Asia s Customer Experience Management Landscape 2015 1 ASIA S CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT LANDSCAPE 2015 Companies across Asia are waking up to the importance of providing consistent customer experiences, however making this a reality is easier said than done. To discover what these companies are planning for the short to mid-term, we have compiled the findings from our latest survey conducted with the attendees for our upcoming event, The Customer Experience Management Summit Asia 2015. The following graphs and analysis provide insights into the current CEM challenges and trends affects some of the biggest companies operating in Asia today. Survey Respondents: www.customerexperienceasia.com
Asia s Customer Experience Management Landscape 2015 2 NUMBER OF FTES FOR YOUR ORGANISATION S IN-COUNTRY OPERATIONS The majority of our survey respondents are from large companies. It s worth noting however that 25% of respondents are from comparatively small companies, indicating that customer experience management initiatives are not exclusive to large multi-nationals. 59% >1,000 25% 1-100 10% 100-500 6% 500-1,000 WHAT FACTORS ARE DRIVING YOUR COMPANY TO IMPROVE YOUR CEM? (RESPONDENTS CAN PICK MULTIPLE ANSWERS) There is a strong similarity in the factors driving companies to enhance their customer experience management. Whilst the strategic priorities of each company are nuanced, such as the desire to reduce customer complaints or change perceptions of the organisation, the vast majority can be linked back to these three core priorities. 55% of customers are willing to pay more for a better service experience. - Salesforce But it s not all just about driving revenue, since enhancing the customer experience also has the knock-on effect of reducing the costs of generating that revenue in the first place: Customer loyalty is the single most important driver of growth and profitability. Harvard Business Review A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%. Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy and Mark Murphy It is 6 to 7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Bain & Company Consequently, enhancing the customer experience is increasing being seen as a new approach to outperform the competition and achieve core business objectives. 79% Increasing customer loyalty and reducing customer churn 68% Differentiating from competitors by providing outstanding customer experiences 53% Increasing revenue
Asia s Customer Experience Management Landscape 2015 3 WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 3 CHALLENGES OR IMPROVEMENT AREAS REGARDING CEM? 47% 40% 37% 31% Keeping up with the rapidly changing consumer behaviors and expectations Impact of Social Media on CEM Measuring ROI from CEM initiatives Cultivation Service Mindset and Customer Centric Culture within the Organization Analyzing Customer data Keeping Up With Rapidly Changing Consumer Behaviours and Expectations This challenge can be broken down into the dual challenges of not just capturing and analysing customer sentiment, but also knowing how to impress or delight customers. This isn t always clear since customer behaviours and expectations are progressing all the time, meaning that the strategies to impress and delight always need to be one step ahead. This is particularly difficult to achieve due to the pace of technological change and especially difficult in industries where there is no gold standard or leading example. For example, in the hospitality or air travel sectors, there are numerous luxury brands that aim to provide exceptional customer experiences. However in the telecommunications or manufacturing sectors, there are no obvious points of reference for the level of customer service that is expected or can be provided. For these reasons, it is crucial to learn from examples from other industries, to see what can be adapted and implemented. Social Media & Measuring ROI from CEM Initiatives Increasingly, companies in Asia are developing social media capabilities beyond just listening and marketing, (more on this later). Yet for the remaining companies, the decision to invest in a more comprehensive and responsive social media capability is closely linked to the challenge of measuring its ROI. As indicated by the survey results, this is a general challenge affecting many CEM related initiatives. The reality is that the correct level of investment into a particular aspect of CEM, or social media for that matter, largely depends on your type of industry and customer base. Are your customers active on social media? Will an increased presence on social media save costs via your call centres and increase customer satisfaction? Again, you can inform your decision by learning from your competitors and similar companies across various industries.
Asia s Customer Experience Management Landscape 2015 4 Cultivating a Customer Centric Mind-Set and Service Culture within the Organisation Encouraging a department or company-wide focus on CEM can often be perceived as detracting from the actual measures of productivity. This is often because CEM is seen as intangible, meaning that in the eyes of your colleagues, how can they serve more customers if they are spending more time per customer? In answer to this, CEM leaders need to closely align their programme outcomes with company priorities. This is the key to winning over resistant colleagues who are focused on their own immediate priorities, such as driving revenue or cutting costs. The impact of such programmes first need to be measurable and then become an essential part of your colleague s role, rather than just a nice to have initiative added onto the core business priorities. Gradually, this approach will help awaken stakeholders to the contribution of CEM initiatives towards meeting their own business priorities. Analysing Customer Data Whilst many CEM leaders are excited by the prospects of analytics, many are experiencing challenges in getting sponsorship for their analytics programmes. For some companies, senior stakeholders believe that they already know their customers sufficiently and that there are other bigger, more immediate problems within their companies that need fixing first. For others, they are simply not at the stage to utilise analytics yet. Performing analytics takes significant time and preparation, meaning that the project duration would take too long before results could be shown. However by formalising the process of collecting, recording and leveraging customer insights, companies are moving gradually towards the stage whereby they will be able to leverage analytics more effectively. HOW DO YOU RATE YOUR CURRENT USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA? Using social media for marketing only 16% Present on social media by generally inactive 16% 48% Basic social media listening and dealing with customer issues ad hoc Comprehensive social media CEM capability 40% CEM leaders are becoming increasingly aware that there is an important difference between simply using social media to listen to your customers and using it to engage with them. The big question is, when should they decide to move forward with social media? This is perceived as a big leap, but due to the increasing number of case studies available, the benefits of customer engagement and its impact on NPS scores are being better understood. In the case of social media marketing specifically, one strategy that leading companies are using is to influence the influencers via social media. It s now possible to identify active members on social media that have a big audience and influence with the segments that a company is trying to engage. If a company can identity who these people are and put extra effort into impressing and delighting them, the company will see these people tweeting, sharing and promoting the company s great customer service on their behalf, with far greater results and customer engagement than simply self promoting.
Asia s Customer Experience Management Landscape 2015 5 WHAT ARE THE TOP TRENDS YOU FORESEE AFFECTING CEM OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS? 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 72% 60% 60% 44% 24% 20% Voice of the customer data and analytics Social Media Big Data Mobile Employee training and performance Personalization The top three trends predicted by respondents are notably similar to their current challenges. This suggests that respondents expect to persevere and for the voice of the customer, social media and analytics to be the trends that will have the greatest effect on their CEM capability. Singapore is reported as having the highest smartphone penetration in the world at... 85% In addition to this, the predicted increasing importance of mobile channels mirrors the growing number of mobile devices being used by consumers. For example, Singapore is reported as having the highest smartphone penetration in the world at 85%, where smartphones are now being used to access the internet more often than computers or tablets 1. Furthermore, the rapid proliferation of low cost android smartphones (some as cheap as USD 50), is expected to open up the internet to a whole new demographic of consumers in developing countries as well. These trends make it clear that optimising digital channels for mobile use is becoming essential rather than optional. With this shift towards enhancing the customer experience, it makes sense that respondents highlight the importance of employee training and performance. This will involve the ability to use new software solutions, new processes and new metrics for measuring the deliver of customer service. Then last of all, respondents have also highlighted the increasing approach towards personalised customer service. At present, this type of service is most noticeable in the e-commerce or the hospitality sectors, whereas in the more traditional retail or food & beverage sectors, this type of service would be considered impressive or even surprising. As an example, McDonald s is currently rolling out a new gourmet burger service in it s restaurants across Australia and Singapore, in which customers can use kiosks to order a customised burger directly to their table. This type of initiative is clearly an attempt to differentiate customer perceptions of the McDonald s brand, attract new customers and delight them. With the growing importance of CEM initiatives alongside increased spending on tools such as CEM software solutions, data analytics, and enhanced employee training, the building blocks for all companies to begin providing such personalised services are falling into place.
Asia s Customer Experience Management Landscape 2015 6 ARE YOU CURRENTLY USING OR ARE INTERESTED IN THE FOLLOWING SERVICES/SOLUTIONS? Big Data and Analytics 38% Social Media & Digital Strategy 31% Voice of the Customer, CSAT Survey Automation Mobile CEM Solutions 25% 25% Cloud & SaaS Net Promoter Score Automation Omni-Channel/Unified Communications Customer Insights & Market Research 19% Loyalty Programs CRM Solutions 13% 13% Enterprise-Wide CEM Solution Contact Center Solutions 9% 9% OVER THE NEXT YEAR, HOW IS YOUR BUDGET FOR CEM RELATED INITIATIVES CHANGING? 60% 35% 5% Growing Generally staying the same Shrinking The majority of budgets for CEM initiatives are growing over the coming year. This suggests two things: 1 2 The majority of senior decision makers see the value in CEM initiatives It will become increasingly competitive to impress and delight customers This suggests that there is a first-mover advantage to exceeding the customer experience provided by your competitors, certainly before they realise the advantage and take action to catch up.
MEET ALL THE SURVEY RESPONDENTS AT OUR UPCOMING EVENT: 02-03 September, 2015 One Farrer Hotel & Spa, Singapore CLICK TO DOWNLOAD BROCHURE FEATURING Shep Hyken World's No.1 Customer Service Guru, Shepard Presentations Daniel Lee Senior Director - Digital Experience Lead APMEA, McDonald's Corporation João Marcelo Rocco Vice-President Global Brand Experience and Consistency Accor Hotels, Luxury and Upscale Brands Rajeev Mahajan Group Digital CIO / Chief Digital, Design & Data Officer, Arab Bank PLC Brendan Leece International Customer Experience Manager, E.ON Energy Roman Nedielka Group Director of Customer Experience and Innovation, Etisalat