In a region where customers prefer a ‘mobile-first’ company, creating great customer experiences is quite a daunting task.
Yes, we are talking about the Asia-Pacific region where smartphone adoption overtook computer adoption for the first time in 2014. At present, brands are struggling with the complexities of creating a CX-friendly culture in APAC.Since customers have moved to mobile for most of their shopping and transactions in this region, brands are betting big on providing more personalised and proactive customer experiences whenever possible.
According to Frost & Sullivan – over 6 in 10 consumers in APAC are willing to pay more to companies that deliver excellent customer service, with more than 40% willing to pay 20% more.
Customer expectations in APAC are rising at a superior pace as compared to developed economies like the US and Europe. This means that people in the region demand more from omnichannel, social media, live chat, etc.
At this juncture, brands need to realise that they need to up the ante to provide more than just good customer experiences. Businesses need to dole out a continuous serving of CX memories – memories in the form of awe-inspiring experiences for customers to remember, and ultimately resulting in deep admiration for any brand.
Creating CX memories is a continuous process, and brands’ work doesn’t cease to exist after creating an awesome memory. In fact, CX memories are all about moving forward from one great customer experience to another.
Ameyo can help brands doing business in APAC to create awesome CX Memories by aligning their workforce and empowering them to take informed decisions on behalf of customers.
This is exactly what some companies have been able to attain, of late. Leading Indian cab service company – Ola Cabs has an ideal example of CX memory up their sleeve. Cabs usually get a lot of bashing from customers for delayed pick up, bad behaviour from drivers, and cab cancellation issues. To take all of this in and turn into something positive requires immense dedication and persistence. Surely, Ola has been able to pull of this feat.
This started when a company CEO faced tremendous issues while booking a cab at Ola, for his daughter, who needed to be at a friend’s birthday party. Eventually, his daughter missed the party. Therefore, the CEO posted a stinker tweet against Ola, to which Ola promptly offered to help by asking for the CRN number of the cab booking, and promising to set things right. However, the CEO was adamant to escalate the issue with another tweet – “Now you can’t do any damage control, had awful experience”. Moreover, he had also sworn to write a detailed review about his bad experience in the first tweet.
At this time, most companies would try to escape the issue, and try to dump it, but Ola decided to actually sort everything, for the better. And boy, they did manage to create an awesome CX memory! Ola wrote a letter addressing the CEO’s kid, saying sorry pretty courteously, along with sending a cake for her, and adding some credit to her mother’s Ola account. This gesture brought a smile to the kid’s face, and so the CEO dropped the idea of posting a detailed bad review about Ola.
In a recent study, APAC marketers were asked – ‘Over the next 5 years, what is the primary way your organization will seek to differentiate itself from competitors?’ 46% of the marketers said that customer experience – making it easy, fun, and valuable is the differentiating factor.
E-commerce giant Amazon is perhaps the best example to portray that proactive CX is the way forward. They have been offering flexible return policies and faster delivery services, apart from rolling out online to offline strategies to improve CX.
The bottom line is loud and clear – think like a customer to understand their needs, become their friend, and ultimately garner their admiration.
