inmoment cx trends special edition post-pandemic …
TRANSCRIPT
APAC
How APAC Organisations Can Succeed in the Future
InMoment CX Trends Special Edition
POST-PANDEMIC PLAYBOOK:
01
As the quarantine lockdown regulations ease, customer and employee expectations are evolving yet again.
COVID-19 has impacted the vast majority of businesses across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. Whilst
the conclusions in this report help us understand our new world, there is still more work to do, making new ways of
customer listening and taking action more important than ever.
Our research produced three themes that will guide CX-minded individuals as they set out to create memorable
experiences in our brave new world:
There’s good news for organisations in these findings. Businesses are right to focus on building trust with their
customers and employees, however simply listening to feedback (without action) is not enough. Adapting your
experience program is vital for recovery and customer experience professionals in APAC are telling us exactly how
to move forward.
Accelerating Digital
Experience is Vital
Engaged Employees Are
Your Secret Weapon
Businesses That Evolve
their Experience
Programs Will Thrive
Introduction
Theme #1 Theme #2 Theme #3
02 CX Trends Special Edition
To come to the most informed conclusions,
we have included results from specific
market research and survey initiatives we
have performed on behalf of our customers.
We’ve also included survey response rate
analysis from our client programs and
conducted 30 qualitative conversations with
CX professionals in this region to understand
the business effects of COVID-19.
In May 2020, InMoment also surveyed 74 CX
and Research professionals like you across
AsiaPacific to determine the post-COVID
business impact and the way forward for
organisations. This playbook summarises
both quantitative and qualitative feedback
from across a range of industries in Australia,
New Zealand and South East Asia. Data has
been cleaned and validated.
03 CX Trends Special Edition
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
1. Accelerating Digital Experience is Vital
Since the pandemic hit, it’s unsurprising to see there has been a
move toward digital experiences.
The shift toward digital is likely due to a combination of factors;
for some APAC industries, the contact centres are receiving
a higher volume of enquiries than ever, and there is a lack of
options for consumers to visit physical locations to resolve
issues. For other organisations, offshore contact centres have
become non-operational and they’ve been trying to manage
customer enquiry volumes domestically. In the last three
months, organisations have been investing in interactive voice
response (IVR), chatbots and digital deflection methods to
answer the more simple customer queries and relieve the added
pressure to contact centres. We’ve also seen FAQ’s pushed
online and new digital communication threads describing ever-
changing COVID-19 company updates.
The Pandemic Has Digitally-Enabled Consumers
Across Generations
It’s not just millennials who are digitally self-servicing. Whether
it’s a consumer with lower digital confidence, or one that
simply preferred to handle their own business in person,
COVID-19 has pushed many customers to self-serve channels
because there may not have been another option.
04 CX Trends Special Edition
Our research shows a 50% increase in businesses servicing
customers through different channels.
Three in ten of these businesses have had to add new digital
channels to sell their products and help serve customers.
50%
0
100%
KEY TAKEAWAY
All consumers—not only millennials—are heading
to digital platforms to self-service. It’s important
that your brand offers them a seamless online
experience, captures these insights and takes
action to meet evolving consumer expectations.
05 CX Trends Special Edition
As Self-Service Ramps Up Contact Centres are Left with
BIG Challenges
It’s no secret, contact centres have been at maximum capacity.
As more customer contact shifts to digital and self-serve for
the simpler questions, contact centre agents are left dealing
with more complex consumer problems or more challenging
tasks which typically result in lower CSAT score.
“It is important to ensure that organisations have the right listening posts for these new or different moments of truth along the customer journey to understand the impact on experiences. You can fix the problems you know about, but you can’t fix the problems you don’t know about.”
It’s Time to Accelerate Digital Self-Service Roadmaps
As businesses move forward, digital channels will only become
more important. The ‘new normal’ in Asia-Pacific means more
time at home and less time in stores. Consumers are relying on
digital brand experiences more than ever, and it’s important that
your brand accelerates its digital roadmap to accommodate
these new expectations.
DAVID BLAKERS, INMOMENT’S MANAGING DIRECTOR OF APAC
06 CX Trends Special Edition
2. Engaged Employees Are Your Secret Weapon
Needless to say, one of the biggest
impacts of COVID-19 has been the way
employees do their day-to-day work.
Unsurprisingly, 73% of employees are
now working from home.
Across all industries, 64% of businesses
have adjusted policies and processes
to support working from home. Across
Asia-Pacific, we’ve seen a successful rapid
evolution of IT systems and processes to
allow for hundreds of internal staff mem-
bers to stay isolated in their homes whilst
continuing day-to-day business operations.
Understandably, senior leadership has
become more invested in the employee
experience as a result. Businesses are
reporting that 68% have seen increased
senior leadership communication with staff
members about their engagement and
experiences since the isolation period began.
One in two employees (51%) believe that
their organisation has supported them
more during this time. There has been a
positive reception from employees as they
recognise their respective organisations
taking steps to protect their health and
safety, encouraging flexible working
and delivering ongoing communication
around COVID-19 during this time. In most
instances, organisations are providing
teams with the tools to work remotely and
encouraging greater collaboration and
communication between colleagues.
In this remote work environment, nearly half of
employees believe that their work productivity
has increased.
Less commonly, some businesses are
showing support to their employees in
new, more empathic ways. These include
checking in regularly on how employees
73%of employees
are now working
from home
GILLIAN MACKAY, INMOMENT’S HEAD OF CONSULTING, APAC
“Most people have experienced
some degree of upheaval in their
working lives through COVID-19,
and many have been impacted
on a personal level. The organisa-
tions that have best managed the
employee experience through the
crisis have done this through ongo-
ing senior leader engagement with
employees, action taken around
new ways of working, support for
flexibility and a high degree of
empathy for employee’s work and
life challenges”
are feeling, being flexible on previous
agreed targets and objectives, additional
training and support in juggling work and
caring for and homeschooling children.
07 CX Trends Special Edition
KEY TAKEAWAY Businesses have adapted to work-from-home conditions, which has
included extra check-ins with employees regarding health, safety,
working flexibility, adjusted KPIs and the ‘new normal’. It’s crucial for
businesses to have the right listening posts in place and continue to
monitor changes to working and servicing, shifts in reasons for calling,
ability to respond on aspects including hardship, and increased self
serve on digital. When employees are engaged, your customers are
getting a better experience.
Sources & Further Reading:Better CX Begins with Employees | The Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance
2xCompanies with high employee engagement
scores have 2x the customer loyalty
than companies with average employee
engagement levels.
My functional needs are met
Customers
Employees
I come to work and to my job
I like working here my manager and my team
I had a good product/service delivery experience
I like them and will go out of my way to use them
I care about my job and want to stay here
I will recommend them to others
I love my job and want to contribute to make it a great place to work
Cust
omer
Loy
alty
Employee Engagement
DELIVER SATISFIED LOYAL ENGAGEMENT CREATES ADVOCACY
We know that there is a strong relationship between employee
engagement and customer experience outcomes. The data around
employee engagement and its impact on revenue has been growing.
The Harvard Business Review reported that 71% of businesses
surveyed ranked employee
engagement as “very important” in achieving overall organisational
success. Additionally, companies with high employee engagement
scores have twice the customer loyalty of companies with average
employee engagement levels.
08
3. Businesses That Evolve their Experience Programs Will Thrive
When the pandemic hit, we saw entire
industries adapt their business model
seemingly overnight.
Data from a study we conducted in the US
market reveals that customers are more
satisfied with pandemic responses from
restaurants and shipping industries. On the
other hand, customers are least satisfied
by COVID-19 responses from companies in
technology (online-only retailers, mobile,
and television) industries. But why?
The answer lies in the timeliness with which
businesses from these industries were able
to adjust their processes and services to deliver
for—and in some cases to—customers.
Take for example the restaurant industry.
Almost immediately following self-iso-
lation orders, businesses were partnering
CX Trends Special Edition
with third-party delivery services or even
creating their own delivery options in order
to keep meals going from their kitchens to
the dining room tables of hungry guests.
In many cases, the only differences guests
noticed in their interactions with these busi-
nesses was that they didn’t need to leave
their house in order to indulge in their
favourite foods.
In line with this, a global InMoment study
highlighted that online retailers were rat-
ed the lowest for their COVID-19 response
and effort. Various inefficiencies that in-
volved a slowness to adjust pace and
safety measures in fulfillment centers led
to low stock, overwhelmed customer ser-
vice centers, and ultimately, negative ex-
periences and comments
09 CX Trends Special Edition
Keeping customers happy is a key priority for organisations
across Asia-Pacific. And the best way to do this is to adapt and
evolve your experience programs. As expectations are at a crit-
ical point of transformation, it’s never been more important to
keep a pulse on the valuable feedback of your loyal customers
and employees.
In APAC, half of our CX Leaders believe an experience program
is more important than ever. These businesses recognise that
re-focus and adaptation is necessary for the program to capture
new touch points across the customer journey.
Organisations Have Adapted by Leveraging Empathy
When businesses communicate with their customers—especially
in the midst of a crisis—empathy should be at the front of the
message. A short formula for success would be, “we understand
what you are going through and therefore, here are the actions
we are taking to help you.
Many of our clients have adapted their survey invitation
wording to be more empathetic. A great example of this is
ahm Health Insurance:
“In APAC, it’s clear that senior leaders are keeping
the customer experience top of mind. In fact, 58%
of organisations said that senior leaderships have
communicated more with customers since the
pandemic hit.”
CUSTOMER STORIES:ADAPTING FOR SUCCESS
ahm Health Insurance
ahm has tweaked their survey invites for sensitivity. “Together
we’re living through some uniquely challenging times and
the wellbeing of our members and people is our number
one priority. At ahm we ask for feedback to understand the
concerns of our members and get better.” —example from
an COVID-adapted ahm survey invitation
Organisations Have Adapted by Adding COVID-19 Text
Analytics Categories
Just over a quarter of organisations have added a text analyt-
ics category for COVID-19. This has enabled businesses to delve
further into COVID-specific customer experiences and use these
insights to inform strategic business decisions moving forward.
HELENE JAMES, INMOMENT’S SENIOR CX CONSULTANT
10 CX Trends Special Edition
CUSTOMER STORIES: ADAPTING FOR SUCCESS
The NRMA, an Australian member organisation, is using
information sources across the entire business to moni-
tor and make decisions, one of these is the Coronavirus text
analytics category. The VoC team is updating senior man-
agement twice a week, calling out references to COVID-19
within VoC trackers including critical areas of the business
like roadside assistance and Thrifty car rentals. The team
has also built a specific “Coronavirus” dashboard to moni-
tor comments as they come through. Overall, the tool acts
as a cross-check function for business decisions to ensure
that opportunities to serve the customer better during
this challenging time are not missed.
Organisations Have Adapted by Accommodating Hardship
Whilst hardship isn’t a new concept for APAC businesses, the
onset of COVID-19 has meant organisations have had to adapt to
additionally cater for this segment. Half of businesses surveyed
are providing flexible payment options for their customers and
there have been rapid changes to policies to support this. Some
organisations have made decisions to defer payments and avoid
billing customers all together during this time. As a result, these
businesses have commented on strengthened relationships with
their customers. For other businesses, financial support and relaxed
payment options cannot be made, which can create a drop in CX
and negative media sentiment. Many organisations have seen an
increase in calls regarding hardship and this creates an additional or
expanded moment of truth that shouldn’t be ignored.
Customer and employee experiences have evolved across all industries, and
closely monitoring both of these will be critical for businesses post-covid. As
CX resources become increasingly stretched, automating a closed-loop feed-
back program will help organisations protect loyal customers from churning.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Organisations Have Adapted by Automating
Customer Communications
As contact centres become overwhelmed with queries, APAC
businesses have adapted by auto-generating personalised
emails. These emails range from acknowledging their valuable
feedback, referencing related FAQs, and pointing consumers in
the right direction.
Organisations Have Adapted by Ramping up
Closed-Loop Feedback
In short, “closed-loop feedback” is when a business responds to
customer feedback. Nearly one in four organisations have shifted
their focus to service recovery and have commenced closing
the loop (CLF) with customers within their customer experience
program, when they weren’t before. There is a growing focus
among senior stakeholders in relation to customers who need
additional support at this time and this has also led to a refresh
of the CLF process.
CUSTOMER STORIES: ADAPTING FOR SUCCESS
In particular, we’ve noticed an Australian superannuation com-
pany adapting its processes for success. As physical locations
shut down in the midst of the pandemic, this super company
redeployed frontline staff roles who have experience success-
fully resolving customer queries, from physical locations to
closed loop feedback service recovery via phone.
We all recognise that when it comes to historical moments
that matter, it’s not the specific dates that are the most im-
portant. It is what we learn from them and how we move for-
ward that helps us to do better and be better as a society that
truly makes a difference.
Out of all researchers and professionals surveyed, almost half
of these CX leaders are planning to or currently implement-
ing changes to their customer experience programs to better
meet post-COVID-19 expectations.
11 CX Trends Special Edition
Looking to the Future
• 360 degree program review. Our CX leaders are reviewing
fundamental program designs to include new channels and
monitoring new moments that matter across the customer
journey.
• More eyes on CX results. As stakeholders across the
organisation are increasing and renewing their focus
on the customer experience, our data shows that ex-
perience program results are becoming more visible
through new and existing channels
• Regular customer check-ins. CX teams are reaching out
more frequently to consumers to check in. These feedback
programs include questions about what is important to the
customer, options for receiving ongoing communications
and enquiries to how they feel organisations are delivering
to safety measures.
CX
CXCX
CX
CX
CX LEADERS
• Big focus on closing the loop. Across the board, we are seeing
businesses build and improve their closed loop feedback pro-
cesses to recover and protect as many customers as possible.
• Surveys are getting shorter. Our CX leaders are maintain-
ing solid response rates by ensuring surveys are short,
relevant and engaging.
• Less talk, more action. CX professionals know that their valuable
customers need to see businesses taking action. Our data shows
businesses diving into unstructured feedback from text analytics
engines sharing these valuable insights across the business.
• Formalising an employee program. It’s no longer optional
to have an official employee experience program in place
to listen to feedback from the most important asset of any
organisation—your people.
HERE’S WHAT FUTURE-PROOFING YOUR EXPERIENCE PROGRAM LOOKS LIKE IN ASIA-PACIFIC:
Summary
12 CX Trends Special Edition
COVID-19 has brought the importance of agile customer and
employee experience programs to the forefront of APAC’s biggest
organisations. The pandemic illustrated the importance of crisis and
change management, planning for contingency as well as CX and
employee engagement, and how these aspects should be incorpo-
rated into business-as-usual processes.
Overall, our research has shown that those businesses who keep a
close eye on what’s happening from a customer’s perspective are
those that have and will continue to thrive. It’s time for experience
programs to adapt and evolve as businesses move forward and
both customer employee needs and expectations change. As cor-
porate priorities shift, it is more important than ever that customer
and employee experience programs are aligned to these priorities.
Channels to customers are changing, reasons for contacting the call
centre are changing, more customers are experiencing hardship,
companies who have experienced closure or similar and might be
ready or able to re-engage soon. It’s important to keep a close eye
on what is happening from the customer’s perspective at these
times and to be in a position to respond.
Many companies have rapidly adopted agile approaches to cus-
tomer responses and are proud of their ability to think and deliver
different solutions. Looking forward, there is opportunity for or-
ganisations to learn from the progress made and to set themselves
up for post-pandemic innovation across customer experiences and
employee solutions.
CX (CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE)
• Now Is the Time to Assess & Reinvent Your
CX Program
• Five Ways to Adapt Your CX Program Amidst COVID-19
• 4 Keys to Successful Customer Communication in the
Coronavirus Era
• How Your Experience Programs Can Step Up in a
Time of Crisis
MX (MARKET EXPERIENCE)
• Why Market Research is Vital to Your CX Program in
Times of Crisis (and Beyond!)
EX (EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE)
• Revealing the Power of Experience Programs in Times
of Crisis
• Tips to Help Your Employees Stay Healthy While
Working from Home
HERE IS A COLLECTION OF ALL OF OUR
COVID-19 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU
THRIVE POST-PANDEMIC:
[email protected] | Follow us:
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and employees at every moment in their journey. Our clients gain the wisdom of our experts—who
bring deep domain knowledge in experience design and delivery—coupled with our award-winning
Experience Intelligence (XI)™ platform that continually analyses and evaluates enterprise experience
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