On 27 June 2018, the Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) announced the results of its 2018 Q1 Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) study of the Retail and Info-Communications sectors at the quarterly ISE Industry Forum. Over 40 industry partners as well as media were present.
Overall, customer satisfaction levels remained statistically unchanged for both the Retail and Info-Communications sectors compared to the same period last year.
The Retail sector, comprising Supermarkets, Fashion Apparels, e-Commerce and Department stores, scored 72.6 points, reflecting a marginal year-on-year increase of 0.6%.
Among various satisfaction attributes measured in the Retail sector, ‘return and exchange policies’ was rated most poorly by local customers of Department Stores, Supermarkets and e-Commerce. This group of customers also had a much lower customer loyalty score of 27.9 points compared to a score of 72.6 points by customers who are satisfied with 'return and exchange policies’.
“Customers who rated return and exchange policies poorly in the retail sector are associated with lower customer satisfaction and loyalty scores,” noted Mr Chen Yongchang, Head of Research and Consulting, ISE.
The Institute also observed that customers who shop with a store’s physical and online operations are likely to be more loyal to that store.
“Consistent with our findings last year, omni-channel customers of traditional retailers tend to be more loyal compared to e-Commerce customers. This suggests that providing an omni-channel platform continues to be a source of competitive advantage against competition from e-Commerce players. Traditional retailers may wish to consider how best to leverage on digital channels to better serve and retain customers,” commented Mr Chen.
Within the e-Commerce sub-sector, respondents who said that the company’s website was the most frequently used platform tend to be more satisfied with navigation-related attributes such as ‘ease of comparing products’ and ‘ease of finding the products you need’, as compared to those who used the mobile app most frequently. In addition, these website respondents tend to spend more with the company at an average spend of $187.03 per visit, as compared to frequent mobile app users whose average spend was $148.67 per visit.
Info-Communications
The Info-Communications sector scored 70.4 points, a 1.1% increase over the same period last year.
Across all four sub-sectors comprising Mobile Telecom, Broadband, PayTV, and Wireless@SG, notable improvements were seen in perceived quality and perceived value scores. Mobile Telecom inched up in perceived product quality by 3.3%. Broadband improved in perceived service quality by 2.7% and perceived value by 2.7%. PayTV saw upswings in both perceived overall quality and perceived value by 4.3% and 5.2% respectively. These increases in scores were considered statistically significant.
While product-related attributes such as ‘network coverage’ and ‘network reliability’ remained as key differentiators of perceived quality and customer loyalty, service-related attributes such as ‘makes the effort to understand your needs’ and ‘has your best interest at heart’, were stronger differentiators this year compared to 2017.
“With the launch of new subscription plans, and the entry of new players, competition among telcos remains stiff. While having competitive product offerings continues to be important, we see service attributes as a stronger differentiator this year. Telcos may wish to consider efforts to improve customer service as a source of competitive advantage,” said Ms Neeta Lachmandas, Executive Director, ISE.
Of the Info-Communications respondents surveyed, 7.6% said they would consider switching providers once their current contracts are up, while 92.4% would not. Respondents who said that they will consider switching were associated with much lower customer satisfaction (50.3 points vs. 71.0 points) and customer loyalty score (46.2 points vs. 71.6 points). In addition, they also exhibited markedly higher complaint rate (27.9% vs. 3.2%) compared to respondents who were not considering to switch.
“Our analysis found that pricing, loyalty and rewards programmes, and subscription plans were the key reasons these customers were considering to switch providers. The majority of these customers tend to be those who had been with the telco for 2 to 4 years. Given the competitive landscape, telcos should pay close attention to this group of customers given their likelihood to switch to another provider,” added Ms Lachmandas.
Keynote Presentation
As part of the Industry Forum, Mr Malcolm Koh, Customer Experience Strategist APAC, Zendesk was invited to share his views on how to create an engaging customer experience and the trends driving retail customer experience in 2018.
With a career spanning 18 years in customer service and experience in retail, airlines, hotels, banking and insurance organisations, Malcolm’s last job was at Grab as the Head of Customer Experience. As the Customer Experience Strategist at Zendesk currently, he is responsible for helping existing customers scale their business and working with Enterprise customers to develop seamless, omni-channel solutions.
It’s all about the experience
The dawn of a more dynamic environment today presents challenges and opportunities to rethink customer experience. Organisations that recognise and understand how superior customer experience can be created within an omni-channel environment will be the ones that generate value and gain a competitive edge.
Trends driving Retail Customer Experience in 2018
Omni-channel is here to stay
Many retailers have multiple channels - website, app and retail stores. However, in most cases, these channels are siloed and disjointed, having very little interaction with each other, resulting in online and offline experiences that are totally separated.
Yet, data from Mindshare shows that an increasing number of consumers are using their mobile or tablet to research products while they are in-store (37% in 2017 vs. 28% in 2015). About 60% of consumers also said that retail brands will have to keep up with new technology in order to improve customer experience (up from 53% in 2015). This highlights the fact that whether or not retailers are ready, consumers are becoming increasingly omni-channel focused in nature, expecting the shopping experience to be a seamless and consistent one throughout the customer journey.
Technology as an enabler
Organisations should always review and assess what are the tools available to them to create these brand moments. By constantly analysing and Research from Forrester also shows that customers in USA are using more digital touchpoints such as FAQs, emails, chats, forums and social media. Despite the trend in digital transformation, Mr Koh believes that technology is an enabler and that it is complementary to other factors in building a superior customer experience, such as engaging the customers in multiple channels and harnessing data to provide better experiences to the customer.
A PWC study on Future of Customer Experience Survey 2017/18 shows that 43% of respondents surveyed feel that people will not get replaced even when technology becomes advanced, compared to 29% who feel that people will get replaced.
People are at the heart of growth
According to a recent study from Forrester, Customer Experience Leaders actually grow revenue five times faster than Customer Experience Laggards. So how do we build our company to be the one that customers want?
Mr Koh recognises that this may seem like a daunting task, but it may not be as hard as one perceives it to be. He suggests that organisations can begin by looking into their self-service and digital interactions with customers, automating conversations after analysis of data, and innovating labour models. Mr Koh also stressed the importance of empowering people, building the right team and employee engagement in an environment where 71% of customer experience is driven by the organisation’s agents. Hence the importance of how employees impact the customers.
Concluding the presentation, Mr Koh reiterates on how to engage with better insights to the customer:
Key Takeaways
Concluding the presentation, the following are the key learning points in order to synergise digital marketing and technology with customer emotions and relationships.
- Taking a holistic view of customer experience
- Having the ability to drive a customer-focused strategy
- Providing ways to demonstrate the revenue impact of support
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