Taking the leap from asking, “what do we think customers want?” to “what do customer actually want?” is a subtle, yet important evolution for an organization. Understanding and knowing how to meet customer needs is what allow businesses to stand out as leaders in often-saturated markets and it is through customer experience management that businesses are able to accomplish this.

It may be obvious but answering these questions require effective communication between customers and the organization. Therefore, CEM best practices focus on the combination of modern communications and sophisticated Voice of the Customer programs to give customers the capacity to engage with brands across a wide range of channels.

At its core, successful customer experience management requires:

• Getting to the heart of what customers want using VoC

• Implementing mobile as part of a wider VoC program

• Integrating VoC with other business systems for wider context

• Using a simple engagement model to build a successful VoC program.