Frank Capek, Senior Vice President and leader of BSG Concours’ Customer Driven Innovation Practice recently wrote about the latest NYSE’s CEO Report, 2008: The Year of the Customer:
A colleague just sent me a link to the NYSE’s CEO Report 2008. This report, based on a survey of 240 CEOs of New York Stock Exchange listed companies, strongly emphasizes the increasing executive attention being focused on delivering an outstanding customer experience.
From the executive summary:
â€The first theme is that this may be a year in which there is renewed vigor around the customer – 2008 may be a year where many CEOs put the customer at the top of the long list of issues on which they must focus. Why? Simply stated - customers are at the core of growth. Here are a few points from this year’s study that are the foundation of this theme:
* CEOs are planning greater investment, both budget and time-wise, on customer relationship management.
* The importance of sales growth as a performance measure has increased since the prior study. Customers are the engine of sales growth.
* Brand, reputation, and investments in corporate social responsibility are more important this year – all efforts that are focused on the winning the hearts and minds of the customer.
* While many CEOs say it is easier to attract customers than it used to be, many, particularly outside the United States, say it is getting harder to retain customers. CEOs recognize that losing customers can be costly.â€Although the research for this report was conducted in early 2007, we’ve observed a growing recognition of the importance of customer experience amongst our senior executive clients over 2007. If anything the story is stronger today than when the survey was completed.
