Communication is supposed to be a two-way street. Businesses talk to customers through advertising and PR, and they listen to customers' opinions through surveys, complaints, events, and interactive websites. According to a recent CMO Council study however, this just isn't happening enough. 

According to the study, 58 percent of the executives surveyed stated that their companies did not compensate based upon customer loyalty or satisfaction improvements. In fact, 38 percent had no program in place to measure these objectives. Perhaps even worse, only 38 percent gather customer insight from customer engagement situations! 

Some of the deficiencies cited by the report include: 

• Insufficient availability and aggregation of real-time customer experience data across touch points that should be shared across the organization.

• Poor use of customer interactions to collect insights and intelligence or maximize up-sell and advocacy opportunities. 

• Lack of Internet processes and systems to track online word of mouth and drive customer advocacy. 

• Intermittent or deficient monitoring of customer experience that fails to provide true and timely insights into problems and opportunities. 

• Too few compensation programs tied to customer experience, loyalty and satisfaction gains. 

An overwhelming majority of the executives surveyed (83%) stated that the customer experience is essential in driving brand advocacy and business performance and most believed positive customer experiences helped their companies to grow. So why aren't you listening?