It’s all too common for customers to spend hours on the phone with an organization’s support team, being passed from one department to another trying to resolve an issue with a product or service, often with a low chance of success. It’s a frustrating, disconnected customer experience.
While customers might not explicitly voice concern about misalignment between CX and EX, or even recognize it as the source of their dissatisfaction, they will feel the effects of that misalignment:
“Seventy-six percent of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, but 53% say it generally feels like sales, service, and marketing don’t share information.”
– Salesforce’s “ State of the Connected Customer” report, Oct 2020
Silos between departments often develop organically due to organizational structures. But customers don’t care about organizational structures or silos. They care about the value they’re receiving. To customers, it’s all one service and one experience. When an organization or a service is misaligned—whether it’s misalignment between departments or between CX and EX at a foundational level—the customer experience suffers.
Companies cannot afford to deliver inconsistent, lackluster experiences to their customers. The customer experiences that organizations compete with are evolving faster than ever, and companies that fail to keep pace will see increased customer churn.