CMOs using mobile apps to drive customer loyalty: Report

CMOs across the Asia-Pacific region are leveraging mobile applications to improve loyalty but admit they need to do more to make them customer-friendly, a new report claims.

According to research commissioned by HP from Coleman Parkes Research, one in two CMOs believe technology’s role in delivering an enhanced user experience will increase in the future, while more than half claim to already deliver a very high-quality user experience leveraging latest technologies. Yet 67 per cent said they didn’t feel they are exploiting technology to the fullest in enhancing the user experience.

More than two-thirds of respondents use mobile applications to improve customer loyalty, but just over half admitted they could be more customer-friendly. Eighty-three per cent said they will need at least one user-experience mobile app in the next 12 months, and over half expected to require at least two in the next three years.

Only 27 per cent of companies have an in-house applications development team well-versed in user experience issues.

In addition, 63 per cent of those senior marketers surveyed also owned up to not delivering an acceptable level of customer satisfaction. The report also noted the ongoing lack of alignment between marketing and IT, with more than one third of respondents claiming their IT and marketing relationship with either ‘weak’ or ‘very weak’.

“While today’s CMOs recognise that applications are a key driver for customer acquisition, engagement and retention, most application portfolios were built to run an organisation, not differentiate it,” HP Enterprise Services senior director of applications services in Asia-Pacific and Japan, Anita Paul, said.

“Our research confirms that a majority of companies aren’t using the right application design solutions to help provide their customers the superb user experiences they seek.”

The HP report comprised of interviews with 400 global CMOs or their equivalent in February and March 2013. Of these, 75 per cent work for organisations with at least 1000 employees.

The regional research report was announced at the same time as HP rolled out its enhanced range of application transformation software and services solutions, which aim to provide an enterprise applications suite of integrated products that work with both cloud and internal IT environments.

Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia or take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia.