News Release Details

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To help leaders understand what their customers experience every day, Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) is designating July 13, 2021 as CX Reality Day. For the second year in a row, executives and their teams will go undercover as a customer to evaluate if their firms' brand promise and customer experience (CX) are aligned.

To win and retain customers, companies must connect their brand promise to the customer experience. Too often, there is a gap between an aspirational brand statement and the actual customer experience that requires bridging. Knowing firsthand what customers experience can help leaders address specific disconnects and improve. It is also a critical step toward customer obsession. Yet according to Forrester's Customer Obsession Assessment, only 7% of enterprises are customer-obsessed today and risk becoming irrelevant very quickly.

According to Forrester's US Customer Experience Index (CX Index™), 2021, how customers feel after an interaction can greatly affect their loyalty toward a brand. For example, during the pandemic, brands that responded to evolving customer needs with digital transformation, new shopping preferences, and new interaction patterns that emphasized customer safety engendered greater brand loyalty, with 21% of brands experiencing a significant score increase.

The CX Reality Day challenge will help leaders understand if their organization succeeds at CX and where there's an opportunity to patch up disconnects and strengthen customer loyalty to drive business growth. Specifically, executives will put themselves in their customers' shoes to evaluate common customer journeys such as becoming a new customer; resolving a problem with a product or service; and adding another service or product to their contact or order — all to gain greater clarity around their customer experience and actions they can take to remediate any issues that surface.

"I took the CX Reality Day challenge with the rest of my executive team last year. It was a humbling but valuable event," said George F. Colony, Forrester's chairman and chief executive officer. "Our digital experience was not as fantastic as we had all envisioned, and we pinpointed a number of areas where our overall CX could improve. That one day pushed the company forward to build a new research portfolio and a new experience for our clients: Forrester Decisions. I encourage all CEOs to take the challenge — it will make you face up to the reality of what your customers experience every day when they work with you. And if you're lucky, you will find new opportunities and new product ideas wedged between the cushions of your current CX."

CX transformation efforts bring proven benefits such as increased customer retention and greater cross-sell opportunity. On average, when companies deliver a good service experience, their customers are 2.4x more likely to stay with them, 2.7x more likely to spend more with them, and 10x more likely to recommend them.

Resources

• Learn more about CX Reality Day and download helpful tips for the challenge.
• Read Forrester Chairman and CEO George F. Colony's take on CX Reality Day.
• Learn more about Forrester Decisions for Customer Experience to prioritize CX projects with the greatest business impact.
• Share your insights, learnings, and great experiences as a customer by using #CXRealityDay on social media.

About Forrester

Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We help leaders across technology, marketing, customer experience, product, and sales functions use customer obsession to accelerate growth. Through Forrester's proprietary research, consulting, and events, leaders from around the globe are empowered to be bold at work — to navigate change and put their customers at the center of their leadership, strategy, and operations. Our unique insights are grounded in annual surveys of more than 675,000 consumers, business leaders, and technology leaders worldwide; rigorous and objective research methodologies, including Forrester Wave™ evaluations; over 52 million real-time feedback votes; and the shared wisdom of our clients. To learn more, visit Forrester.com.

Media Contact:
Amanda Chordas
Public Relations
Forrester Research, Inc.
achordas@forrester.com

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SOURCE Forrester