
Being that customer experience is central to all we do, it was an honour to be asked by CX Network for our insights and future predictions on the subject for their latest industry report.

Managing customer journeys today requires intelligent design and dynamic management, driven by real-time data, delivered from a suite of robust tools that enable company-wide decision-making. But in designing effective customer journeys, customer experience teams today often face a number of complex challenges. From accessing the relevant data, to understanding customer behaviour and getting ‘buy-in’ from stakeholders as to the value of the modern customer journey, and what it takes to map and manage it. There’s a lot to consider.

This is why each year, CX Network puts out its research report that covers the very latest on all the trends, challenges and opportunities that exist around customer journey management. Excited to be offered the opportunity to contribute, we handed the reins to our CEO Rob Hollands to give his commentary and analysis on the findings, as well as sharing his thoughts on where CX is heading over the coming year. The report, 

The state of customer journey success 2024-25

, in partnership with Alterian, looks at the roadblocks that hold up the customer experience, the adoption of products, tools and techniques that are making a difference and examines how journey management has progressed since the last report was published in 2023.


It's an in depth piece of work and we recommend you give it a read. It covers two years of research to paint a comprehensive picture that spells out what customer journey success looks like, and what to expect in the coming months.

Here are a couple of our key takeaways from the report. Check it out in full 

Data silos as a roadblock to customer experience

As part of the research, people were asked about the major roadblocks they experienced in achieving success in their customer journey initiatives. The roadblocks that prevent them from delivering the best customer experiences. Unsurprisingly, the most cited issue was siloed data and a lack of integrated systems (76% this year, compared with 64% in 2023). Data silos prevent organisations from tracking an individual’s entire experience throughout the whole journey. Data can often arrive from different touchpoints, in different formats and quality, at varying times and in incomplete forms. This provides what’s been termed ‘vertical perspective’ of a journey, by phase or a specific step. Whereas best practice CX focuses on a ‘horizontal’ or ‘linear’ perspective to incorporate the entire experience, according to Skander Tayach, senior advisor of client experience for the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

One of the key investment areas in CX cited in the research is in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI). When asked in which areas respondents believe AI can make the best impact on their customers’ journey experience, the most selected response was leveraging AI-driven analytics to understand customer behaviours and inform CX strategy (76%). This was followed by creating personalised content and offers (52%).

Rob explains how AI can be an instrumental tool in how we think about and manage customer behaviour. He explains that there are two categories into which AI opportunities and tools can be grouped around customer behaviour: those that allow practitioners to better understand customers and those that allow them to better serve customers.

He says, “AI is more rapidly surfacing data and insights that can have a profound and genuine impact on our understanding of customer journeys. It’s also reducing the time to adapt to, respond and optimise the experience - whether that is real-time support, assisted journeys or developing new solutions based on actionable insights.

“This is more crucial than ever before as consumers, technology and competitors are advancing at a faster rate than at any other time in history.”

What’s clear with our platform is that end-to-end supply chain connectivity drives the surfacing of key data that makes digital transformation easier for our distillery and warehouse customers. Our connected 

distillery and warehouse management solution

 is intuitive, quick and simple to use with familiar workflows that makes onboarding easy. Production and maturation data for every asset is delivered in real-time and can be accessed anywhere, on any device. User experience has always been a key priority when designing all our products, and we remain responsive to customers, and the changing demands of the drinks industry, implementing product updates and new features which make the job even easier.

Looking ahead, Rob explains how a focus on customer experience, and the adoption of AI, will continue to inform all parts of what we do at Proof 8.

“As we look to the year ahead, we continue to explore the opportunities AI offers across all areas of our business, and look to identify genuine value for customers, be that directly or through our improved understanding of the technology.”

You can read the full CX Network report here - 

. It’s worth the read to find out more about developments in customer behaviours, the metrics used to track successful customer journeys and how businesses are investing in CX.

For more about AI in the drinks industry head to ‘

 where we sum up discussions from the Drinks Business Artificial Intelligence Conference where Rob spoke on a panel.

“AI is more rapidly surfacing data and insights that can have a profound and genuine impact on our understanding of customer journeys. It’s also reducing the time to adapt to, respond and optimise the experience - whether that is real-time support, assisted journeys or developing new solutions based on actionable insights.”

Platform

Marketplace

Connected Products Coming soon

About

Team

Contact

Careers

CX trends transforming the digital customer journey

CX trends transforming the digital customer journey

More from Proof 8

Platform

Marketplace

Connected Products Coming soon

About

Team

Contact

Careers

CX trends transforming the digital customer journey

More from Proof 8

New spirits: Our team expands

Introducing Proof 8: new name, same spirit

WOWGR reform - what does it mean for warehousekeepers & cask owners?

Join the conversation