executives’ perceptions of their organizations also showed strong variability across the 11 measures. According to Tarraf, “This tells us that there is no silver bullet that will work across organizations, rather individual consultation with executives is necessary to overcome the challenges facing their organizations.”
“We were thrilled to have Gongos present the opportunity for our attendees at the CMO Insight Summit to not only participate in this exercise, but to attend a hands-on, interactive workshop amongst their peers,” states Amy Darlison-Lee, Head of Product Development at GDS Summits. “The success of our Summits is largely built on the success of our partnerships, and in customizing ways that those partners can add value both to our program and to our attending executives.”
Gongos is currently working on a plan to roll out its DICE Assessment tool more universally to clients and executives across insights, analytics, marketing and strategy leaders at customer-facing organizations. For more information on participating in this survey, email intelligence@gongos.com.
Gongos, Inc. is a decision intelligence company that partners with Global 1000 corporations to help build the capability and competency in making great consumer-minded decisions. Gongos brings a consultative approach in developing growth strategies propelled by the insights, analytics, strategy, and innovation groups for companies such as Mars, Kellogg, Johnson & Johnson, UnitedHealthcare, GM and FCA. For further insight into the Gongos culture, visit gongos.com.
GDS Group is a global events, research and technology services company dedicated to helping clients meet the challenges posed by a fast-moving, disruptive business environment. Its B2B summits and events bring purchaser and provider communities together to find solutions to real-world business challenges.