NEW YORK ? A Forrester Research executive at CXNYC 2015 said brands such as Amazon, AT&T U-verse, JetBlue and Edward Jones are models for how an effective customer experience with a strong loyalty program can drive revenue, affirming CX?s key role in business success.  

The session, ?Does Customer Experience Really Matter to Business Success?? drew attention to how CX is invariably a better indicator of business success as defined by revenue growth than stock market performance, given that conglomerates? structure can hinder an accurate analysis of performance. The presentation drew attention to marketers? need to build better relationships with customers on mobile by listening carefully and responding to their needs. 

?Start fixing customer experience problems,? said Harley Manning, a Forrester vice president and research director. ?That will give immediate benefits by reducing service costs. ?Then be ready for when disruption kicks into high gear and you won?t be left behind.?

CXNYC 2015 is a forum for customer experience professionals organized by Forrester Research. The session also included a talk by Raul Leal, CEO of Virgin Hotels.  

Mr. Manning?s presentation looked into whether CX drives business success by comparing CX and revenue numbers for brands in various categories. 

For instance, in the cable and telecommunications space, AT&T U-verse, the CX leader, saw revenue increase 35.4 percent within a survey period, compared with 5.7 percent for Comcast. 

In the airline industry, CX leader JetBlue had a clear win over rival United Airlines. JetBlue posted a 6.7 percent increase in customer numbers while United actually lost passengers during the period. JetBlue also saw passenger miles rise 7.2 percent while United lost 0.3 percent passenger miles.

Among investment firms, Edward Jones handily beat Morgan Stanley Wealth Management with superior CX and revenue numbers, posting a 13.1 percent increase in revenue compared with E*Trade?s negative revenue of 2.8 percent.

Less clear-cut was the retail space. Several traditional retailers are at CX parity.

?Costco, Sam?s Club and BJs all have CX ratings so close together, they are within margin of error,? Mr. Manning said. 

That said, the best traditional retailer appears to be only be an average revenue generator compared with younger, online retailers. CX leader Amazon posted a 31.2 percent increase in revenue, compared with just a 1.8 percent rise for Walmart.

?What surprised me is not that the online retailer grew faster but the magnitude of this (jump),? Mr. Manning said.

In the health insurance sector, which historically has a poor CX track record, CX leader Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan had a 4.6 percent revenue increase, compared with a 2.1 percent increase for Health Net.

BCBS?s somewhat weak revenue victory over Health Net suggests that a key factor in driving revenue in most cases is customer loyalty.

?What we know for sure is CX drives customer loyalty,? Mr. Manning said, referring to three types of loyalty - retention loyalty, in which the customer stays with the brand longer; enrichment loyalty, in which people buy services and products from you; and advocacy loyalty, in which people recommend you to others.

?We know that when customers stay with you longer, it tends to drive up revenue,? Mr. Manning said. 

That observation led the research director to emphasize that CX drives revenue when customer loyalty drives revenue. For that to occur, two conditions are needed. Customers must be free to shift business among competitors and there needs to be a significant CX difference between companies, when competitors are at parity or can be differentiated.

Evolving industries typically embrace CX as they get on more solid ground. A case in point is the cable industry. 

?First, there was no cable, then the city awarded a franchise, and cable came in,? Mr. Manning said. ?People could go with them, or stick with rabbit ears on their TV sets.

?So when cable came in, there not lot of reason to invest in CX,? he said. ?Now, customers do have a choice today ? and there is a significant difference in the customer experience between the companies.?

Mr. Manning recommended marketers seeking to improve customer experience first ask how easy is it for customers to leave you for a competitor? Then you can honestly assess your potential.

?How does your company make money today? If you want to turn the ship and stand out from the crowd you are going to have to do customer experience innovation,? he said.

?Can your company enable experimentation, reframe customer problems and rally the troops behind customer experience? Because that?s what it takes.?

Companies that craft a CX strategy should aim to break from the pack. ?You have an opportunity to steal your competitors? revenue,? he said.  Companies that already have highly competitive CX could try to dominate their segment.

?Understand them better than anybody else to lock them in,? he said. ?What Edward Jones has been doing ? and you see their results.?

Mr. Leal?s presentation emphasized that consumers today want to feel special, they do not want to be treated like part of the masses. People are going to react to businesses that make their lives simpler.

?It?s going to get worse as devices become more a part of our lives,? he said.