While many business managers see only doom and gloom ahead, some are focusing on a new way to unlock a prosperous future – even in a tough recession. Through the game-changing principle of engagement, companies can learn to use technology and best practices to extract new revenue from their existing customer base.

A new research report from industry analyst firm Aberdeen Group called “Customer Experience Management: Engaging Loyal Customers to Evangelize Your Brand” reveals how organizations that achieve superior performance in customer retention and customer satisfaction grow and harvest customer advocates. In this blog post, the author shares some of the key findings from the report, and also discusses the role that customer feedback plays in these initiatives.

At the Gartner CRM conference, presenters discussed the convergence between CRM, marketing, voice of the customer (VOC) and customer experience. There’s no doubt that business leaders are getting more savvy, but so is the technology. And, as business practitioners, we have the opportunity to use advanced technology to accomplish things that we have wished would happen for years. In the end though, the “raising of the game” by all practitioners and leaders must happen, too.