Temkin Group announces findings from its recently published report, The State of Customer Experience Management, 2012. This is the third year that Temkin Group has published this research that is based on a survey of 255 companies with annual revenues of at least $500 million.

As part of the research, companies completed Temkin Group's Customer Experience Competency Assessment. The results of that assessment show that only 7% of large companies have reached the highest level of customer experience maturity, a stage that Temkin Group calls "Customer-Centric Organization." Comparing results from the previous year, the research found that the number of "Customer-Centric Organizations" more than doubled. One-third of companies, on the other hand, ended up in the lowest stage of customer experience maturity.

The research also showed that companies have strong ambitions for improvement. Despite only 7% being very strong at customer experience today, 59% of respondents state that their company's goal is to be the industry leader in customer experience within three years.

"We're still in the early stages of evolution for the entire field of customer experience management. Companies are ambitious to improve and we are seeing some companies build up the professional discipline to succeed," states Bruce Temkin, author of the research and Managing Partner of Temkin Group.

Temkin Group's Customer Experience Competency Assessment examines four areas within companies that are critical for building customer-centricity:

• Purposeful Leadership: Do leaders operate consistently with a clear set of values?
• Compelling Brand Values: Do the brand promises drive how you interact with customers?
• Employee Engagement: Are employees aligned with the goals of the organization?
• Customer Connectedness: Does insight about customers drive decisions across the company?

The research shows that companies are weakest in employee engagement and compelling brand values. Only about one-third of companies scored highly in these areas.

Some of the other findings from the research include:

• Nearly six out of 10 respondents have a senior executive leading customer experience efforts across the company.
• On average, companies have six to eight employees focused on customer experience; 28% have more than 20 employees in this area.
• Nearly 80% of companies with voice of the customer programs report that they are already delivering positive business results.
• Voice of the customer programs run into the most obstacles when it comes to integrating CRM data and analyzing social media conversations.
• Companies with higher levels of customer experience maturity focus more on employees and culture, less on cutting costs.