Kate Leggett

VP, Principal Analyst Serving Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Read Kate's blog posts

Kate serves Application Development & Delivery Professionals. She is a leading expert on customer relationship management (CRM) and customer service strategies, maturity, benchmarking, governance, and ROI. She is an accomplished public speaker and frequently presents at industry events such as CRM Evolution. She has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine, and industry publications such as CRM Magazine, KM World, and Destination CRM.

Previous Work Experience

Kate has extensive industry experience, with more than 10 years of leadership at CRM and customer service software companies, where she held senior product marketing and product management roles. She is also a published author on customer service trends and best practices.

Education

Kate earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto and a Master of Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Print Bio

Kate Leggett

VP, Principal Analyst Serving Application Development & Delivery Professionals

Read Kate's blog posts

Previous Work Experience

Education

Kate earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto and a Master of Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Research Coverage

Kate Leggett's Research

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For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: CRM Success Hinges On Effective Change Management

Continuous Improvement: The CRM Playbook

March 23, 2018 John Bruno, Kate Leggett

There's too much at stake for your CRM initiative to fail. CRM success depends on adoption, and failure results in underutilized investment and unmet business objectives that can put your revenue and profitability at stake. Driving adoption needs to be a top priority of any application development and delivery (AD&D) pro's CRM initiative, and getting there requires skills and resources to drive effective change management. This report defines the change management tactics that will make your project a success. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Win Funding For Your Customer Service Project

Business Case: The Contact Centers For Customer Service Playbook

March 19, 2018 Ian Jacobs, Kate Leggett

In the age of the customer, customer service must be a cornerstone of a company's customer experience (CX) strategy. Customer service application pros must invest in modernizing their technology. Doing so requires a sound business case. This report, part of Forrester's contact centers for customer service playbook, addresses the four questions every business case must answer: What are the business benefits? What is the impact on project costs? How will future initiatives benefit from this project? And how will we mitigate risks? This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy. For this version, we've added new data and examples.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Define Your CRM Plan

Strategic Plan: The CRM Playbook

March 6, 2018Kate Leggett, John Bruno

To avoid wasting time and effort on ill-conceived CRM initiatives, organizations should keep a laser focus on creating business value. Sound planning for CRM requires application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals to do three things: 1) Put delivering a differentiated customer experience at the heart of the plan; 2) use quicker planning cycles and Agile processes; and 3) make increased collaboration between the business and the technology organization mandatory. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and revises it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Better Governance Leads To Better Customer Service — Yes, Really!

Processes: The Contact Centers For Customer Service Playbook

March 2, 2018 Ian Jacobs, Kate Leggett

Companies struggle to deliver reproducible, effective, and personalized customer service that's in line with customers' expectations and companies' cost constraints. Siloed governance processes are a consistent root cause of poor customer service, and application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals have an opportunity to help unify these processes across business units, channels, and technology applications. This report provides a framework for transforming your firm's customer service governance program to optimize your customer service delivery. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and revises it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy. We've updated this edition to factor in new data and customer examples.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Benchmark Against Best Practices To Optimize CRM Performance

Benchmarks: The CRM Playbook

March 2, 2018Kate Leggett, John Bruno

To succeed in the age of the customer, application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals who support CRM cannot afford failed technology initiatives. We surveyed 221 business and tech organization leaders about the critical business process, people management, strategy, and technology practices that underpin a successful project. This report provides benchmark data from that survey to help you define and manage the risks associated with a CRM project and discover how your organization compares with others. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.

For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Trends 2016: The Future Of Customer Service

January 5, 2016Kate Leggett

In the age of the customer, executives don't decide how customer-centric their companies are — customers do. Changing customer expectations for easy and effective service that is deeply personal are shaping customer service technology priorities. This report summarizes the top 10 customer service trends for 2016 that application development and delivery (AD&D) pros supporting customer service operations must pay attention to in order to deliver customer service excellence. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Transform Customer Processes And Systems To Improve Experiences

Executive Overview: The CRM Playbook

February 16, 2018Kate Leggett

The age of the customer means that a focus on the customer now matters more than any other strategic imperative. Forrester's CRM playbook outlines four steps that application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals should follow to transform customer-facing business processes to deliver differentiated customer experiences: 1) discover the value of CRM; 2) plan the right strategy; 3) act to execute the strategy with precision; and 4) optimize your results. This report is an update to a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Transform The Contact Center For Customer Service Excellence

Executive Overview: The Contact Centers For Customer Service Playbook

February 23, 2018Kate Leggett

Customer service is at a tipping point. Customers contact enterprises more often and in more channels; they shift between channels seamlessly and even use multiple channels simultaneously. Enterprises react by adding headcount, but that's not sustainable. They must transform operations by developing strength in automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and knowledge. Forrester's contact centers for customer service playbook provides steps for application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals to innovate and manage customer service operations. This is an update to a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Assess CRM Capabilities To Pinpoint Opportunities

Assessment: The CRM Playbook

September 12, 2017Kate Leggett

This report helps application development and delivery (AD&D) pros who are looking to implement customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and solutions. The effects of automation and mobility are challenging how organizations manage their customer interactions. Use Forrester's framework for CRM to understand how your organization compares to more than 150 best practices and identify where you can achieve quick wins. Apply the framework and the self-assessment tool to improve your CRM initiative or to start new projects. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Choose The Right CRM Solutions For Your Organization

Tools And Technology: The CRM Playbook

September 15, 2017 John Bruno, Kate Leggett

The CRM technology landscape is changing with the commoditization of core features, the rise of point solutions, the shift to software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, and the need to provide industry-specific capabilities. Vendor consolidation further complicates the marketplace. This report describes best practices that application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals should follow for selecting the best-fit solutions and provides an overview of top solution offerings to support your CRM strategy. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.