In the Netherlands, what are the (least) popular research methods for improving customer experience?

Relevant and customer experience-based insights are key to continuing to optimize the customer experience. And that requires thorough research. Which customer experience research methods are most popular among Dutch organizations? And which customer experience surveys do organizations conduct the most per maturity stage?

‍Organizations delve relatively late into customer drivers

For Dutch organizations in general, customer experience monitoring is the most popular research method for improving the customer experience. Even 45% of the organizations that are in the very worst phase of customer-driven "ignoring" continuously measure customer satisfaction.

Organizations only really dive into the depths of qualitative research once they are in the three highest phases of customer orientation. 67% of organizations are in these phases, and the majority are investigating customer drives with qualitative research. What do customers really need? What do they value? Why do they make one decision and not another? In the customer-driven "collaboration" phase, research on customer drivers is (after monitoring) the most popular research method.

Customer journey research still in limited use

Is the customer journey a topic of conversation within your organization? Your organization is far from alone in that. Because many organizations focus on customer journeys, you would expect these organizations to map out the customer journey with research. But the actual research of the customer journey among the target group only happens on a large scale in the two highest phases of customer drivenness: collaboration and transformation. This concerns 28% of all organizations in the Netherlands. 70% of these organizations have conducted a customer journey survey in the past two years. In the first three phases, less than half of the organizations conduct customer journey research.

Co-creation with customers popular in highest customer drive stage

The customer-driven collaboration phase means that different departments or employees within an organization no longer think and act from their own bubble. The different silos within the organization are linked together to deliver the very best for the customer. From this customer-driven phase onwards, we see organizations commissioning more diverse cx research, such as customer journey research, co-creation with customers (e.g. through workshops), and user experience research into the digital customer experience. In the very highest phase, co-creation with customers, the other cx surveys (with the exception of monitoring) are catching up in popularity.

CX Benchmark

All mentioned results are from Blauw's large-scale research into the customer-drivenness of organizations in the Netherlands. Are you curious about which customer experience research methods are popular within your phase of customer drivenness? This year Blauw introduces the Customer Experience Benchmark for the first time, offering an infographic for each sector with interesting and up-to-date insights into the development of customer experience.

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