KPMG Study: “Personalisation & Empathy” The Key For Post-COVID Brands

Australian consumer expectations have become more nuanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, with personalisation and empathy now the essential building blocks of a sustainable customer relationship, according to a new report from KPMG.

The KPMG Customer Experience Excellence report surveys over 20,000 people globally (and over 3000 in Australia) to evaluate which brands are delivering the top customer experience. In 2020, the research showed that Australian consumer sentiment had gone ‘back to basics’ as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an increased focus on home gyms and offices, digital retail and alcohol. This year, brands that clearly orchestrate personalisation and empathy such as Mecca and Bendigo Bank topped the list.

Carmen Bekker, partner-in-charge, KPMG customer, brand and marketing advisory, commented: “Personalisation continues to be recognised by Australian customers as the number one driver for customer experience, having the most impact on both advocacy and loyalty. The brands that bring together purpose with personalisation and can demonstrate that they go beyond ‘know me’ to ‘understand me’ will continue to win consumer hearts and minds,”

Retail has continued to build upon its market leading position across industries in driving customer experience excellence. This is despite retail facing significant second-year COVID-19 challenges including business impacts on omnichannel store network management, managing channel, customer and supply chain challenges and meeting customer expectations. Seven of the top 10 brands came from grocery and non-grocery retail, including fast food and quick service retail. Companies which support the online retail experience were also strongly represented, with Afterpay and Paypal also making the top10.

Topping the list for the first time is online beauty brand Mecca, which has demonstrated ongoing commitment to customer and employee experience. Mecca has rapid accelerated its digital and personalisation capability alongside physical retail expansion. Its loyalty program Beauty Loop avoids discounts and instead relies on a community of 4.3 million highly engaged customers to share data to create its leading customer loyalty and advocacy program.

Jenny Roche, Partner, KPMG Australia commented: “With customer experience becoming ever more complicated with multiple moving parts, the pandemic has forced many companies to reflect on how these moving parts can be better orchestrated to work more effectively and cohesively together to deliver holistic customer experiences.”

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