As more signs point to strengthening economic activity in the US and selected regions of other parts of the world, corporate austerity is fading and growth is back in the spotlight.  Acquiring customers, improving the customer experience, and growing revenues have returned to center stage.  

Forrester asked more than 2,000 global business decision-makers at large organizations what their “critical” and “high” priorities are for the next 12 months. We found that:

  • Their top priority is acquiring and retaining customers (73%).
  • Tied for the top spot is growing overall company revenue (73%).  
  • The third most important priority is addressing the rising expectations of customers and improving customer satisfaction (68%).
  • Lowering operating costs now only takes sixth place on the priority list (63%).

It is evident from these data that effectively managing customer relationships has become the top priority for business success.

Better customer experiences drive improvement for three types of loyalty: willingness to consider another purchase, likelihood to switch business to a competitor, and likelihood to recommend to a friend or colleague. Our models estimate that the revenue impact from a 10-percentage-point improvement in a company’s performance, as measured by Forrester's Customer Experience Index (CXi) score, could exceed $1 billion.

Customers increasingly expect experiences that are unified and cross-channel, personalized, and contextualized. What steps can you take to compete more effectively in this time of rising customer power, digital disruption, and the need to become more nimble and agile to capture market opportunities?

Forrester’s CRM playbook is a practical guide to help you discover opportunities, plan for success, take action, and optimize your customer relationships.

  • Act: With your planning in place, it’s now time to implement the organizational structures and governance practices. It’s also time to evaluate and choose the best technology platforms to turbocharge your customer interaction processes.
  •  Optimize: To continually improve, the optimize phase of the playbook will help you manage your performance, develop meaningful metrics, benchmark your performance, and communicate with and train stakeholders.