Oliver Trabert, CTO of the leading Enterprise Feedback Management company, QuestBack discusses how organizations can create real business value from social media initiatives and achieve a better understanding of its customers.

The other day I was reading about how Avaya, the enterprise communications systems and services provider, has opened a customer experience center in Galway, Ireland. The R&D facility provides Avaya customers direct access to the company's developers who can demonstrate how they can develop custom environments showcasing Avaya's systems while providing customers a glimpse into the company's future technologies and a chance to offer their feedback on them.

Creating a designated customer experience facility is a great opportunity for companies that sell commercial products that customers can touch, test, sample, and express their opinions about. For instance, Sony Electronics recently opened a 4,200 square foot store at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles where customers can test out a range of Sony products, including PlayStation's Gran Turismo 5 PS3 game, shoot video on a range of cameras, watch 3D movies, or try out Sony headphones.

For years, CIOs have ranked the importance of aligning IT with the business as their top strategic goal. And while business alignment hasn't necessarily diminished in importance, many forward-thinking IT leaders are pushing the ball forward.

For instance, according to a new study by Yankee Group, 82 percent of 100 CIOs and CTOs from companies with 500 to 10,000 employees ranked improving customer experience as their top strategic priority.

Now that the economic recovery finally seems to be gaining strength, many CIOs and C-level executives will be focusing a lot of attention around growing the business and acquiring new customers. And rightly so. With consumer confidence on the rise, individuals and businesses will be spending more freely, creating new opportunities for companies to establish new revenue streams.

But there's another area for business improvement in 2011 that CIOs and business leaders should examine more closely which has historically been overlooked: customer loyalty.