Moreover, nearly half of marketing respondents believe it is possible that their jobs will be at risk should technology investments fail, even though there are other factors that have a direct impact on the role.

The new CMO Council report, titled The State of Engagement: Bridging the Customer Journey Across Every Last Mile, reveals that businesses will measure the success of CX initiatives on bottom-line improvements, like overall revenue growth and increases in individual sales.

However, 10% of marketers are able to tie CX back to these business goals in real time.

Most (80%) are unable to, or can only sometimes, connect channels of engagement back to business impact, while an additional 10% are only able to measure against business goals using time-consuming, manual processes that only involve select channels.

Marketers have a mixed view of the state of customer engagement, as 47% admit they are failing to deliver on the customer expectation of personalisation and contextual engagements across the customer journey.

Forty-one percent say that systems that fail to connect or deliver a unified view of the CX across all touchpoints have done the most to threaten the execution of the CX strategy.

Fueled by the increasing demand for individualised experiences from a connected customer, most have adopted a new outlook of advancing with the tools on hand while taking on the role of 'chief silo-buster'.

"CMOs have picked up the mantle of owning the development and execution of the CX strategy and are fully aware that their jobs depend on the success of these initiatives," says Liz Miller, senior vice president of marketing for the CMO Council.

"But, many are rightfully questioning the patchwork assembly of point solutions that have been amassed in the marketing technology stack. Marketers want to get going, connecting systems and busting silos to put the customer’s expectations above the drama being caused by fragmented tools that fail to deliver results for the business," Miller adds.

Other findings include:
  • Marketers believe they need systems that leverage real-time data to deliver relevant, contextual experiences, ranking this as the number one requirement for CX success.
  • The second most critical requirement is an organisation-wide single view of the customer to ensure uniform and consistent engagement.
  • Fifty-one percent hope that with new technology and/or talent, a single view of the customer could be possible, whereas 26% struggle to see a path forward, questioning whether a single view is realistic and attainable for the organisation.

The findings of the study are based on an online audit of 211 senior marketing executives, in primarily consumer-facing industries, including retail, consumer products, food and beverage, retail banking, consumer insurance and travel and hospitality.

Some 70% of respondents have a title of CMO, general manager of marketing, or senior vice president of marketing, while 57% hail from organisations with annual revenues of more than a billion USD.

For more information, visit www.cmocouncil.org. You can also follow the CMO Council on Twitter.  

*Image courtesy of Nick Youngson