A new report from Genesys shows 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.
APAC stands overall at 54% on the Customer Experience Readiness Index, indicating untapped potential for innovation and implementation opportunities in the future.
COVID-19
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.
ANZ 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.
Artificial Intelligence (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 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.
