CAMBRIDGE, MA--(Marketwire - Jun 5, 2012) - Delivering an exceptional customer experience has proven to be a significant challenge to most organizations, even though they understand the critical impact it has on their businesses. These findings are highlighted in a [ recent survey ] jointly fielded by [ nFusion ], an Austin, Texas-based marketing firm, and [ Pegasystems Inc. ] (NASDAQ: [ PEGA ]), the leader in [ Business Process Management ] (BPM) and software for customer centricity.

The survey, titled Designing and Managing Customer Experiences for Improved Brand Performance, found that while 95 percent of organizations questioned said the customer experience was important, only 6 percent considered their organizations best practitioners. Such results highlight a significant disconnect between understanding the impact of customer experience and actually being able to deliver a positive experience. The majority of executives surveyed cited disjointed customer touch-points across channels and customer facing organizations as one of the key factors contributing to an inconsistent and often negative customer experience. As a result of channel and organizational silos, companies are lacking transparency and integration in customer facing initiatives across the organization. Sixty-nine percent of executives surveyed believed that the lack of coordinated customer touch points is resulting in a negative impact on their brand.

The survey also highlighted a strong correlation between companies who successfully deliver great customer experience and the positive impact on their brand reputation. Successful organizations have been able to move beyond generic customer experiences to deliver more personalized, relevant experiences during every customer interaction. Responses cited that such efforts are usually driven top-down from the CEO, with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) best equipped to lead such initiatives.

"Today's organizations are challenged to unify incredible amounts of customer data that are typically siloed across various departments as they struggle to adapt to new channels and provide more consistent customer experiences across touch-points," said John Ellett, CEO at nFusion. "We found that the organizations who are able to overcome this fragmentation issue are enhancing their customers' experiences and realizing a positive impact in their brand reputation."

"The role of CMOs has evolved in recent years and increasingly they are being asked to lead cross-functional customer experience initiatives to improve competitive performance," said Grant Johnson, CMO at Pegasystems. "Given the negative impact a poor customer experience can have on brand reputation, CMOs have a unique opportunity lead the charge to orchestrate all customer touch points across their organizations to drive overall customer value, as well as more consistent and positive customer experiences."

Supporting Resources:

• To read the entire survey report, please visit: [ Designing and Managing Customer Experiences for Improved Brand Performance ]

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About nFusion
nFusion is an integrated, digital-centric marketing agency that provides the combined services of a marketing consultancy, advertising agency and interactive firm to companies serving customers in the B2C and B2B sectors that seek a trusted partner with a demonstrated history of helping clients to understand, embrace and thrive in a market environment of constant and accelerating change. The award-winning, Austin-based agency knows how to navigate today's chaotic, rapidly changing environment with marketing as dynamic as the marketplace itself and serves as a trusted partner and advisor to a wide array of organizations across multiple industries, including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Comerica Bank, Comcast, Nokia, Nortel, Samsung and Zimmer Spine. nFusion helps clients cut through the clutter with award-winning, savvy campaigns that balance traditional media with cutting-edge digital capabilities. nFusion is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and can be found online at [ www.nfusion.com ].

About Pegasystems
Pegasystems, the leader in business process management and software for customer centricity, helps organizations enhance customer loyalty, generate new business, and improve productivity. Our patented Build for Change^® technology speeds the delivery of critical business solutions by directly capturing business objectives and eliminating manual programming. Pegasystems' flexible on-premise and cloud-based solutions enable clients to quickly adapt to changing business conditions in order to outperform the competition. For more information, please visit us at [ www.pega.com ].

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