Executives say poor integration across teams is the biggest reason employees don't engage in the customer experience, according to recent research from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services and Gongos.

The report was based on data from a survey conducted in August 2020 among 434 Harvard Business Review readers. In their analysis, the researchers broke out responses from "customer-committed companies" (those that self-report as having a customer focus strongly embedded across the organization) from the rest.

Some 43% of respondents say poor integration across teams is one of the biggest barriers to engaging employees in the customer experience.

Other top barriers include not having a consistent top-down CX strategy articulated by leadership (37% cite that as an issue), poor line of sight across all areas of CX strategy (33%), and lacking data to be able to compare ROI across investments (30%).

Some 96% of respondents say providing a good customer experience gives companies a competitive edge, and 92% say having a customer-centric company purpose delivers better business benefits than having a purpose not centered on the customer.

However, only 38% of executives say their company has a customer-centric purpose that is deeply embedded in the mindsets and actions of employees.

About the research: The report was based on data from a survey conducted in August 2020 among 434 Harvard Business Review readers.