Despite the statistical fact that 95% of consumers will remain loyal to companies that provide outstanding customer experiences, only 12% of Australian companies are doing so, according to the fourth Future of Business report.
The Future of Business report was released during the Optus Vision conference in Sydney on Wednesday.
According to the report, only 39% of customers reporting a good experience are likely to remain a customer of that organization, compared to 95% of customers who reported an outstanding one. Customers with an outstanding experience were also five times more likely to become brand advocates compared to customers with good experience.
Conversely, nearly 80% of customers who reported a bad experience indicated they told people about it either by word of mouth or online.
So why are Australian companies so far behind in delivering great customer experiences?
The top reasons cited in the report were:
· Budget constraints (47%)
· Competing internal agendas or priorities (38%)
· Lack of department alignment (33%)
Speaking at the Sydney event, Optus Business president John Paitaridis told attendees he wasn’t surprised by the report’s findings.
“We should not be surprised that ‘good’ is not ‘good enough,” he told attendees. “However, you may be surprised with the difference between what good means and what outstanding means, because that has a massive impact on customer loyalty and retention. The key point here is the majority of our customers are at risk if the only level of service we’re providing is only ‘good’. Only outstanding customer experience creates advocates.”
According to the report, 60% of customers can tell when an employee doesn’t have the information and tools to be able to deal with their request, and more than one-third notice when staff members make them wait.
“We can’t hide – customers can see what’s happening and their expectations are high. And as we are listening to customers and trying to get better, the bar keeps moving higher,” Paitaridis continued. “Customer expectations will rise over the next one to two years.”
According to the report, 51% of companies surveyed claimed customer experience is driving technology investments, but they’re failing to put the right amount of value on the human element of the equation.
What’s more, companies with brand aligned departments were far more likely to deliver strong customer experience.
The Optus report was based on surveys of 550 companies across enterprise and government, as well as more than 5,000 customers.