81% of companies with strong capabilities for delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their competition. 

Do you have a robust strategy for customer experience differentiation?  Only 11% of companies call their customer experience management (CEM) approach “very disciplined”. While 80% want to use customer experience as a form of differentiation in 2010, their #1 obstacle is lack of strategy.

In 2009, companies' most improved CEM competency was: employees understand our brand attributes.
4 missing CEM competencies with recommended solutions are addressed in Employee Engagement in Superior Customer Experience. 

1) Share a vivid customer image company-wide:
     *Explore the customer's world thoroughly
     *Instill voracious curiosity
     *Remind: paychecks are from customers

2) Make customer-focused decisions a habit:
     *Imagine customers are omni-present
     *Strive for customer-centricity affirmation
     *Align intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

3) Monitor quality of interactions with customers:
     *Embrace constructive feedback
     *Anticipate customer experiences
     *Be transparent with employees and customers

4) Recognize customer experience improvements:
     *Be aware of prevalent invisible rewards
     *Reward behaviors -- not just results
     *Let employees toot their own horn

Invest to win. Companies that have increased their customer experience investment in the past 3 years report satisfaction scores that are 60% higher than those that reduced investment.