Research Delivery: Customer management leaders learn in different ways. They prioritize specific objectives and different times. They possess varying abilities to drive transformation.

Customer Management Practice tailors its content to this reality. Its material, which is derived using the following research approaches, is distributed in big picture executive reports, topic-oriented special reports and pointed research briefings.

Behind the Budget: A universal bottleneck on operational performance, budget has particular relevance for the customer management function. The function, after all, has only just recently escaped the “cost center” stigma. Customer Management Practice’s budgetary research offers a nuanced look at the evolving impact of customer management budgets. Questions we answer:

• Who controls the customer management budget?
• Is it increasing or decreasing over time?
• Do director- and VP-level customer management leaders have personal budgets for solutions?
• How do budgets for certain initiatives (technology, training, etc) compare to others?
• To what extent is “cost reduction” still a priority?

Consumer Preferences: Today’s organizations are fervently looking to understand – and meet – customer demands. Who better to articulate those demands than the customers themselves?

Customer Management Practice goes straight to the source to determine how customers interact, what they demand from businesses, and how they feel about the experiences they receive.

Trend Radar: Staying ahead of the curve requires a firm understanding of the “best practices” worth preserving and the trends worth adopting.

Customer Management Practice investigates the transformation from “great idea” to “operational reality.” It reveals the strategic initiatives organizations deem important, the ideas into which organizations are devoting increased attention, and the existing initiatives that are being abandoned.

Shopping List: Many customer management solutions seem exciting. Some seem important and valuable. Far fewer, however, receive urgent attention from buyers.

Customer Management Practice reveals the solutions that will be investment priorities in the immediate, intermediate and long terms. It also identifies those that, for all their hype, will never receive meaningful attention from customer experience leaders.

State of the Customer Contact Center: The “call center” is evolving – and not simply in name. Its function within the organization is growing, it is spanning multiple sites in some organizations and no physical sites in other organizations, and it is relying on remote work and cloud-based technology to efficiently scale.

Customer Management Practice consistently tracks transformations to the physical contact center. Monitoring focuses include changes in size (defined by agent seats), outsourcing behavior and global expansion.

Industry Preference: Different industries have different goals, face different challenges, and serve different customers. Their customer experience strategies and investments, naturally, differ.

Customer Management Practice segments data by industry to identify specific trends in mindset, behavior and spending.

Priority Planning: Some organizations view customer satisfaction as their top priority. Others are focused on revenue creation. Others still care about growing market share.

Customer Management Practice assesses the impact key objectives have on strategy, investments, mindset, employee engagement and performance measurement.