• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 20, 2013

Some 90% of marketing heads participating in a recent survey take responsibility for the overall positive connection between consumer and brand for their respective companies, but many lack the tools to measure increases or reductions in customer satisfaction. Nor do they have the responsibility for the company's profit and loss statement, which limits their ability to connect the experience.

The Neolane study polls more than 200 heads of marketing from The CMO Club's global members in consumer goods, retail, media and entertainment, travel and hospitality, healthcare, financial services, B2B high tech, energy, and legal.

It identifies CRM, interaction management, predictive analytics and loyalty management as the four top tools to measure experience, but most CMOs participating in the survey said they have the least competency in these areas.

For each, CMOs rated their competence on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most competent. The average CRM score came in at 3.30, with interactive management at 3.12, predictive analytics at 3.10 and loyalty management at 3.08.

Once the domain of sales business units, the responsibility of the customer experience continues to migrate to marketing. "Marketing was once solely responsible for campaign management," said Pete Krainik, founder and CEO of The CMO Club. "If you're responsible for improving response times, but there's no process in place to measure the impact, the CMO can't accomplish the task."

While the CMOs participating in the study believe they are far less competent with the essential tools, when asked to name the obstacles in delivering a positive customer experience, 51% cited missing processes and accountability as an obstacle; 42%, organizational silos; 42%, incomplete, inaccurate or missing data; 34%, change management or cultural issues; and 30%, unable to personalize experience in real-time.

Segmenting companies by revenue shows that CMOs running marketing departments that generate more than $1 billion annually feel less competent in every category. The average CRM score came in at -0.40, interactive management at -0.47, predictive analytics at -0.44, and loyalty management at -0.36.

CMO view the importance of tools different depending on the industry. For consumer goods brands, 46% said interaction management provides the most support. Loyalty, predictive analytics, social marketing and social media all received 32% each.

Marketers in health care, at 60%, said central databases were the most essential, followed by interaction management at 40%, campaign management at 30%, email marketing at 30% and CRM at 25%. In the high-tech space, 46% pointed to campaign management as the No. 1 essential tool, compared with email for retail at 48%, and CRM for media and entertainment at 48%.