Challenging economic times and the commoditization of products and services have caused businesses to rely on customer experience as a differentiator. For many companies, providing good customer service is the cornerstone of their customer experience strategy. More than two thirds of recently surveyed companies say that good customer service technologies play a high or very high role in their overall customer experience strategy. This report reveals that focusing on an improved customer experience is a top goal of many organizations, as it correlates to increased customer loyalty, lifetime spending and positive referrals.