Dive Brief:
- The vast majority — 87% — of executives say integration between customer-facing functions, including marketing, sales and service, should be the path forward, according to a survey released Monday by KPMG. However, only 5% say their company has fully achieved this.
- Three in five customer service leaders say a top benefit of integration is improved customer satisfaction metrics like net promoter scores, according to the survey of 300 executives in marketing, sales and customer service roles.
- Leaders across the three departments said the top benefits of investing in customer-facing team integration were improving the consistency and personalization of CX, enhancing operational efficiency, and increasing revenue growth.
Dive Insight:
Technology is both an enabler for and the top obstruction preventing true integration, according to Scott Lieberman, U.S. customer advisory leader at KPMG US. Leaders who want to understand the forces stalling integration efforts can start by looking at their tech and data systems.
Two in five leaders cited legacy systems that are incompatible with modern data-sharing solutions as one of their primary obstacles to integration, and 30% cited data being stored on separate systems, according to the survey.
Compartmentalized silos are presenting a challenge in terms of organization as well as accessing data: 32% of respondents said organizational structure issues, including silos, were a major challenge, while 28% cited data silos as an obstacle that obstructs a unified view of customer behavior.
Breaking down technological and organizational silos is a challenging task, but creating a holistic strategy that emphasizes processes, people and technology all at once can pay off, according to Lieberman.
“Many organizations need to reimagine how they make end-to-end performance possible, not just realign teams,” Lieberman said in an email.
Leaders who break down their silos can start to create a “Total Experience” that goes beyond reorganizing their teams in pursuit of integration, according to Lieberman. The model calls on businesses to create a unified data and tech backbone that lets marketing, sales, and customer service functions operate as a single system.
Companies have formulated different strategies for knocking down silos.
Indeed made a point of ensuring that each stakeholder looks at relevant data from the same angle. The result was what leaders call a shared vocabulary used across teams, which made collaboration easier.
Verizon broke down silos across its voice of the customer program by creating the Center of Enablement, an operating model that unified listening posts and customer research under one team. Creating the model was an exercise in branding, downplaying politics and bringing all relevant stakeholders on board, according to Verizon executives
