This year’s Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report (GCXBR) comes with quite some interesting results! NTT, a leading global technology services company, conducts this highly influential survey for 24 years in a row with the goal to assess the global status of CX. What do they have for us now?
The report reveals both positive and useful facts for everyone in the CX industry. As news and knowledge seekers, the CXM team members gathered the most important insights from the report for you!
The most intriguing feedback from CX organizations
NTT interviewed 1,359 professionals across 34 global markets and 14 different sectors to provide you with the most diverse and accurate information.
The research also included a voice of the customer (VoC) survey, supporting the results with customers’ opinions. Moreover, the VoC survey included 1,402 respondents for balanced input.
According to the results extracted, the overall disruption in the CX environment has also brought positive impact, raising the status of the entire industry to a more senior level:
- 75% of organizations now have ultimate accountability of CX held at the board level
- Around 71% of companies have ‘well advanced’ or ‘complete’ CX strategies
- 45% of organizations also state they are ‘very happy’ with their CX improvements from 2020
What’s even more interesting, a lot of organizations now want to automate all CX processes in a year. They also look for AI and robotics to handle future workloads, considering over a fifth of surveyed organizations reported their use of technology is delivering beyond expectations.
What do customers say?
It’s important to highlight that the above results were only partially echoed by the consumer survey. For instance, 87% of interviewees are happy to continue using digital channels in the future. Around 38% of them also noticed the quality of automated CX systems had improved during the pandemic. These are all positive responses, but there are some warning signs organizations should keep in mind.
- 52% of customers reported digital channels failing them due to limited capabilities or services
- More than 44% of interviewees experienced failures because digital channels misunderstood their queries
- Just 35% of people interviwed were ‘very satisfied’ with automated CX solutions
These results indicate organizations should pay close attention to customers’ online challenges. Although AI can be a powerful tool and support overall digital operations, there’s still room for mistakes and improvements.
Rob Allman, Vice President of Customer Experience at NTT said the following:
“The addition of VoC data this year has shone a spotlight on a really interesting situation. It’s allowed us to spot a – potentially growing – disparity between how businesses assess their own performance and how consumers perceive CX. The fruition of new technology in the CX space is exciting, but the ultimate focus always needs to be on people.”
The need for the human touch in a technology-driven world
Following the above stated, 38% of interviewed customers said their biggest reason for avoiding digital channels is the desire to speak to a human rather than a machine. What have organizations and leaders said on the topic?
Around 94% of CX decision-makers agreed that human-led support is crucial. However, less than half of them (46%) admitted having the technology necessary to fully support remote employees.
Considering this information, the major lesson from this year’s CX research seems to lie in the importance of a balance between technology and humanity. Although the CX maturity levels are rising across the world with the help of technology, organizations should not lose sight of customer feedback. They should keep track of the challenges and preferences of their consumers at all times, making a fine line between AI and humanity.