+ Make better CX and Marketing investments to drive profitable growth. A better understanding of Customer Lifetime Value is highly actionable. Organizations need to know what it is, how it varies across customer segments and over time, and what drives it. For example, which customers are most valuable and what moves the needle for them? How can we target other products to our best customers? (existing customers are 50% more likely to try your other products than new customers). Can we establish a referral program based on our “best customer” profile to find more like them? How can we optimize the customer experience for our less profitable customers? While being a critical move for the short-term, it’s also the right move for the long-term. Organizations that respond better to crises or recessions tend to have benefits that persist longer than the crisis. For example, organizations that maintained an innovative focus during the 2009 financial crisis outperformed the market average by over 30%. And they continued to show accelerated growth over the next 3-5 years. And monitoring the health of customer relationships allows you to respond to the evolving economic environment. According to research conducted by XM Institute, during the pandemic and ensuing uncertainty, we saw CX leaders outpace their industry stock performance by a massive 45 percentage points.