Companies of all sizes across industries and geographies lack the capabilities needed to keep up with ever increasing customer expectations, according to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2019.
88% of Australian consumers view customer service as a key factor when making a purchasing decision.
Equally important is price and product/service offerings, also 88%, in the consumer purchasing decision.
At the same time, there has been a dip in overall customer satisfaction globally and in Australia.
Over the past five years, customer satisfaction in Australia has decreased by 0.94 to 95.13%.
Australian consumers have higher expectations of customer experience than the global average, showing the importance for Australian businesses to make CX a key focus in their business.
Half of Australian consumers surveyed said their expectations are higher than they were a year ago, compared to the global average of 46%.
Customers value fast replies and agents who address their issues around the clock, with 53% of respondents indicating that 24/7 availability is key, compared with 36% globally.
While fast response and resolution is key, some consumers can be left waiting nearly a whole day (22.8 hours) for a first reply, whereas 7.3 hours is the average positive first-response time in Australia.
Zendesk customer experience strategist for APAC Malcolm Koh said a great customer experience is key for Australian consumers.
“A great customer experience is now a huge part of Australian consumers' purchasing decisions.
“Consumers want fast and easy solutions, and the dip in customer satisfaction shows it's clear that Australian businesses need to up their CX game.”
56% of customers also highly value companies with online resources that enable them to answer their own questions through self-service before getting in touch with customer support.
Customers are almost four times as likely to use self-service as a company is to offer it, with 40% of customers starting their support journey with a search engine or help centre when getting in touch with support, while only about 10% of agent teams are offering self-service.
Despite an interest from consumers in using self-service as a first step before reaching out to a support agent, when it comes to technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), consumers are more inclined to stick with human interaction.
71% of consumers said they would prefer to interact with a human agent over AI.
Ye, they also feel AI is helpful in solving simple issues (51%) and in providing 24/7 support (51%).
While consumers do perceive the benefits of AI, they are still struggling to comprehend it.
54% surveyed that AI makes customer support interactions more confusing.
Support agents in Australia are aware of the perceived struggles when it comes to adopting AI.
Almost a third (28%) of agents agree that AI creates confusion and frustration for customers, yet they too see the benefits of AI in improving CX with 30% as providing customers with 24/7 support, and reducing the cost of providing customer support.
Zendesk ANZ director Rod Moynihan said businesses in Australia are already seeing the benefits of AI.
“It's no longer a question of if but when businesses will start deploying artificial intelligence to improve their CX.
“Already in Australia, our customers are seeing the benefits of AI, from cost reduction to improving efficiency.
“The challenges are there, but with the right strategy and commitment to ongoing improvement, I believe these can be easily resolved.”