The assessment, sponsored by Chordiant, is used as a benchmark for understanding how an organisation stacks up against its competitors in effectively managing multiple channels of customer interactions - as well as determining the next steps to improve its capabilities.

To validate the model, a detailed primary research study of 450 European companies across seven industry sectors and 12 countries was conducted.

"Until now, there hasn't been a model for helping companies assess how well they are doing with regard to optimizing their CEM capabilities," said Hugh Wilson, Professor of Strategic Marketing and Director, Cranfield Customer Management Forum, Cranfield School of Management. "The Cx Maturity Model not only facilitates this assessment, it offers step-by-step guidance for improvement. It has been a real eye opener for many of the companies we work with. The data gathered in the study has validated the model and also provided insight into the current state of CEM across Europe. According to the data, most companies have bought into the 'talk' of customer-centricity that was begun with CRM, but very few have actually achieved it in practice. Not because the will isn't there, but because historically the technology simply has not existed to allow them to do so."

Some of the key findings from the study so far show that 75 per cent of companies surveyed have only achieved Level 3 in Cx Maturity, which corresponds to a measurable improvement in process efficiency in customer-facing operations. This is the level of maturity we would expect to find in companies that have implemented a traditional CRM solution, but are still struggling to build true one-to-one relationships with their customers. Being able to conduct intelligent customer dialogues that match conversational context in real-time was a common capability among companies that placed at a higher level, according to the company.

"The Cx Maturity Model is an important tool for any company that needs to improve its CEM capabilities, but doesn't know how or where to begin," said Aly Moore, marketing director, EMEA, for Chordiant Software and creator of the Cx Maturity Model. "Even before we created it, we worked with customers who employed its principles to move up the scale as we now know it. To create the model, we simply analyzed their success and reengineered it on paper. We were gratified to see our conclusions validated through research, although not extremely surprised, as the principles involved in achieving a superior customer experience appear to be universal."