Veikkaus and Tieto
in TOP3 for the first time

The yearly State of Customer Experience Management study by CXPA Finland and Shirute was topped once again by Telia. Veikkaus came in second, and Tieto was third. The investments made in CEM in the earlier years are clearly starting to pay off.

  • 82 Respondents
  • 66 Organisations
  • 15+ Industries
  • 20 Questions
  • 5 Categories
  • 50% Index

Top organisations 2018

Results

Finnish organisations have stayed on the same level of customer experience maturity as last year, according to the results.

Only one company was able to get a high enough overall score to reach the highest level of maturity (Visionary). The second highest maturity level (Executive) was reached by almost three out of ten (30%) respondents.

As many as half of the respondents achieved only the Apprentice level, and 18% percent stayed on the lowest level (Survivor). On the average, Finnish organisations accomplished an overall score of 50% for Shirute Customer Experience Management Index™ (on a scale from 0% to 100%).

According to the study, Finnish organisations are still confident that they provide good customer experiences. However, this conviction is not as strong among the respondents as in the previous years.

Altogether, only about a sixth (61%) of the respondents believe that they offer better customer experiences than their rivals (2017: 68% / 2016: 63%/ 2015: 83%/ 2014: 68%/ 2013: 84%). The goals of the organisations are set high. Nine out of ten (90%) companies want to stand out from their competitors in their industry by developing their customer experience (2017: 89%/ 2016: 95%/ 2015: 64%/ 2014: 70%/ 2013: 88%). About one fourth (23%) aim to become better than any other organisation across industries (2017:30%/ 2016: 31%/2015: 27%/2014: 27%/2013: 9%).

The efforts for customer experience management are starting to pay off, and to emerge as concrete business figures.

More than 8 out of 10 of the respondents (2017: 85%/ 2016: 89%/2015: 88%/2014: 81%/2013: 77%) feel that customer experience management related activities have had a positive effect also on the results of the organisation during last year.

Respondents have recognised the strategic importance of customer experience management in their businesses.

Similar to last year, 93% say that customer understanding is in their overall strategy (2017: 94%/ 2016: 93%/ 2015: 88%/ 2014: 95%/ 2013: 98%). As many as 6 out of 10 of the respondents have defined customer experience management as one of their main strategic goals (2017: 61%/ 2016: 70%/ 2015: 58%/ 2014: 61%/ 2013: 53%).

Only half of the organisations have a dedicated budget for customer experience management, but investments are increasing again from last year.

Nearly half of the organisations (2018: 48%/ 2017: 56%/2016: 49%/2015: 49%/2015: 47%/2014: 48%, 2013: 49%) already have or are considering a dedicated budget for customer experience management. Almost one fifth of the respondents (2018: 16%/ 2017: 11%/2016: 12%/2015: 19% vs 2014: 21%/2013: 18%) are planning to have a dedicated budget, whilst about 32% of the respondents already have one. This number has decreased a lot from 45% last year. This may be explained by many organisations transitioning into budgeting their customer experience management related investments straight from the budgets of their business units.

Approximately three quarters say that they intend to invest more on CX development projects during the upcoming 12 months (2018: 73%/ 2017: 74%/2016: 82%/2015: 68% vs 2014: 74%/2013: 59%). As many as 29% believe they are going to invest a lot more, compared to 27% last year.

The amount of development projects has decreased considerably from last year’s level.

Now only 62% of the respondents report that their company has a lot of development projects related to customer experience development (2017: 88%/ 2016: 77%). Development projects are co-ordinated in 39% of the organisations represented in the results.

Usually, less than ten employees are responsible for customer experience development.

Most commonly, only 1-2 employees work full-time in CX development. This is less than last year (2017: 3-5/2016: 1-2).

About half of the organisations (43%) have not assigned a person responsible for customer experience development. The majority (60%) of the respondents’ organisations have an organisation in charge of customer experience development.

The State of Customer Experience Management in Finland 2018 (TOP 10 scores):

1. Telia

2. Veikkaus

3. Tieto

4. Canal Digital

4. Elisa

6. Mandatum Life

7. Kesko

8. Lännen omavoima

8. VR Group

10. SMT

About this study

ABOUT THIS STUDY

 

The State of Customer Experience Management in Finland is the most comprehensive study evaluating the CEM capabilities and competences of Finnish organisations. CXPA Finland and Shirute have been studying the current state of CEM in Finland since 2013. The study is originally based on research by Temkin Group.

The participating organisations were evaluated against the Shirute Customer Experience Management Index™ to understand the level of CEM maturity in Finland.

This index measures e.g. how systematic and goal-oriented the activities are, how well the respondents are organising themselves, how much they co-ordinate their various CX development projects, how customer experiences are measured, and how much they invest or plan to invest in customer experience management.

It is important to notice that the index evaluates only how systematic the intentions of the participants are, as reported by themselves. It does not take a stand as to the content of the customer experiences, nor their quality from the point of view of customers, i.e. the results of the CEM activities. This aspect can be measured with other indexes that are based on excercises such as focus group interviews, customer journey mapping etc (see https://shirute.com/shiruteWWW/palvelut/asiakkuuskokemusten-johtaminen/).

HOW WE CONDUCT THIS STUDY

 

The data was gathered through an online form and phone interviews in May-August.

The target group consisted of randomly selected top 500 companies and the most famous Finnish brands. Altogether, 82 CX professionals from 66 organisations from over 15 different industries participated. Over half (55%) of these organisations average a turnover of more than 100 million euros. A little bit less than half of them (49%) have over 1 000 employees.

The study consists of about 20 questions answered by customer experience management practitioners. Based on their answers, they are scored against the Shirute Customer Experience Management Index™. The index evaluates five areas related to customer experience management:

  1. Scope
  2. Organisation and governance
  3. Culture
  4. Processes
  5. Tools

The overall index score is based on the average points the organisation scores for sub-indexes in each of these categories.

Buy report

Please read the press release related to this study (sorry in Finnish only, to be translated). You can review the most important results also from our infographic. If you would like more detailed information or a deeper analysis of your scores, you can buy our full report.

Buy report

Interested?

Sirte Pihlaja
Sirte Pihlaja
CEO, CCXP
TRAINED LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® FACILITATOR
+358 50 5700 190
  • Sales

    sales (at) shirute.com
  • Other

    sales (at) shirute.com

If you want us to present the scores of your organisation personally, please leave us with your contact information and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you have not participated in this study earlier, and you would like to, please let us know and we will take care of including you.

    CXPA Finland is the local networking team of the global Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) in Finland. We want to help organisations provide great customer experiences to build their success.We organise events with different CX/EX themes on a regular basis.
    Shirute is the first Customer Experience Agency in Finland. Customer Experience Path® is a registered trademark of Shirute. We are one of the founding members of the global Customer Experience Professionals Association.
    Surveypal delivers enterprise-class feedback management and survey software as an integrated or stand-alone online service. Designed for companies of any size, Surveypal allows businesses to collect, analyze and share critical feedback information and turn it into actionable insights.
    CEW 2018 Birmingham is the premier customer experience event available for Customer Experience professionals from around the globe. It draws together the best speakers, the top thought leaders and the key industry experts worldwide to bring you up to speed on Customer Success Programs, and the role customer success will play in it.
    Chief Customer Officer Europe 2018 conference brings together 100+ senior level Customer Experience executives in London and covers topics and themes ranging from strategy alignment across silos, proving the business case for customer strategies, attaining & maintaining buy-in, through to recruitment policies and building a customer centric culture of innovation.
    The International Customer Experience Awards recognise great customer experience across the world, with participants competing in 18 categories. The Finals and Awards Ceremony is a unique event that enables businesses to compete for the ultimate accolade in the world of customer experience, to network and to hear what others are doing to solve problems within their country or particular sector.