There is a secret to success: Linking customer experience management practices to profitability

Abstract

Customer experience (CX) and customer experience management (CXM) are key tenets of the presently dominant marketing research and management strategy paradigm. Despite CXM's prevalence, very little research explores its practices and links to company performance. This study tackles a rather elusive challenge for practice and research: how to connect customer experience (management practices) to company profitability. Based on a dataset of over 273 companies with dedicated CX strategies, we explore four different clusters of how companies manage their CX programs. Interestingly, each form of practice leads to a different performance outcome. Thus, our work lays the foundation for linking CXM practices to company performance, emphasizing which practices are more rewarding than others. The present study lays the groundwork for research to further elaborate on the cause-effect relationship between CX and performance and what the next and best CXM practices look like.