How practitioners are spending their CX budgets in 2024

When CX Network asked its members to name their top-three strategic CX goals for 2024, the top responses were to grow the customer base (55 percent), increase NPS/CSAT (45 percent) and transition to a virtual or hybrid contact center model.

We then asked respondents how they plan to invest to achieve these goals.

Based on our research into the Global State of CX, this article explores how CX budgets are changing, how practitioners are investing to deliver results for the whole organization, and how investment priorities change by budget size.

Contents

• How are CX budgets changing?
• Where CX practitioners are investing
• How CX budget values influence investment priorities
• About the data

How are CX budgets changing?

The results for our 2024 research into the Global State of CX show CX budgets have remained relatively stable year-on-year, with the lowest budget bracket selected by the majority of respondents in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

However, the share of practitioners in the lowest budget bracket is at a three-year high in 2024, with 43 percent reporting they have up to US$100,000 to spend, compared with 22 percent in 2023 and 34 percent in 2022.

Where CX practitioners are investing 

We asked practitioners to select three areas they plan to invest in to achieve their top strategic CX goals.

In 2024, the majority (42 percent) said they plan to invest in the automation of CX and service functions. This was followed by data insights and analytics (38 percent) and conversational AI chatbots and virtual assistants (28 percent).

Reflecting the pace of change in the solutions market, CX investment priorities changed significantly between 2023 and 2024.

Notably, customer loyalty and retention was the most selected investment priority in 2023, but did not make the top-10 in 2024.

The accessibility and inclusivity of contact channels entered the top-10 investment priorities for the first time in 2024 and when analyzed further, for those with a budget of $2.5 million or more, the accessibility of contact channels was the fifth most selected investment priority.

In the US, 4,605 web accessibility lawsuits were brought against companies in 2023, an increase of 500 cases year-on-year. In 2023, 82 percent of lawsuits involved ecommerce sites and the remaining 18 percent covered multiple major sectors including food services, education and healthcare. Furthermore, 25 percent of all those who were sued in 2023 have been sued before for the same reason. 

It is also interesting to note which investment priorities did not change: automation was a top investment priority in both 2023 and 2024 and elsewhere in the survey, 50 percent of respondents strongly agreed this year that automation is critical for delivering CX at scale.

How CX budget values influence investment priorities

Further analysis shows how these priorities change according to how much an organization has to invest in its strategic CX goals. For example:

• Automation is the top investment priority for all respondents who reported having up to US$5m to invest this year.
• Data insights and analytics was a top-three priority for most budget holders.
• However, those with $10m or more to invest in CX management solutions have a notably different take on where they need to invest to achieve their strategic goals. 

You can see how these trends change by selecting the different budget brackets via the drop down menu below.

About the data

This article is based on the findings from CX Network’s annual research into the Global State of CX and is filtered to show responses only from those who are a customer experience, service, insight, digital or marketing practitioner, or an industry analyst, researcher, commentator or author. In 2022 the survey was completed by 270 practitioners, in 2023 we received 464 responses and in 2024, we received 282 responses.

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