An increase in profitability, revenue growth and customer retention can be linked to CEO engagement in customer experience, a recent study has found.

The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 516 senior executives from 21 countries and found that executives surveyed plan to invest heavily in customer service innovation.

21% of respondents planned to increase their customer service investment by more than a quarter in the next three years. 86% of executives surveyed consider improving customer experience a key driver in the digital transformation of their business.

Economist Intelligence Unit lead researcher Charles Ross said ambitious companies are driving large investments in customer experience initiatives to adapt to the digital communication channels customers are demanding.

Respondents said increased customer retention, increased sales and improved customer satisfaction were major benefits and driving factors for customer experience investment.

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Ross said, “By prioritising customer service and placing the CEO in charge, companies are taking an extra step to drive revenue growth and improve profitability.”

The survey found a direction correlation between CEO engagement in customer experience and profitability. 58% of Australasian companies reported a higher profitability than its competitors when its CEO led the customer experience initiatives.

Genesys managing director Bruce Eidsvik said an increasing number of senior executives are beginning to not just understand their digital consumer. Eidsvik said that these senior executives also see the urgent need for customer service innovation to be prioritized on their investment agenda to keep up with today’s digitally driven customer.

“With this in mind, organizations need to consistently evolve to meet the growing demands of their customers, build trust, increase loyalty and drive revenue growth.”

The research found traditional Australasian companies were set to drop from 60% to 45% in terms of importance in the next three years as social media, web self-service and online assistance overtake traditional customer experience channels.