Digital Customer Experience: Where Are We on the Progress Bar?

// By Jane Weber Brubaker //

Two research reports examine the state of marketing and digital customer experience across industries.

Slowly but surely, leaders of healthcare organizations are recognizing the strategic value that marketing brings to the table. Technology adoption and increasing competence in its use to meet consumers at the point of their need are helping make the case.

A McKinsey report released in March 2023 states: “It’s not surprising that healthcare providers increasingly see marketing as a growth driver. Modern technology, approaches, and collaborative structures can help CMOs [chief marketing officers] pivot the perception and performance of the marketing function away from being a cost center and toward measurable bottom-line gains while improving the healthcare consumer experience.”

Improving the digital consumer experience is a priority not just for healthcare provider organizations but for all consumer-facing industries. Healthcare continues to play catch-up, but it’s not like we’re many lengths behind the field, and every other industry has already crossed the finish line. It’s clarifying to see that, across industries, technology capabilities vary greatly. The challenges we see as unique to healthcare — silos, data fragmentation, lack of data governance — are common to many industries.

Two comprehensive studies, one from Salesforce and the other from CMSWire, queried marketing leaders across a broad swath of industries and countries to gauge their level of sophistication in providing superior digital customer experiences. Spoiler alert: No one has arrived. But some are farther along than others, particularly larger organizations with greater resources.

Here we’ll share highlights from the research, viewed through the lens of six broad themes: Purpose, Popular Tools, People, Priorities, Problems, and Proof.

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