BOSTON, MA, June 9  — There is widespread consensus about the importance of customer experience (CX) but little agreement as to how it should be organized, implemented, measured, and improved. Budgets and headcounts have increased in many cases, but specific strategies for deploying these resources and investing in capabilities seem to be inconsistent and face challenges in communication, measurement, organization, and governance.

In a new Impact Report, The Current State of CX Strategy: Three Governing Themes for Approaching CX, research and advisory firm Aite-Novarica Group presents high-level themes that emerged from a recent Aite Novarica Group survey of financial institutions and insurers about CX practices along three main paths: what kind of contact points consumers have with brands (contact-based CX), organizational intentions vs. actions and execution, and the effect of company size and industry type.

“Organizations should look at CX from the customer’s standpoint,” said Reut Samra, Strategic Advisor at Aite-Novarica Group and author of the new report. “For the customers, how a product is being marketed, how an agent or advisor is contacting them, and how the digital channels are designed, is all one. Customers do not know, and should not care, which department/team is contacting them—everything represents the face of the company and should be consistent and clear.”