A new study from Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions and services, investigates the emphasis companies are putting on customer experience management (CEM) and finds that increasingly high expectations are creating a business environment where the majority of organizations are struggling to keep up. While CEM programs are being undertaken on a global scale by businesses of all sizes, the Avaya survey found that in India, 72 percent of the businesses have a CEM solution far better than the average of 59 percent globally but behind the 84 percent of businesses in China which have a solution in place.
CEM and Profits
CEM activities are strongly tied to business success and growth trajectories. The study found a solid correlation between a strong CEM program and increased profits. Globally, 81 percent of those who have seen a significant increase in profits have a CEM program in place, compared to those who have seen profits remain static (46%) or suffered a decrease in profits (35%).Companies see the biggest improvements in customer satisfaction, loyalty, retention and repeat purchasing, which the survey finds is largely attributed to the fact that 88 percent of customers, globally would rather spend their money with companies that make it easy for them to buy.
In comparison, India respondents felt the strongest about the importance of CEM in organizations with 75 percent of business managers in India describing CEM as extremely important, followed by Mexico (67%),the US (59%) and Brazil (59%).
What Indian Customer Expect
With regards to what customers expect vis-a-vis what companies are able to offer in India, 80 percent of the Indian customers expected to be treated as ‘unique’, with companies automatically delivering communications tailored to an individual’s preferences. In stark contrast with customer expectations, only 49 percent of companies deliver on this. 58 percent of companies in India are able to provide customer-facing staff with a single customer view in real time when a customer contacts the company. This is the higher in India in comparison to the other BRIC countries- China (48%), Russia (46%) and Brazil (43%).
45 percent of companies also say that they can link (in real time) all threads of communication across different channels (e.g. web, phone, social media etc.). However, the customer expectations are high on this front, with 80 percent of the customers surveyed expecting organizations to offer them a wide variety of contact methods and for customer-facing staff to be fully up to speed on past conversations, emails and tweets etc. Another area that technology has enabled, is for companies to be proactive with customers, which has the potential to deliver an exceptional customer experience. 47 percent of companies say their customers can be automatically notified by their corporate technology systems of potential problems (e.g. late order, stock issues, delivery problems etc.) and proactively offered solutions.
Bridging the Gap
Today’s multichannel/multidisciplinary way of working with customers requires strong support from enabling technology. 45 percent of businesses in India, say they can automatically produce in real time a record of a prospect’s contact history across all communication channels from the first point of contact, even if they have not become a customer. The importance of this is emphasized by the fact that 93 percent of customers in the country say the way a company treats them before they actually spend any money has an impact on how they feel about that company going forward. Avaya’s expertise and insights from working with thousands of companies and organizations in India and around the globe has resulted in a portfolio of Customer Experience Management solutions and services that enables the end-to-end experience customers want.
To this end, the company also announced Avaya Contact Center Select, a “right-sized” solution for midmarket businesses which enables a multichannel customer experience with the simplicity and affordability needed by this segment.
Johnson Varkey, Director, Contact Center Sales, India and SAARC, Avaya “A majority of businesses acknowledge the need for a comprehensive CEM program, but somehow fail to deliver on what it takes to implement one. The gap in India is quite wide as 80 percent of customers expect to be treated as unique whereas only 49 percent of companies deliver on this aspect.
Breaking down functional silos, tapping the expertise of internal and external resources and investing in technologies that bring customers and employees closer together will help put companies on the path to success.”
