Why CIOs must prioritize CX

Are you one of the 180 million Americans estimated to have an Amazon Prime subscription? Or one of the 57 million who paid for an online news service last year?

These familiar examples underscore the reality of customer experience (CX) in many industries today. Now increasingly delivered through digital channels, CX has been redefined by technology – making it a key part of the modern CIO’s mandate.

The challenge for IT leaders is clear. They must ensure their digital infrastructure is set up to deliver the seamless, intelligent and hyper-personalized experience that customers expect. Otherwise, the impact on the business could be severe.

CX’s commercial impact

According to research by PwC, good CX has a tangible commercial impact and profoundly shapes people’s willingness to spend, stay loyal or switch to a competitor. Consumers are willing to pay a premium of up to 16% more for products or services with better CX. One-third of them will abandon a brand completely after a single negative interaction.

With the growing significance of digital channels and the smart use of data for delivering great CX in today’s world, CIOs have understandably put this high up their priority list.

“Customer experience is the cornerstone of digital transformation,” says Vipin Kalra, an expert in contact center technology with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry. “Successful digital transformation isn’t just about adopting new technology – it’s about elevating customer satisfaction, reducing friction, and making interactions more intuitive.”

For Adobe’s Marie Knight, technology partnerships director, the CX challenge is evolving all the time. “We used to say that companies had to deliver the right message at the right time to their customers. But now there are so many digital channels, we talk about delivering the right message, at the right time, in the right place. And the place bit is becoming tricky.”

Transformative shift

A combination of the explosion in channels and technological tools is “blurring the lines between the CIO and CMO” in customer experience delivery, says Adobe’s Knight. “In the best organizations now, CIOs and CMOs work well together. AI is accelerating and complicating this, because content has to be secure and compliant as well as on-brand.”

In Tata Communications’ work with customers in the US and around the world, “we’ve witnessed this transformative shift in CX up close,” says Raj Purkayastha, the company’s VP Head of Pre Sales and Strategy, Americas.

“Many enterprises have worked hard to break down departmental silos, establish omnichannel offerings, and integrate multiple CX tools and partners into their digital environments,” Purkayastha continues. “That’s enabled them to create customer interactions that are increasingly contextual and trusted at scale.”

But for too many organizations, this kind of positive outcome remains a distant dream – putting their commercial future at risk.

The CX delivery gap

In a study by Harvard Business Review, sponsored by Tata Communications, 94% of business leaders said that consistently delivering positive customer interactions is very important to business success in their industry. But a mere 38% said their organization is very successful at delivering them. It’s a frighteningly large gap between aspirations and reality.

The causes of this giant delivery gap are both cultural and technological. Blamed the most are a lack of team collaboration (cited by 48% of business leaders) and a lack of the right talent (40%). But the challenge of siloed or disorganized customer data (39%) was also important, as was a lack of data analysis capability (39%) and a disparate set of tech tools used across the organization (35%).

The CIO’s opportunity

The Harvard Business Review findings serve to underscore the opportunity for CIOs. Modern software tools, especially AI-powered ones, should boost enterprises’ analytical capabilities substantially. Likewise, bringing multiple tools into a unified real-time platform can drastically enhance the value an organization gets from its piles of data.

“These are precisely the kind of outcomes that Tata Communications’ Interaction Fabric was built to deliver,” highlights Purkayastha. “It helps CIOs with the essential changes they need to make so their digital infrastructure can meet customers’ modern expectations. Organizations can then enable interactions that are omni-channel, contextual and intelligent, providing a seamless experience for customers.”

In all of these areas, CIOs can make the case for digital investments and infrastructure optimizations that tangibly benefit the bottom line. CX is more than just another IT initiative – it’s increasingly the competitive edge that defines market leaders. Driving that agenda forward is an exciting opportunity for CIOs to play a more central role in business success today.

To learn more, visit Tata Communications’ website.