Australianbrands are struggling to deliver excellent customer experience, with the majority offering a “good but not great” experience.
Consulting firm KPMG has released its Customer Experience Excellence report for 2019, showing there is an enormous opportunity for those brands that prioritise CX to stand out from the pack.
The study ranks brands using a Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) score out of 10.
Around 75 per cent of the 114 brands rated received a middle of the range score of between 6.5 and 7.5, while the overall average of 7.14 was only 0.04 points higher than last year.
KPMG Australia partner in charge – customer, brand and marketing advisory Amanda Hicks blamed the mediocrity on a lack of direction.
“Responsibility for the customer experience of each channel sits in siloed business units in many Australian companies. This means there’s a lack of overall strategy, or indeed a sense of what ‘the big picture’ looks like,” she said.
“Customer experience has been heightened as a topical conversation in the Australian market through increased attention over the past 18 months in areas as diverse as aged care and financial services.
“Traditional Australian organisations, which are often tied to legacy ways of working, are struggling to match the digital experience offered by new market entrants. The future challenge for these organisations will be successfully translating their physical presence into a digital blueprint that captures the essence of their brand.”
The six pillars of customer experience excellence
So what can be done to improve the state of CX amongst Australian brands?
KPMG lays out the ‘six pillars’ of customer experience excellence in the report.
They are:
- Personalisation
- Time and Effort
- Resolution
- Integrity
- Expectations
- Empathy
According to KPMG, all six pillars are “inextricably intertwined” and will help brands deliver to customers across all channels.
“The leading firms demonstrate mastery of these pillars and are outstanding across all of them,” the firm said.
Who’s doing it right?
When ranked, Singapore Airlines was the highest-scoring brand when it came to CX for the second year in a row.
Locally, RACQ Insurance was the best, with a number of other Australian financial services companies also finishing in the top 10, including Afterpay and NRMA.
KPMG Australia partner – customer, brand and marketing advisory Sudeep Gohil attributed the success of these companies to an understanding of customers and members.
“The top-ranking Insurance brands in Australia (RACQ insurance, RACV Insurance and NRMA Insurance) have all made significant in-roads in delivering a meaningful customer experience,” he said.
“Members continually praise these brands for the significant impact they have on communities across Australia. They do so by partnering with not-for-profit organisations and charities to practice purpose-driven promises they promote to their respective membership bases.”
