Customer experience continues to be one of the
greatest challenges to businesses across Africa and the Middle East, at a time
where customer expectations are the highest they have ever been. This
disconnect is exposed as Dimension Data reveals its findings in NTT
Ltd.’s annual Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report titled “The Connected Customer: Delivering an
effortless experience”.
The study’s primary finding is that companies in
Africa and the Middle East are not delivering this effortless experience.
According to the research, only 6% of organisations are delivering a fully functioning experience, yet
more than half (63%) consider CX to be their primary differentiator.
Organisations struggle to align their CX strategies to
voice of customer (VoC) feedback, with 68% having no formal process for
considering this data and 28% which capture no feedback at all. Only 31% fully define
and track the value contribution of CX and more than a third (38%) are able to connect data
relationships between channels – leaving the rest operating ‘blind’ with no
full view of the customer ecosystem. That said, the collection of VoC feedback
by organisations is improving year on year – there has been a 45% improvement
since 2019 in those capturing some form of feedback and 8% now perceive their
VoC program to be at an advanced level across all channels.
MEA Customer Experience
Executive Nompumelelo Mokou agrees. “We are living in
interesting times, and given the spread of Covid-19 across the globe this has
become even more real. A global pandemic like this shifts customers’
expectations even more, and highlights the gaps for effective customer
experience strategy. It heightens the need for organisations to adopt client
first systems and cultures that go beyond the value statement on boardroom
walls”.
“Organisations that
fundamentally understand their customers, how to engage meaningfully and
personalise service, will be forerunners in responding to customers needs,” she
said.
“Although organisations
agree that data is key in understanding their customers; there is diminished
impact when this data is not properly configured and managed. Uncoordinated
data leads to incongruent customer outcomes. Now more than ever business needs
to automate and integrate artificial intelligence, robotic process automation
and data analytics in day to day customer interactions to augment agents’
response rates and key complaints resolution. Already several banks and
insurance companies have been optimising their branches and customer
interactions centres, it is business unusual and it requires agility and
fortitude to adapt to change,” said Mokou.
Strategy
starts with listening
A successful CX strategy is proven to improve customer
and brand engagement, and drive commercial performance, yet many organisations
are still stuck in the developmental stage due to siloed technology systems, inconsistencies
in experience, and a lack of clear processes. Specifically, challenges include:
- Faltering technology
systems: Nearly one in three (30%) say their technology systems
are failing to meet current needs and many teams still struggle with legacy
systems (52%) and the integration of multiple technology systems (43%).
Additionally, the inability to secure budgets (57%) remains a concern and
skills shortages is seen as a growing concern (38%)
- Siloed channels and internal
business organisations: Almost two thirds (63%)
of organisations agree there is only partial collaboration between functions
when it comes to designing CX, and 11% don’t collaborate at all. More than two
thirds (69%) still have no cross-channel contact management strategy and only one
third (33%) claim to have good or complete consistency across contact channels.
- Inconsistent
priorities: Personalisation capabilities have
surged from 49% to 73% in one year, but just 12% of organisations place
“customer delight” as the top driving force behind their customer journey
design strategy. This may account for why over one third (36%) of
assisted-services enquires fail to be resolved during first contact, while
automated channels fare worse with a 45% fail rate.
Creating a smarter CX with data analytics
While just over three
quarters (78%) of organisations indicate that they are satisfied with their
customer satisfaction capability, only 9% of their customers rate customer
experience at ‘advocacy’ level. Worryingly, just 5% of AI and robotics users
say customers rate their experience at advocacy level, exposing the gap between
emerging technologies and satisfaction levels.
This demonstrates that
businesses need to create a smart strategy which
bases AI on optimum data, organisations must learn to fill the gap between data
management and integration, and prioritise an efficient data management
platform. As it stands, more than half (62%) of data capture needs are defined and
aligned to desired business outcomes, and just 19% have a dedicated team managing
the company’s entire data lake. In fact, 18% have no data management strategy
at all. Because of this, data is becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
More than half (54%) of all teams are evaluating and learning how to use
available data and over a third (35%) do not have the required data management skills
or resources to do so.
An increasing number of organisations are moving
towards the use of smart data to inform CX decisions but are often overwhelmed by
this transformation. Half of businesses confirmed data analytics and data
management will be one of the top three tech initiatives prioritised by the CX
team. Analytics (61%) is expected to be the top factor in reshaping the CX
industry within the next five years. This is closely followed by artificial
intelligence (57%), service personalisation (48%) and technology integration (45%).
Overcoming business organisational structure challenges
Many organisations believe AI and automation is the
future for creating operational efficiency, hyper personalisation and providing
an effortless customer experience. Rules-based robotic solutions “are the
preferred option both now and in the short term with AI being the top five year
priority.”
The vast majority (81%) of organisations also believe
customer operations will be positively impacted by AI and CX robotics in the
future, followed by business insight and customer intelligence (66%) and
workplace management/operational productivity (53%). However, the
implementation of AI remains difficult. Looking forward, businesses must find a
solution for the current lack of skills across the business, which is currently
considered a challenge for more than half (58%) of organisations today.
