Focused on customer experience, APAC marketers dial up mobile-first strategies
As companies decisively move to make exceptional customer experience (CX) a point of differentiation for their brand, a study by Econsultancy in partnership with Adobe take a closer look at the regional differences between Asia Pacific, Europe and North America on how marketers interpret and prioritise the different elements of a brilliant customer experience.
The Econsultancy report, Digital Trends 2015, surveyed more than 6,000 marketers worldwide, with 14 per cent of respondents from Asia Pacific. The results showed that marketers are grappling with the complexities of creating a CX-friendly culture but are aligned in their determination to differentiate their business through customer experience, with 78 per cent of respondents in Asia Pacific, 79 per cent in Europe and 77 per cent in North America agreeing with this statement.
Paul Robson, President of Adobe APAC, observed that getting customer experience right was not a simple proposition for a business. He said, “Customer experience represents the entire range of interactions a customer might have with a business, covering a range of touch points from awareness and discovery, right through to purchase, use and ideally, advocacy. It’s a complex proposition for a business to serve up a consistent and excellent series of touch points across a lifecycle that moves from real life to digital; from store front to website and social networks. But it’s a challenge that marketers in Asia are embracing.”
The Econsultancy report drilled down into where organisations were placing the highest emphasis on in terms of improving customer experience. Compared to marketers in North America and Europe, APAC marketers are betting big on delivering the most personalised and relevant experience possible, with 38 per cent nominating this as their top priority compared to 32 per cent in the other two regions.
Where does your organisation place the highest emphasis in terms of improving the customer experience?
When asked about the primary ways in which their organisation will seek to differentiate itself through customer experience in the next five years, more regional differences were revealed. The majority of respondents in all three regions selected customer experience and service: making it fun, easy, valuable and pleasurable to do business – North America 42 per cent, Europe 46 per cent and APAC 46 per cent. However, more APAC marketers were focused on becoming a ‘mobile-first’ business , with 10 per cent of respondents identifying this as their top priority compared to 7 per cent in Europe and just 5 per cent in North America.
Over the next five years, what is the primary way your organisation will seek to differentiate itself from competitors?
“The smartphone dominates as the device of choice among the majority of APAC consumers, and is used to research, communicate and make purchases, so it makes perfect sense that more marketers here than anywhere else in the world are prioritising development of a mobile- first business,” explained Mr Robson.
However, when asked about the building blocks needed for a company to create an exceptional CX, Asia Pacific marketers also had some distinctive views that may impact the development of some of their more ambitious visions. 55 per cent of North American respondents ranked technology and tools as being among the three most critical elements in the delivery of customer experience, compared to only 43 per cent in APAC. Among North American respondents, 15 per cent of the 55 per cent ranked technology and tools as the most important delivery factor and 18 per cent as second most important; compared to 7 per cent (first) and 16 per cent (second) in APAC.
Instead, APAC marketers identified strategy, culture (a cross-business approach with the customer at the heart of all decisions) and the development of digital marketing skills combined with analytics and technology as the most important building blocks that will help a company transform its customer experience approach. Marketers in North America and Europe were aligned, identifying the same three elements as the most critical.
“Customer experience is forcing organisations to create a more integrated approach, with marketing no longer simply carried out by the marketing department but at every customer touch point, which is dramatically changing how the brand experience is delivered. This research shows that we’re seeing a high level of marketing sophistication in digitally-aware Asian businesses, whose marketing leaders are transforming their organisations to ensure brand is central at every moment of customer experience,” summed up Mr Robson.
