Businesses Urged To Prioritize Customer Experience To Remain Profitable And Sustainable

Businesses have been urged to prioritize Customer Experience (CX) as a central pillar of their operations to remain profitable and sustainable. Leaders warn that organisations that fail to invest in CX risk losing competitiveness in both local and global markets.

Speaking at the Institute of Customer Experience (ICX) CEOs Forum, ICX Chairperson Joseph Choge noted that customer experience and satisfaction have become the defining factors in business performance.

‘Businesses cannot remain sustainable or profitable without making customer experience a core part of operations and must close the gap between customer expectations and actual delivery. The data is clear: companies with superior customer experience generate more revenue than those that lag. Organizations that fail to prioritize the customer journey are essentially choosing irrelevance in today’s marketplace. Kenyan businesses must urgently transform their customer engagement strategies as global competition intensifies and consumer expectations rise.’

The forum, which brought together CEOs and industry leaders across diverse business sectors, was set to champion Customer Experience (CX) as a key driver of business growth, competitiveness, and economic excellence. It also aimed to address critical CX challenges facing Kenyan businesses, including knowledge gaps, technology limitations, and leadership deficiencies, while presenting actionable solutions to enhance service delivery and boost economic competitiveness.

Also at the event, Sundeep Raichura, Group CEO of Zamara, added, ‘Customers are the driving force behind every business. With digital transformation accelerating changes in customer behavior, companies are under pressure to reimagine their service delivery models or risk losing market share to more customer-centric competitors.’

Sunny Bindra, author of Crown Your Customer, emphasized the need for CEOs and corporate leaders to be actively involved in customer experience strategies. He noted that research shows 73% of consumers consider customer experience a key factor in their purchasing decisions, yet only 49% of businesses say they compete primarily on customer experience.

‘This gap represents both our greatest challenge and our biggest opportunity for growth. The culture and habits that drive the best customer experience start with leaders. They must see what is happening on the ground to truly understand their customers. If CX is constantly delegated, mediocrity is inevitable,’ concluded Mr. Bindra.

The deliberations at the forum are expected to shape how Kenyan companies redesign customer engagement models, with ICX positioning itself as a key player in advancing service excellence across the continent.

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