Australian firms failing to deliver good customer experience despite prioritising it claims report
Some of Australia’s biggest firms are delivering a mediocre or poor customer experience, with technology companies among the worst offenders according to a new study.
Forrester Research examined 58 firms across Australia with only 17 per cent deemed to provide a ‘good’ experience, while 52 per cent were judged ‘ok’.
Not one company was said to offer an ‘excellent service’ while almost a third (31 per cent) were deemed poor according to the survey of nearly 9,000 consumers.
These companies should spend less on promoting their customer service ethos and conducting obsessive-compulsive NPS surveys, and spend more on *actually delivering* good customer service. Only then will these results be different.
Telstra and the banks – take note.
If you gave the average manager the choice between:
a) Endless reports and graphs to monitor CX, or;
b) Improving CX enormously without any reports to show by exactly how much;
…which do you think they’d choose?
Of course. Everyone’s more interested in showing their boss that they’re doing something, anything, and consequently most companies are terrible at almost everything they’re supposed to do.
Across the retail sector there is plenty of talk about the customer experience and it usually eventuates in a digital experience rather than a real customer loyalty reward as the engagement facilitator.
“The mediocre performance by both retail channels is indicative of an industry that has had limited competition due to Australia’s location and relatively small customer base. However, the growing list of foreign brands setting up shop in the country is quickly whittling away these traditional competitive advantages.”
Amen.
Great summary of my report by Steve Jones – thank you.
There is no doubt most of our business leaders and their employees want to deliver a better, more differentiated, customer experience (CX) but the reality is they don’t have a strategic framework for doing so, leading to the mishmash of poor to average experiences Australia’s consumers are currently subjected to. (No, my editor wouldn’t let that through but he isn’t seeing this!). And there is also no doubt that companies that deliver great customer experiences (USAA, Amazon, Apple) have leaders that are truly committed to building CX capabilities within their organisations just as they build and support other, more traditional, business disciplines. Come on Australian business leaders – get in the game!.
@Tom
But Tom, to deliver an epic CX you have to, wait for it……….. D R U M. R O L LL: Give a hoot about the customer.
What purpose do many of our major Aussie brands stand for and are all depts alligned to thir purpose? The reality is most do not even have a purpose. They have a few pointless values, knocked up on a napkin to keep HR happy and rest is red tape and p1ssing in the wind……
Suspect this is more of problem ingrained into Australian culture itself, rather than corporate operations.
(Big thumbs re my prev typos.)
Compare Zappos and what they stand for versus the money grabbing, thieving ivory towers of Australia’s largest companies. The arrogance of a few meaningless company values. Again purpose is key. Customer first is key. Who on the list puts customers first? Zappos do, they are a benchmark.
The problem is Australia has become a county of rent seekers, especially exploiting monopoly, duopoly, virtual monopoly rents.
Who needs customer service when the customer has almost no choice to go anywhere else!