MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) today released new research in partnership with Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) that shows how companies in Asia Pacific investing in customer experience (CX) are reaping the benefits. The study found a clear link between organisations with more mature customer experience capabilities, and improved business success in areas such as market share, increased customer spend, and pivoting processes over the last six months.
The new report, CX Champions: How CX Leaders who raise their game are driving business success, surveyed more than 1,000 CX managers and leaders globally - of which 250 were from Australia (N=64), India (N=69), Japan (N=57) and Singapore (N=60) - to better understand their investments in CX. From the research, ESG developed a CX Maturity Scale that segments organisations into three tiers of customer service maturity, based on seven key characteristics that cover how organisations use their support teams, technology and data to drive better performance. The three maturity categories are: Starters, which exhibit zero to three of the seven characteristics; Risers, which have four to five of the characteristics; and Champions, which have at least six of the characteristics in place.
Key findings from the report show that companies in Asia Pacific (APAC) that invest in CX yield significant benefits, including:
"The pandemic has been a catalyst for organisations to transform in order to sustain and grow their business. Our new research with ESG confirms the clear link between a focus on customer experience and business success. In fact, the business impact of investing in CX is even more pronounced in APAC than in any other regions," said Wendy Johnstone, Chief Operating Officer, APAC, Zendesk. "The accelerated shift to digital means customer expectations have never been higher, and the pressure is on for organisations to respond. The new reality is that delivering exceptional customer experience has become a business imperative for any organisations looking to future-proof their operations."
Adam DeMattia, Director of Custom Research at ESG, said, "Our research identified a clear connection between CX excellence and business growth. Companies that are at the Champion stage of the scale not only see better outcomes in traditional service metrics, such as resolution time and CSAT, but they're also experiencing positive business outcomes in customer spend, retention, and board-level support of CX as a business priority."
Less than a quarter of companies in APAC are at the top of their game
The research found that companies in APAC were at varying stages of CX maturity. While most organisations are identified as Starters (48%) or Risers (30%), with significant room for improvement in their customer experience, 22% of businesses in APAC identified as Champions, offering shorter response times, positive customer experiences and greater agility to respond to customers' needs.
Among APAC countries represented in the research, Indian organisations lead in maturity with 43% of respondents' organisations being categorised as Champions (relative to 25% of those in Australia, 13% in Singapore, and 0% in Japan).
Performing under pressure (and in a pandemic)
Reflecting on the first half of 2020, when companies globally had to rapidly transition to remote working, Champions were able to easily pivot to enable customer service and support agents to work from home. In fact, Champions in APAC were 14 times more successful than Starters at pivoting to remote work. Over half (56%) of Champions reported the shift to remote working as smooth, while over half of Starters (52%) say the transition could have been better or has been tough.
"Our results show that CX Champions were not only better positioned to manage the transition to remote work, but they also continued to drive positive customer experiences throughout the pandemic. Champions are four times more likely than Starters to report exceeding customer satisfaction (CSAT) targets," added Johnstone. "While the future remains uncertain and unpredictable, it's clear what organisations need to do to stay ahead - increase their ability to be more agile, invest in CX, and always be ready for constant change."
To prepare for the future and adapt to unforeseeable economic and societal disruptions, CX teams in APAC are putting the processes in place now and those leading the pack are feeling significantly more prepared for 'what's next'. Champions are 17.5 times more likely than Starters to be very confident in their organisation's ability to handle future disruptions.
Five lessons from Customer Champions
For businesses aspiring to move to the next stage of the CX Maturity Scale, the research calls out five trends that are consistent among Champions:
"As we see the trend that Champions are taking the steps to invest more in their tools, team and processes for CX success, Starters not only have the challenge of catching up to their competition in customer service, but also ensuring the gap doesn't widen," added DeMattia. "To make these gains, it will be critical for leaders at lagging organisations to make the most of their budgets by learning from their more mature peers and investing in the areas that can drive the greatest impact on their CX maturity."
Additional Resources
Methodology
To gather data for this report, ESG conducted a comprehensive survey of business decision makers responsible for ensuring and enhancing customer service and support at their organisations. Organisations represented spanned the globe, including North America (N=256), Europe (N=250), Asia (N=250), and Latin America (N=256). Organisations represented were split between SMBs (those with <100 employees, N=500), midmarket organisations (those with 100-999 employees, N=255), and enterprises (those with 1,000 or more employees, N=257). The survey was fielded between July 14, 2020 and August 8, 2020.
About Zendesk
Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds support, sales, and customer engagement software designed to foster better customer relationships. From large enterprises to startups, we believe that powerful, innovative customer experiences should be within reach for every company, no matter the size, industry or ambition. Zendesk serves more than 160,000 customers across a multitude of industries in over 30 languages. Zendesk is headquartered in San Francisco, and operates offices worldwide. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.
About ESG
Enterprise Strategy Group is an IT analyst, research, validation, and strategy firm that provides market intelligence and actionable insight to the global IT community. Learn more at www.esg-global.com
