Poor customer experiences are threatening brand loyalty, with nearly one-third (31 per cent) of consumers in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) opting to take their business elsewhere after a dissatisfactory interaction last year.
The highest CX expectations are among Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) consumers with 80 per cent switching brands after receiving between two and five frustrating customer service interactions. Also, 52 per cent become enraged by a dropped call compared to just 25 per cent of respondents in Japan and 21 per cent in China, for example. New research today from Genesys, a global cloud leader in experience orchestration, also reveals the No. 1 challenge for APAC organisations is keeping up with rising consumer expectations — putting their bottom line at risk as they struggle to deliver relationship-building experiences.
In the third edition of this Genesys global benchmarking study, ‘The State of Customer Experience Asia Pacific” edition examines how consumer preferences for personalised, empathetic experiences, rapidly increasing digital channel use, and declining satisfaction with automated interactions create mounting pressure for organisations worldwide.
Bad Experiences Kill Customer Loyalty
Expectations about what makes a great customer experience (CX) are rising faster than most organisations can keep up with — and consumers aren’t afraid to walk away when their needs aren’t met.
- A quarter of APAC consumers have lost their temper during a business interaction; some (13 per cent) had experiences so bad that they were driven to tears. Less than half (41 per cent) of APAC consumers have felt highly valued after a call, and this figure is even less in ANZ at 35 per cent.
- ANZ consumers are nearly three times more likely to be upset by a dead-end chatbot than consumers in either Japan or South Korea.
- Across the APAC region as a whole, nearly two-thirds of consumers (63 per cent) say they would only buy or prefer to buy from companies aligned with their values and willingly pay more in the process. The exception is ANZ, where just 37 per cent of consumers would be prepared to pay such a premium.
“It’s clear from the State of CX report that customers are willing to take their business elsewhere if their interactions with businesses are not handled quickly, professionally and with an empathetic approach. Business and CX leaders must therefore shift their focus from business-centric, ‘inside out’ to people-centric, ‘outside in’ decision-making. In practice, this involves adopting technology to deliver proactive, predictive, and hyper-personalised experiences to deepen their customer connection across every marketing, sales, and service moment on any channel,” said Mark Buckley, vice president, Australia & New Zealand, Genesys.
CX Excellence Requires Seamless Experiences and an Investment in Employees
As organisations invest, consumer preferences and attitudes should play a key role in determining which technologies and tools to use:
- Better chatbot and employee connections start with knowledge: While chatbot use for customer service is on the rise, so is consumer frustration. In fact, while 44 per cent of the surveyed CX leaders across APAC say they currently use proactive chatbots to engage website customers — a higher percentage than any other region in the world — only 20 per cent of consumers find chatbot engagement an extremely satisfying experience. Consumers cite not being able to reach a live agent from a chatbot and having to repeat a conversation they had with a bot to an agent as their top frustrations. For organisations to reap the potential of bots, they’ll need to focus on creating a more seamless flow of the right information across channels and interactions, making it easier and faster for customers to accomplish their goals.
- Connected customer experiences are key: According to CX Leaders, the biggest challenge to delivering seamless experiences is the lack of carryover of customer context from one channel to another. To resolve this, most organisations recognise they need stronger capabilities to coordinate every consumer touchpoint. Some 74 per cent of CX leaders in APAC say that implementing a customer experience platform that integrates systems is their top technology priority for 2023. The key focus is better visibility, from the enterprise level down to individual interaction data to drive omnichannel CX and coordinate each step of the customer experience.
- Voice is no longer the leading channel: With digital channel use accelerating, on a global level, email has overtaken voice for the first time as the most common method to reach customer service (72 per cent using email vs. 68 per cent using voice). However, just 12 per cent of APAC respondents overall selected email as their top-ranked channel for CX interactions, since it typically does not result in a first-contact resolution — consumers’ most important criterion. When given a choice, APAC consumers still prefer a call, with voice interactions as the primary choice of communication overall. However, preference for this channel falls quickly based on customer age (Almost half per cent of baby boomers prefer voice vs. just 20 per cent of Gen Z), requiring organisations to evolve their customer engagement model for this digital generation.
The State of Customer Experience report from Genesys reinforces that for organisations to succeed today, they must take a people-centric, unified approach to customer and employee experiences. Organisations that leverage digital and AI technology to deliver the power of personalisation and empathy in every experience will stay ahead of competitors by building loyalty while managing business costs.
To learn more about the insights, download the study here.
Research methodology: In November 2022, Genesys worked with an independent research firm to survey 5,517 consumers and 646 CX decision-makers (“CX Leaders”) in 18 countries worldwide. Among the business respondents, industries represented were banking, government, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, professional services, retail, technology and telecommunications. The Asia-Pacific report focuses its analysis on the responses of 1,017 consumers and 166 business leaders gathered from Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
