Tag: Qualtrics

Singapore – As the financial services industry in the Asia-Pacific region has reached maturity and high adaptability, around 22% of consumers in the region are stating that they eye switch financial service providers, with 48% of the respondents saying that they are inclined to use digital banks instead, new data from experience management (XM) company Qualtrics shows.

According to their latest report, 25% of those aged under 40 and 21% of 41-50 year olds say they plan to change who they bank with over the next year. In contrast, just 14% of people aged over 50 plan to switch banking providers. Similar results are seen in insurance, as 29% of people aged under 40 are likely to switch, compared to 27% of 41-50 year olds with20% of those aged over 50.

Qualtrics notes that the product and customer experience consistently ranked in the top reasons driving trust in providers, and the reasons for choosing digital-only offerings. Alongside competitive rates and brand perception, the quality of the mobile app and website, products, and customer service are also some of the top factors driving trust in the industry. 

In addition, consumers said they were opting for digital-only offerings for better customer experience, lower fees and charges, flexible products, higher returns, and more personalization.

“While Asia Pacific is a hotbed of innovation and opportunity for financial service providers – from traditional players through to emerging fintechs – what’s clear from our research is that share of wallet is dependent on the quality of the physical and digital experiences provided. Consumers are actively hunting for products, services, and engagements tailored for their rapidly changing needs and preferences,” said Harish Agarwal, head of customer experience solutions and strategy for Qualtrics in Southeast Asia, India, and Greater China.

He added that this means organizations that are able to quickly listen, understand, and act on customer feedback will have a significant advantage.

The report also stated that despite two-thirds of respondents saying they were satisfied with their banking provider (68% of respondents) and health/life insurer (65% of respondents), a significant portion of consumers are still looking to switch, as 22% are planning to change who they bank with, and 27% are looking to change their insurance provider.

Regarding service feedback, around 69% of respondents said it was very important their provider captures ongoing feedback from them regarding products and services – and that most especially, feedback is acted on. Meanwhile, 48% of respondents said it was unlikely they’d purchase from a provider in the future if the organization failed to respond to their feedback.

Consumers are also moving away from traditional providers when it comes to investing, with 73% saying they adopted digital channels to meet their needs, such as online brokers, fintech apps, and digital wealth management solutions. Younger consumers are consistently the most willing to engage non-traditional providers.

Singapore – Global experience management (XM) provider Qualtrics, in a bid to strengthen its presence in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) by 2024, has announced new senior hires for the company’s presence in the region, as well as stating that the company will also target to hire 1,200 new hires for the APJ team.

The new senior hires are Jason Laufer as managing director for ANZ, John Seo as managing director for Korea, and Navneet Narula as managing director for India.

In regards to the 1,200 target new hires the company has mentioned, Qualtrics is hiring for its seven offices in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, India, and Hong Kong. This comprises all departments, including sales, professional services engineering, operations, customer success, and marketing.

The announcement comes after Qualtrics has recently scaled its operations in the region, which includes opening a new headquarters in Sydney and a data center in Singapore. According to the company, these company moves come as businesses and governments increasingly turn to Qualtrics to help them deliver customer, employee, brand, and product experiences.

For Zig Serafin, CEO at Qualtrics, organizations around the world are in the middle of an experience transformation –– and there is a massive market and category opportunity ahead of us. He added that experience data is becoming the most valuable data within an organization, hence the investments the company is making today will help them grow across Asia Pacific and Japan, and ensure they continue to help their customers build their next great customer, employee, product, and brand experiences.

Meanwhile, Brigid Archibald, managing director at Qualtrics in APJ, commented, “To help our customers succeed in this age of experience transformation, Qualtrics is committed to continually investing in and expanding our local operations. As a result, Qualtrics continues to lead the way in equipping businesses and governments with the tools, services, expertise, and support needed to design new experiences for our evolving world, and then continuously improve them.”

Through the expanded team and capabilities, Qualtrics will provide customers with world-class support and services enabling them to quickly and effectively discover and take action on the immediate and evolving needs of customers, employees, and the wider market. Additionally, customers will gain access to local and global industry leaders and XM communities to share learnings and best practices, and receive breakthrough research and benchmarks from the Qualtrics XM Institute.

Singapore – Experience management (XM) platform Qualtrics has announced the launch of several customer experience (CX) oriented tools, including an XM-oriented operating system called ‘XM/OS’ which enables companies to bring together all of their experience data—what their customers and employees are telling them about their company and brand—analyze it, and easily take action.

Through XM/OS, companies can design new ways of working by listening to their employees and acting on their feedback, so they can attract and retain the best talent, increase employee engagement, and improve productivity. It also helps them use customer feedback to design the products, services, and experiences that their customers want next, resulting in decreased customer churn, increased lifetime value, and reduced cost to serve. 

At the core of XM/OS are three interconnected services—XM Directory which listens to and remembers customer needs, iQ which uses AI to automatically understand what’s happening and why it’s happening among customer sentiments, and xFlow which builds a culture of action around customer and employee feedback.

“Companies that want to emerge as leaders in the future need to capture and truly understand the feelings and emotions of their customers and employees, and then act on that data to design the experiences they want next and continuously improve them over time,” said Brad Anderson, president of products and services at Qualtrics.

Other CX tools Qualtrics have launched include:

  • DesignXM: a powerful new research and testing platform for insights professionals, market and consumer researchers, and user experience designers. DesignXM provides these professionals with the ability to easily conduct sophisticated research, access quality market, and customer data on-demand, and make confident business decisions based on customer insights. 
  • Experience Design Studio: includes 16 new solutions that enable any business leader across every function—product, marketing, UX, and more—to quickly and easily design new products, services, and campaigns based directly on customer feedback and input. With expert-built research methodology, pre-configured analytics, and visualizations, these new solutions make it easy to optimize every product, package, and pricing decision based on what customers are saying they want.
    • Market Research: Identify and Prioritize Investments Based on Customer Insights
    • Product Experience: Design Breakthrough Products Customers Will Love
    • Customer Experience: Create Loyal Customers Across Every Touchpoint

“At a time when it’s easier than ever to change providers, every business leader is trying to understand what their customers want and need, and deliver those experiences better and faster than their competitors,” Anderson stated.

He added, “The companies that thrive take an outside-in approach to designing new products and services—they’re constantly in touch with how their customers think and feel, and they act on those insights to deliver what they want now and in the future.”

Tokyo, Japan – Experience management (XM) platform Qualtrics has renewed its current partnership with IBM Japan in order to aid organizations in the customer experience (CX) through Qualtrics Experience Management Platform.

IBM joined the Qualtrics Partner Network (QPN) in November 2019 and established a dedicated Qualtrics team to support XM implementations. In February 2020, all members of the dedicated team were certified as Qualtrics consultants. 

The team has delivered professional implementation of Qualtrics EmployeeXM to organizations in Japan, including winning orders for large-scale employee experience projects and receiving the highest satisfaction score in IBM Japan after implementation.

Through the renewed partnership, IBM Japan becomes the reseller and implementation partner for Qualtrics in Japan. As Japan’s first-ever certified Qualtrics reseller, IBM Japan will provide one-stop support to customers implementing the XM solutions from Qualtrics to help them accelerate and expand the value of their investment.

According to Satoru Kumashiro, managing director of Qualtrics Japan, their appointment as an official reseller of Qualtrics in Japan is “a testament to the proven abilities of Qualtrics, which is already being successfully used by leading Japanese companies.”

“In a world where businesses succeed or fail based on the experiences they provide, Qualtrics is proven to help businesses across the globe design and continually improve the experiences delivered to customers and employees. As we continue to rapidly scale our operations in Japan, Qualtrics’ strategic partnership with IBM ensures businesses across the country can benefit today from the industry leading Experience Management Platform,” Kumashiro stated.

In addition to acquiring the Qualtrics reseller certification, IBM Japan will focus on achieving the partnership goals of continuous expansion of the XM market in Japan and expanded support for XM solutions to Japanese customers.

Singapore – Experience management (XM) company Qualtrics has announced three new customer experience (CX) solutions, specifically designed to attract more customers and increase loyalty to businesses in the mid of a global pandemic.

First on the list is ‘Relationship Health’ which gives companies a continuously updated view of the health of their customer relationships to help them deliver more personalized experiences, improve customer loyalty, and reduce attrition. In addition, organizations can collect feedback consistently across the customer journey to get an up-to-date view of the health of their customer relationships at key milestones. 

As a result, companies can see how overall customer health impacts business metrics, such as share of wallet, so they can quickly adjust strategy. The solution also routes feedback automatically to the right teams, such as customer care or sales, and surfaces recommendations to help them take the right action at the right time.

In terms of a holistic view of an organization’s business-to-business (B2B) relationships, the new solution ‘Account-Based Relationship Diagnostic’ can help them build deeper connections and drive more revenue. Said solution combines experience data from every contact within a customer’s organization to give sales and customer success teams a complete view of the account’s overall health. 

Instead of using just one individual’s feedback as a measure, teams can understand the key drivers for the overall account based on every stakeholder’s point of view of the customer experience. The account-based approach will become the anchor for successful B2B sales and customer success teams to measure relationship risk and generate actionable insights across the entire customer journey.

Lastly, the ‘Digital Support Optimization’ helps companies deliver frictionless customer care through any digital channel. This new solution enables care teams to use feedback to uncover gaps in their digital support experiences that may lead to unhappy customers and increased use of costlier support channels. These teams will also be able to deliver better customer support experiences across digital channels such as their website, text, and automated chat to increase customer satisfaction and reduce call center traffic.

In a press statement, Qualtrics stated that the pandemic has challenged every company to respond to sudden shifts in customer expectations —from the way people want to interact with customer service to their expectations of how brands responded to the crisis.

“As we move into the post-pandemic world, the most successful companies will make their decisions by deeply connecting with their customers to understand changes in their expectations, predict future behaviors, and create great experiences, even in the face of uncertainty,” the company stated.

For Jay Choi, chief product officer at Qualtrics, companies will need to adopt an experience-first approach to customer relationships moving forward due to the fact that the past years had customer preferences and expectations evolved significantly.

“The most successful companies adapt and thrive even during disruptive times by understanding the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind customer behaviors and using that data to proactively design and deliver the best experiences for their customers,” Choi stated.

Manila, Philippines – PLDT Global Corp. (PGC), the international arm of Philippine-based telecommunications company PLDT, has announced that it has partnered experience management (XM) company Qualtrics to redesign its customer experience (CX).

PGC will be utilizing and standardizing the use of Qualtrics’ CustomerXM program in order to better understand and act on customers’ unique needs. Qualtrics will provide PGC with a single platform to capture, analyze, and act on experience data, enabling PGC to uncover deeper customer insights, scale and personalize engagements, and automate workflows to resolve or escalate customer issues in real time.

Furthermore, CustomerXM integrates with PGC’s existing CRM platform to deliver further value. Bringing together experience data from Qualtrics and operational data from the CRM platform aims to assist PGC in better understanding the drivers of its CX so the company can take targeted action to continually design and improve the experiences delivered.

According to Leah Garcia, VP for experience at PGC, Qualtrics’ XM service best serves the company’s commitment to bring innovative services across their customers and enterprise partners globally.

“We will be able to listen closely to the needs of our customers and rapidly respond, which will ensure PGC continually brings to market the products and services our customers want and deserve,” Garcia stated.

Meanwhile, Mao Gen Foo, head of Southeast Asia at Qualtrics stated that their service comes in response to the recent consumer behavior shifts by the offset of the global pandemic, which has also changed customer expectations significantly.

“It’s a reality that means being able to listen, understand, and rapidly act on the changing needs of your customers is a key competitive advantage. By standardizing its CX program with Qualtrics, PGC is well placed to unlock critical insights enabling the company to continually design and improve customer experiences that drive business outcomes,” Gen Foo stated.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Employee engagement drivers have seen significant changes from 2019 in the Malaysian employee experience (EX) scene, new research from experience management (XM) company Qualtrics.

The research was conducted to observe the ongoing trends among Malaysian workspaces, and their goal to improve employee engagement through company strategies, dedications, campaigns, and great leadership. The shown results imply what employees look forward to in their respective workspaces and institutions.

The research noted that some of the key EX drivers among Malaysians are ‘feeling that my career goals can be met’ and ‘being proud of the company’s efforts to have a positive impact on the world’, as well as ‘confidence in senior leadership to make the right decisions, feeling a sense of purpose from work’, and ‘feeling a sense of belonging’.

Meanwhile, Qualtrics’ 2019 research on the same topic revealed the key drivers ‘were receiving recognition for good work’, ‘seeing a clear link between work and strategic objectives’, ‘opportunities for learning and development’, ‘manager support in career development’, and ‘confidence in senior leadership to make the right decisions’.

“2020 irreversibly changed the working world, and globally we saw engagement drivers shift considerably last year. As businesses and governments look forward to 2021 we expect to see these engagement drivers evolve once again as restrictions continue to change,” said Lauren Huntington, EX solutions strategy for SEA at Qualtrics.

Despite the challenges faced by businesses and government in 2020, overall levels of employee engagement in Malaysia increased to 67% in 2020, from 54% in 2019. This is in line with the global average, which rose 13% from the last year (66% in 2020 versus 53% in 2019). Meanwhile, the intent to stay within an organization for three years or more was at 71% in 2020.

In addition, well-being, which is an important contributor to overall EX, continues to be a priority for workers and is predicted to be a key trend for organizations in 2021. A sense of belonging is of particular importance in the context of well-being. Employees who feel like they belong are almost five times more likely to rate their well-being favorably than those who feel like they don’t belong (78% in 2020 versus 16% in 2019).

“To ensure teams are provided with the support and services they need in fast changing situations it is critical leaders are able to understand how emerging trends are reshaping the workplace, and what they can do to design and improve employee experience,” Huntington stated.

The research also noted that 93% of employees believe it’s important their company listens, with 80% saying they have the opportunity to feedback. However, only 34% say their company acts on feedback well.

The research revealed that the business impact of listening and acting on feedback is huge. When organizations do take action, scores increase across employee engagement (90%), wellbeing (87%), and intent to stay (87%).

“While it’s pleasing to see employers listening to their teams, the study outlines the critical importance of acting on feedback. There is no one size fits all approach to improving the employee experience. By capturing responses from their teams across the entire employee lifecycle and in key moments that matter, businesses are able to design improved experiences,” Huntington concluded.

Singapore – The pandemic, which caused a drastic decline in retail sales, has created a new brand loyalty shift among Singaporean consumers causing for them to switch brands this year, new research from customer experience company Qualtrics show.

About 56% of the respondents have opted out for cheaper brands during the pandemic. Similarly, 57% of the respondents said that they are more likely to buy items on promotion, while half (51%) have bought different brands due to availability.

“While we know consumers will always value cost, quality, and convenience, findings from the Qualtrics study highlight the major extent to which people are actively seeking out alternatives. In fact, a third of respondents said they have tried at least one different brand since the pandemic began,” said Lisa Khatri, research and brand experience lead for Qualtrics in APJ.

The research also showed renewed consumer priorities among Singaporeans in terms of where to spend their money.

There has been a significant increase in purchases relating to takeaways and home delivery systems (50%), fresh food (42%), and packaged groceries (37%) as well as utility bills and service expenditure (47%), and cleaning products (35%). On the other hand, the majority of the consumers said that they’re spending less on luxury brands and products (60%), entertainment and travel (60%), eating out at restaurants (55%), and alcohol (48%).

Singapore – As COVID-19 restrictions are in place, more and more Singaporeans are shifting towards patronizing digital gateways, a report from customer experience management company Qualtrics shows.

About 57% of the respondents said they have made more online purchases at this time, and shifted towards using online banking; while the study also found a 44% increase in online grocery shopping was also evident among respondents.

“After months of disruption, we are beginning to see new behaviors and preferences emerge that are likely to remain post-pandemic. There is no doubt that there has been a massive shift towards digital, making it critical for brands to ensure they are able to optimize the experience they deliver on their digital channels including mobile applications,” said Harish Agarwal, Qualtrics’ head of CX strategy for Southeast Asia.

The study also probed on Singaporeans’ concerns during the pandemic, where the majority of respondents, 92%, shared that they are still worried about the global pandemic and its effects on normal activities.

Despite growing pandemic concerns, some Singaporeans were shown to be optimistic about resuming routine activities such as  using public transport (61%), eating out at restaurants (58%), visiting a park (51%), and going to the mall (50%) in the next six months.

“Simultaneously, even though Singaporeans are beginning to go back to some previous habits, high levels of ambiguity remain, meaning businesses must be able to understand and quickly respond to changing environments,” Agarwal added.

Singapore ﹘ Consumer preferences are perpetually shifting, all the more during the pandemic, and with Singaporeans, the majority – 52% –  have expressed that their most preferred mode of brand communication is sales and promotional emails from brands, according to a study by Qualtrics. 

This was followed by a desire to learn updates from brands on their response to the pandemic with 48%. Meanwhile, information into products and services came to a close third with 47%, followed by safety and hygiene protocols with 43%, while 41% stated they want receiving brand communications pertaining to reward programs. 

At large, the drivers of brand trust among Singaporeans is when they see brands are not taking advantage of a crisis to maximize profits (40%), followed by maintaining reasonable pricing (37%) and taking care of customers (32%) and employees (27%).

Lisa Khatri, research and brand experience lead for Qualtrics said “Being able to identify, understand, and respond to rapidly changing expectations is business-critical during the pandemic, and long after it. The fact that preferences toward the message and the medium have changed and yet the importance of actions remains hugely important reveals brands cannot afford to stand still in how they engage consumers.”

“As we move forward through the pandemic preferences and attitudes will continue to shift. This is why it’s hugely important businesses use technology like Qualtrics to have an “always-on the pulse” of consumer sentiment and behavior tracking. Insights delivered by Qualtrics help identify the lead indicators businesses need to design and deliver the brand communications and experiences people want, and which ultimately cultivate the trust needed to succeed,” added Khatri.