Customer Experience Readiness: COVID-19 Exposes ANZ’s Business Continuity, Leadership, Technology Adoption and Experience Planning

A new report from leading cloud customer experience technology provider, Genesys® reveals the preparedness of businesses to transform their customer and employee experience strategy in a rapidly evolving digital environment. Leaders from six Asia-Pacific (APAC) economic regions had their perception measured in the Genesys Asia-Pacific Customer Experience Transformation Readiness Index 2021.

The survey of decision-makers responsible for customer experience strategy covered six dimensions of readiness: leadership, employee experience, digital experience, business continuity planning, artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and cloud adoption.

In a plethora of interesting findings and interregional trends, APAC stands overall at 54% in the Customer Experience Readiness Index, indicating significant untapped potential for innovation and implementation opportunities in the future.

COVID-19 turned the spotlight on business continuity preparedness

Business continuity planning has taken on new meaning in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic across all industries, especially in markets with large contact centres. Almost 63% of companies surveyed across all regions have work-from-home strategies to support business continuity but only a quarter (26%) can support over 70% of agents to function remotely. In Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), 70% of organisations have medium to high levels of readiness to face any unexpected crisis, significantly higher than the APAC average.

Australia tops in cloud adoption

Over half of the companies (53%) in (ANZ) have adopted cloud, the highest across the APAC region. Overall, 44% of companies surveyed have transitioned to cloud contact centres, while 39% intend to do so within the next 24 months.

71% of companies view agility, scalability, availability to integrate and update new features, and upgrades as the biggest drivers for cloud adoption.

AI is fast becoming a critical pillar of the overall experience strategy. 70% of companies surveyed across all regions have adopted AI capabilities such as chatbots and voice bots, of which 41% report over 30% automation rates.  In comparison, ANZ has been slower in AI adoption (62%) than our Asian counterparts with only 29% of organisations able to capture automation rates of 30% or more. The near-term opportunity for AI is in the use of predictive engagement and agent assist capabilities like routing tools, forecasting and scheduling.

Digital channels are catching up with voice for delivering better customer satisfaction

Digital experience scores are on par with the regional average. 41% of companies in ANZ, expanding into digital channels report interaction through non-voice avenues, exceeding 30% of activity. Of these companies in APAC, 59% achieved either similar or higher Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores or Net Promoter Scores (NPS) from digital, as compared to voice channels alone. This number was much lower in ANZ at 48%, indicating that there is a significant opportunity for improvement.

ANZ needs to prioritise Employee Engagement

Though companies from ANZ scored higher than the APAC average across most dimensions, employee experience scores are lower than average by 10% (at 45%), suggesting the need for more emphasis on employee experience management for better readiness. This result is surprising given the high level of attention paid to this topic by business leaders in ANZ.

Member of the report’s Customer Experience Advisory Panel, and Head of Contact Centre for Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia, Rendar Mahardhika Putra said: “Cloud is the key enabler to drive the innovation and transformation of the contact centre. It is an enabler in this unprecedented time we are facing, as it bolsters remote agent mobility. It keeps us agile and will enable the sustainability and scalability of our contact centre.”

On employee experience, Andy Hardy, Strategic Director Employee Engagement, Genesys commented: “In Australia and New Zealand, the high uptake of agile business platforms such as Genesys Cloud™ means our clients are well prepared to transform in an uncertain environment. However, just as the logistics, systems and technology required to run world-class contact centres need to be ready to adapt to change, so does our approach to employee experience, which is fast emerging as a key driver for decision making.”

Customer experience delivery is complex and requires orchestration across multiple fronts, utilising the right mix of technology, processes, and people to accommodate the change.  With 62% of companies having established or initiated steps to establish cross-functional teams in place and only 11% considered “effective”, Leadership readiness emerges as the single biggest challenge and opportunity for companies in APAC as per the Genesys Asia-Pacific Customer Experience Transformation Readiness Index 2021.

Key findings of the research will be shared via an interactive webinar on Wednesday 4 November. To register visit: https://www.genesys.com/en-sg/resources/the-asia-pacific-customer-experience-transformation-readiness-index-2021

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Research results

Press and analysts may request a copy of each country’s survey findings from the Genesys media relations team. For Australia and New Zealand contact genesys@zadroagency.com.au

Research Methodology

Genesys partnered with research firm Twimbit and surveyed 492 business and IT decision-makers across the APAC region with contact centre seats ranging from 10 to over 3,000. The industries surveyed include eCommerce, telecommunications, financial services, education, business services, healthcare, government, manufacturing, travel, transportation, and hospitality. The survey period in the second half of 2020 is positioned as an Index and benchmark for companies to follow in 2021.

Interviews

Limited interviews are available with Andy Hardy, Strategic Director Employee Engagement, Genesys. Please contact genesys@zadroagency.com.au for further information.

About Genesys

Every year, Genesys® delivers more than 70 billion remarkable customer experiences for organisations in over 100 countries. Through the power of the cloud and AI, our technology connects every customer moment across marketing, sales and service on any channel, while also improving employee experiences. Genesys pioneered Experience as a Service^SM so organisations of any size can provide true personalisation at scale, interact with empathy, and foster customer trust and loyalty. This is enabled by Genesys Cloud^TM, an all-in-one solution and the world’s leading public cloud contact centre platform, designed for rapid innovation, scalability and flexibility. Visit www.genesys.com/en-sg.

©2020 Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. Genesys, Genesys Cloud, Experience as a Service, and the Genesys logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Genesys. All other company names and logos may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies.

Media contacts

Genesys APAC

Manali Pattnaik, Senior Public Relations Manager, APAC

Genesys

manali.pattnaik@genesys.com

+65 8321 7924

Australia

Yvette Schlegelmilch, Account Manager

ZADRO

yvette@zadroagency.com.au

+61 423 954 224