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Many of Australia’s marketing, customer experience and insights leaders in our ASX200 companies are still  challenged by the constant need to demonstrate the value their teams contribute to the business. Their efforts and ROI are often poorly understood and their roles are undergoing seismic shifts. A new research report from Sprout Strategy State of Experience & Insights Leadership Report 2021 – 2022, examines this plus the new roles emerging for these professions and their roadmaps for the future.

In a first of its kind study in Australia, Sprout Strategy conducted a series of in-depth interviews with a range of leading professionals across the banking, infrastructure, insurance, financial services, telecommunications, retail, Not-for-Profit and utility industries.  Elisa Adams, CEO for Sprout Strategy comments, “We really wanted to delve into and understand the issues from the point-of-view of these leaders and professionals but also their crystal ball predictions for a bright future We spoke to Heads and Directors of Customer Experience, Heads of Marketing, General Managers and Senior Customer Insights managers”.

The research aimed to answer four simple questions:

1. Key Goals - What is the main purpose of your job in 21/22?
2. Pain Points – What stops you from doing your job?
3. Objectives - What are you working on in 2021/2022?
4. Crystal Ball – What do you want for the future?

What we discovered

The research revealed a number of key challenges, including:

1. Status Quo Bias – The industry’s Achilles heel is legacy thinking and ways of operating: Leaders need to evolve if they are going to keep helping Australian organisations make solid and successful strategic decisions.
2. Weak Value Propositions – Continually needing to explain their value to the business: According to recent research, only 25% of companies can qualify the value their customer experience and insights strategy contributes to the business.
3. Being a ‘bolt on’ – Not being the starting point for business growth: Today CX or insights are often an ‘afterthought’ or a ‘rushed step’ in strategic decision making.
4. Team Strength – Finding good team members and resources: CX and insights professionals also commented on the struggle to find the right people with the right skills to perform the scope of work required.
5. Outdated Ways of Collaborating – Organisational structures and silos getting in the way of collaboration

“Many of the people we talked to felt they were the only ones who were struggling with these challenges. The truth is that these problems are endemic and are limiting the ability of the business to leverage insights about its customers to grow and achieve meaningful outcomes”, says Adams. Importantly though we wanted to get the industry thinking, agitating a bit to really think about the future and the steps they can take to secure a seat at the table in the long run.

COVID has shone the spotlight back onto understanding customer behaviour. There is an acute and immediate need amongst executives to understand customers in the ‘new normal’.

The skills required of these leaders has also shifted which is discussed further in an article, which first appeared in the Dec 2021-Feb 2022 – Navigating the future. Summer edition of The Research Society’s publication Research News. Click on the link to read.