Boost Customer Lifetime Value

The research provides compelling evidence that high levels of employee engagement lead to stronger customer satisfaction, loyalty and business performance and highlights 6 essential elements of employee engagement in a customer service context.    

A comparison of organisations’ customer satisfaction (UKCSI) and employee engagement scores suggests that a one point increase in employee engagement is likely to give a 0.41 point increase in customer satisfaction.  67% of customers who had a great experience with an employee said they would buy again from that organisation, compared to 11% who had a bad experience.  

The research includes 6 essential elements to develop employee engagement in a customer service context and includes advice on key measures of employee engagement.   

An update of our 2017 Customer Service Dividend research, showing the relationship between organisations’ customer satisfaction results and financial performance between 2017 and 2023.   

The research reaffirms that organisations consistently achieving customer satisfaction above their sector average achieved stronger profitability, revenue growth and revenue per employees than other in their sector.   

Evidence from the company reports of the highest performing organisations for customer satisfaction suggests that these companies have focused on strengthening their core proposition, product innovation, maintaining service levels, competitive pricing, understanding the evolving needs of key customer segments, managing the growth in digital services, cost management and operational resilience. This is underpinned by an explicit focus on values, behaviours and culture. Achieving consistently high levels of customer satisfaction and sustainable finance performance depends on companies’ ability to focus and execute across all these areas, indicating that customer service is most valuable to financial performance when it is recognised as a critical ingredient of a coherent business strategy and operating model. 

The research reviews evidence of the links between customer satisfaction and business performance and examines how organisations set customer service measures and seek to align measures of customer satisfaction and business performance.    

The research features case studies showing how organisations have linked customer service measurement and business performance and suggests a methodology to select the measures most appropriate to an organisation’s business objectives. 

This research assesses how organisations can improve productivity to deliver better customer satisfaction, employee engagement and business performance.    

Our research proposes a five-stage framework to align and measure customer satisfaction and productivity to achieve organisational purpose and highlights the critical importance of  employee engagement alongside deployment of technology that automates, speeds up and simplifies key processes and interactions. The research includes case studies about how organisations have improved customer satisfaction and productivity.    

This report reviews how customer service professionals and their organisations have approached return on investment (ROI) in customer service.  

The research suggests that measuring ROI is highly contextual. Measuring the ROI of service  inherently organisation specific, so organisations can learn from one another’s approach to measurement and their service strategies to only a limited extent. Organisations would be better advised to identify a small set of critical metrics that have most impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty or which reflect their strategic priorities.  

The research highlights both financial benefits and intangible returns of investment in customer service and includes case studies about how organisations have developed service strategies to address business objectives, and how they have assessed the impact on customer service and business performance.  

An analysis of the customer satisfaction and financial performance of organisations in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) between 2010 and 2017 which shows that organisations consistently achieving customer satisfaction above their sector average achieved stronger profitability, revenue growth and revenue per employees than others in their sector.   

The research highlights that many organisations that have achieved consistently high customer satisfaction and strong financial performance have explicitly referenced investment in customer experience and employee engagement as fundamental enablers of their business strategy. Other organisations that have suffered a downturn in financial performance have acknowledged the negative impact of customer experience failures on their results.  

Interviews with a panel of senior executives indicates that People, technology, customer experience design and processes are the key areas of focus in which organisations have invested to drive both customer satisfaction and financial return. The research highlights specific activities which senior executives believe has led to a return on investment in customer service.