This means customer-level data. It also means measuring and tracking these behaviors and their drivers over time (as opposed to ad hoc, point-in-time analyses). And it means building stronger partnerships with your Finance colleagues. These types of efforts will yield immediate benefits such as the improved ability to: + Generate budget and support for your initiatives. Understanding the implications on customer acquisition, retention, development, and cost to serve – and how they come together into overall profit lift – will provide you a clearer view of the return on your investments. It will allow you to diagnose performance, building credibility within your organization. + Increase alignment between Finance, Marketing, and CX functions. Sharing language and metrics across Marketing, CX, and Finance will foster better alignment. These groups often have shared objectives and complementary capabilities. It will also allow your organization to make apples-to-apples comparisons across unrelated types of initiatives. Topher Mitchell Qualtrics Understanding the relationship between customer sentiment and behavior is a strategic advantage. It will help you generate support, increase cross-functional alignment, and make decisions that drive profitable growth.”