A couple of months back, I wrote a post called You Must Invest In Customer Experience. In it, I detailed research by the American Customer Satisfaction Index that shows that an investment portfolio that takes long bets on CX leaders and shorts CX laggards outperforms the S&P 500 by nearly a factor of five.

That study was all about end consumers. But, of course, customer experience isn’t just for consumer-focused organizations. In its Customers 2020 report, Walker Information prognosticates, “Today, B-to-B companies focus primarily on differentiating themselves through the experience they deliver to customers. This strategy will grow in importance, while differentiating on products and price will become less important.”

It’s not surprising that these customer-experience-focused organizations are touting the importance of customer experience. However, it’s worth noting that it’s not just organizations with a vested interest in CX that are singing its praises. Firms with diversified interests—and no real reason to do anything but support whatever business trends they feel will result in the most profit—also carry this same tune. Among them:

IBM

In 2013, IBM published a report called The Customer-activated Enterprise, based on more than 4,000 face-to-face conversations with global C-suite executives (CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, CIO, CMOs, and CSCOs—that’s Global Supply Chain Officer, if you haven’t encountered one of those in your own organization). From the report’s executive summary: “We identified three key themes that will help you shape your organization’s future: Open up to customer influence. Pioneer digital-physical innovation. Craft engaging customer experiences.”

Gartner

Now that I’m a recovering Forrester analyst, I’m allowed to quote Gartner research. 😉 One of Gartner’s top 10 predictions for 2015 said that, “By 2017, 50% of consumer product investments will be redirected to customer experience innovations.”

What are your favorite research findings, data points, and predictions that support a focus on customer experience? Which sources do you trust the most?