Written by Tim O’Neill

Reactive recently took a look at the model and believe the framework is relevant to any company (not just those that use Sitecore) and furthermore to any agency (such as Reactive) that provides digital services.

The Customer Experience Maturity Model begins with a simple, frank assessment of where in the seven levels of digital maturity your company sits. The first step Initiate is appropriate for companies that have ‘brochure-ware’ sites, with little complexity. At the other end of the scale are very mature companies that focus their digital efforts on creating Lifetime Customers. They use intelligence and predictions to optimise cross-channel customer experience.

Each of the seven levels has typical Objectives, KPIs and Focus Areas, making the assessment a reasonably straightforward process. (Although some may think they are more “mature” than reality!)

Where the model starts getting really interesting is the mapping of each level with typical customer experience software ‘features’, such as Content Distribution, Campaign Management, Personalisation and Predictions.

Interestingly, the model can also be ‘flipped’ by clients and used as a digital agency assessment tool — how mature is your digital agency? How many of the recommended actions has your agency actually implemented?

The model doesn’t stop there. It goes to extremes outlining multiple levels of maturity within each feature (such as Rules Based Personalisation to Behavioural Targeting), and then the appropriate roles within an organisation for each of these customer experience features.

We believe 2013 is the year of Customer Experience. Using assessment models such as Sitecore’s Customer Experience Maturity Model, Reactive can help companies provide a helpful and beautiful experience for their customers.