APAC marketers seek greater role in customer experience

SINGAPORE: Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) companies may want to take heed of the famous quote by American actress Mae West-"An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises"-particularly as it relates to delivering on brand promises made to Asia's 4.3 billion consumers.

In a new study on the state of customer experience across APJ, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council reports that only 26 percent of marketers surveyed believe their back-office systems and operational structures enable their companies to live up to brand promises and marketing claims.

The CMO Council, in partnership with SAP, gathered insights from 245 senior marketers in 16 Asia-Pacific countries through an online audit during the third and fourth quarters of 2013. Findings from the audit show that only 10 percent of respondents felt there was strong alignment and synergy among functional heads when it comes to ensuring a seamless experience across all customer touch points and operational areas of the business.

With the voice and influence of Asia's mobile device-connected, socially active and brand-conscious consumers mounting, regional marketers feel they need to step up their game when it comes to ensuring that companies live up to marketing claims and brand promises on an operational, after-market support and back-office-systems level.

"There is no point in wasting marketing resources on seducing customers with offers, incentives and captivating branding if there is a big disconnect on the product, business policy or service experience side," noted Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "You'll just see churn, disaffection and bad word-of-mouth, which can be quite damaging in a socially connected region like Asia."

The CMO Council notes that just 23 percent of marketers surveyed in APJ have calculated how the customer experience has directly impacted business performance through lost or gained revenue, retention, defection, detraction or advocacy.

APJ marketers believe customer-centric cultures require CEO mandates, management commitments and employee empowerment that is driven by real-time market insights, more personalized engagements and higher-value, actionable information and analytics delivered across the organization.

From a benchmarking standpoint, the CMO Council study, entitled "Maximize How You Individualize," reveals that the customer experience lacks measurement, accountability and dedicated resources throughout APJ-based companies and multi-nationals operating in the region. This is surprising considering that 45 percent of survey respondents represented companies with $1 billion or more in revenue, and 30 percent held positions at companies with annual sales between $100 million and $1 billion.

Ownership of the customer experience is seen by survey participants to be fragmented and distributed across multiple titles and areas of operational responsibility, including the CMO (31 percent), head of service and support (10 percent), vice president or director of customer sales and service (9 percent), chief operations officer (8 percent), chief sales officer (6 percent), and chief experience officer (6 percent).

Only 39 percent of marketers feel these individuals have the authority and budget to really influence and impact CXM.

Most notably, the CMO Council highlighted the following key data points resulting from the study:

· Just 25 percent of companies have conducted a customer experience management (CXM) audit across all touch points, life stages and operational areas.

· Only 36 percent of marketers report having a formal CXM strategy or program in their organization.

· Only 24 percent have a comprehensive view of engagements and interactions across all stages of the customer lifecycle.

· Only 8 percent say they have well developed and fully evolved systems for understanding and meeting the needs of customers.

· Just 11 percent are highly satisfied with their ability to listen and respond to the needs of the customer.

In addition to the online survey, the CMO Council and SAP engaged on a qualitative level with groups of senior marketers in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Mumbai, New Delhi, Seoul, Singapore and Sydney. Conversations with more than 160 marketers across APJ evidenced a strong desire for chief marketers to be the primary champion and ombudsman for the customer experience, tracking satisfaction, loyalty, reputation and word-of-mouth.