FINDING 1: IT Focuses on Customer Service and Retention

But are IT's priorities in the right place? Our 2008 Top Trends survey found customer service is the No. 1 priority and business intelligence is the most important technology this year. Similarly, the 2008 Customer Strategies survey finds IT puts most of it effort into serving current customers, and in analyzing customer needs and behaviors. However, despite the worrisome economic climate, companies are as likely to focus on customer acquisition as on customer retention. The dominance of customer service and retention-focused goals and projects begs the question, Are companies so engrossed in working with the data they've collected on existing customers that they aren't making sufficient use of IT to win over potential customers?