The majority of corporate decision-makers said they would boost analytics and customer behavior research budgets, according to "Customer Experience Spending Booms in 2006," a report published last month by Forrester Research, writes DM News (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Also, 65 percent of companies said a top priority was to shift customer interactions to the internet.

The research also found that the customer experience channels not getting more money this year included applications, automated phone centers, kiosks, speech recognition and surveys.

Respondents said they want to shift more customers to self-service channels - and they've found that improving usability is the most effective way to accomplish that goal.

Over 300 decision-makers make up the Customer Experience Research Panel that was questioned on how they plan to spend money in 2006.