The New CX Mandate: Insights & Predictions of 1500 Customer Service Leaders

The New CX Mandate
Insights & predictions of

1500 customer service leaders
2020 SURVEY REPORT
SEA EDITION
Demographics
200 customer service leaders surveyed in the Southeast Asia region.
200 LEADERS
Malaysia Singapore
100 Leaders 100 Leaders
Germany Sweden Australia

200 Leaders 100 Leaders 140 Leaders
United States France United Kingdom

300 Leaders 200 Leaders 200 Leaders
Netherlands New Zealand

100 Leaders 60 Leaders
2 | The New CX Mandate

The state of customer service in 2020
Customer expectations rose through the crisis

80% of customer service leaders in SEA say they’ve seen an increase in
overall contact volume since February 2020.
01
Customers are increasingly turning to digital channels to transact with
businesses. Contactless customer service has become key to retaining
customers and addressing rising customer churn.
EXPLORE →
Globally, budgets have increased as well

67% of customer service leaders in SEA have seen an increase in available
budgets as compared to 2019.
02
Customer service leaders have turned to technology to boost productivity and
performance. Investments in live chat & messaging, AI-chatbots & automation,
and customer service platforms have seen a considerable increase this year.
EXPLORE →
2021 will be about agility

68% of customer service leaders in SEA expect remote work to become part
of the norm going forward. Over 71% of leaders expect a continued rise in
contact centre volumes through 2021 despite physical stores reopening.
03
Customer service leaders need to enable their teams to be agile and work
from anywhere. Implementing remote-ready technology is the way forward.
EXPLORE →

Managing customer
expectations

Customer expectations CX priorities Future predictions
Customers have become more demanding

through the crisis.
SEA
How have the following areas of customer service changed since Feb 2020?
Customer expectations
70% 20% 10%
Customer empathy
69% 24% 7%
Customer churn
70% 20% 10%
Increase No change Decrease
Please note: The percentages are rounded off to the nearest number
70% of customer service leaders in the Southeast Asia (SEA) have seen an
increase in customer expectations since February 2020.
Today’s customers are anxious, afraid to go outdoors too often, and keen on avoiding
crowded places. In this new social-distancing era, customers are turning to digital channels
to transact with businesses.
69% of customer service leaders in SEA state that customers have become more
empathetic since the crisis.
However, while customers might be more understanding of delays due to the crisis, they still
expect businesses to communicate with them proactively.
Any business that is unable to meet their standards is quickly abandoned for a competitor.
70% of SEA leaders have seen an increase in customer churn since February
2020.

Global Snapshot: How have the following areas of customer behaviour changed since
February 2020?
11% 14% 9% 17% 10% 22% Changes in customer

19% 23% 21% expectations since Feb
23%
26%
19% 2020
70% 68% 69%
63% 59% Increase No change Decrease
57%
SEA Global US EU UK ANZ
Changes in customer 8% 14% 8% 16% 11% 20%

empathy since Feb 2020 23% 18% 24%
22%
24% 19%
74%
Increase No change Decrease 69%
64% 65%
59% 61%
11% 14% 5% 18% 11% 24% Changes in customer

35% churn since Feb 2020
19% 27%
28%
27%
27%
70%
Increase No change Decrease
60% 62%
58%
55%
49%
6 | The New CX Mandate Please note: The percentages are rounded off to the nearest number
Director, Fifth Quadrant
"During the early stages of the coronavirus

pandemic, when contact centres faced the
twin pressures of a non-functioning phone
channel and a huge spike in call volumes,
organisations turned to chat and bots to fill
the void. COVID-19 is accelerating the trend
towards AI-powered customer interactions
and is a wake-up call for organisations that
don't have the capability in AI and
ttall
Dr Steve Nu
chatbots.”
Founder, Konnect Insights
"Think of your user and everything else will

follow. Customer experience is all about
empathy and giving them great experience
via your products, service, customer success
day in and day out."
kar
Sameer Nar

Customer contact volumes have also gone up.

With more customers staying at home, there’s been a shift in the support channel mix.
In-store traffic moved to digital and phone channels, and contact centres have felt the
impact of that shift significantly.
Over 83% of customer service leaders in Southeast Asia have seen an increase in
support volumes across digital channels like email, live chat & messaging, social
media and website.
SEA
What change have you seen in support volumes since Feb 2020?
Overall
1% 19% 49% 30% 1%
contact
volume
Phone 14% 52% 30% 3%
Email 16% 49% 28% 6%
Live chat &

1% 10% 46% 36% 7%
messaging
Website 1% 15% 51% 27% 5%
Social media 1% 11% 51% 31% 5%
0% 25% 50% 75%
-51% -50% to -21% -20% to -1% 0% to 20% 21 to 50% 51%+

Customer service teams are trying to keep

their head above water.
Over 45% of customer service leaders in the SEA region have seen a fall in
service quality, first response times and agent productivity.
Crisis impact on quality 45% 46% 41% 45% 52% 49%

of service
Positive No effect Negative
31%
28% 28% 29%
31% 22%
26% 26% 29% 27% 29%
18%
Crisis impact on first

48% 49% 52% 45% 58% 49%
response times
24% 26% 20%

24%
23%
22%
27% 29% 31%

28% 26%
22%
Crisis impact on agent 47% 47% 45% 46% 49% 48%

productivity
25% 27% 26% 25% 35% 25%
28% 30% 29% 27%

27%
17%
Productivity and efficiency took a hit.

The top three challenges faced by customer service leaders in SEA through the crisis:
SEA
Adapting to the shift in What are the biggest challenges your
channel mix - 30% customer service team has faced
through the crisis?
In-store traffic came to a complete
standstill after February 2020. Adapting to the shift in channel mix 30%
Customers were reluctant to leave the
safety of their homes and gravitated
Making process changes on our 30%
towards ‘contactless service’. As a
technology platforms
result, contact centres saw a huge
spike in volumes across channels like
Ineffective internal knowledge management 28%
phone, live chat and email.
Making process changes Forecasting and shift-scheduling 28%
on our technology
platforms - 30% Challenges with feedback and coaching for agents 27%
Several legacy platforms are rigid, and

do not allow for easy adjustments by
the users. Often, customer service Difficulty in managing agent workload 26%
leaders will have to work extensively

with the IT team and developers to
Tracking productivity and performance 25%
make even small changes to their
processes. The crisis emphasised the
weakness of such platforms from the Delays in responding to customers
and resolving issues 25%
start.
Ineffective internal Internal collaboration 25%
knowledge
management - 28% Operating with reduced staff 24%
With employees working from home

and unable to learn from one another
Not having non-traditional service channels 23%
easily, internal knowledge
management systems became key.
Customer service teams need a single Not having remote-ready technology in place 22%
source of truth to refer in case they hit
roadblocks and are unable to get in
touch with their colleagues.

Navigating the crisis

Thankfully, customer service leaders received

higher budgets.
67% of customer service leaders in Southeast Asia have seen an increase in total
available budgets as compared to 2019 plans. Customer service budgets have
increased, on average, by 11% in SEA, which is 3% more than the global average.
How have your customer service budgets been impacted when compared to 2019
budget plans?
SEA
35%
31%
27%
11%
SEA Average
0% 2% 4%
-51%+ -21% to -50% -1% to -20% 0% to 20% 21% to 50% 51%+
LOWER Please note: The percentages are rounded off to the nearest number HIGHER
GLOBAL
36%
24%
27%
8%
Global Average
6%
6%
1%
-51%+ -21% to -50% -1% to -20% 0% to 20% 21% to 50% 51%+

Industry Snapshot: Industries like Healthcare and IT & Telecoms have seen the largest
increase in their budgets. On the other hand, sectors like Retail, Catering & Leisure and
Finance have seen a significant dip in their customer service budgets.
GLOBAL
How have your customer service budgets been impacted when compared to 2019
budget plans?
Finance 1% 14% 30% 35% 13% 7%
Healthcare 13% 15% 34% 34% 4%
IT & Telecoms 1% 9% 24% 28% 27% 11%
Manufacturing 11% 33% 23% 24% 9%

& Utilities
Retail, catering 1% 12% 30% 28% 23% 6%

& leisure
Travel 3% 17% 29% 16% 19% 16%

& transport
-50% -25% 0% 25% 50% 75%
-51% -50% to -21% -20% to -1% 0% to 20% 21 to 50% 51%+

But staffing was unable to keep up with rising

volumes.
While staffing in customer service in SEA has seen an average increase of 8%, leaders are
unable to keep up with rising contact volumes. In fact, ‘operating with reduced staff’ ranked
second amongst the biggest challenges faced by customer service teams through the crisis
worldwide. 37% of customer service leaders in Southeast Asia have seen a
decrease in staffing since February 2020.
How has your customer service staff increased or decreased compared to Feb 2020?
SEA
35%
31%
11%
27%
Average
2%
4%
0%
-51%+ -21% to -50% -1% to -20% 0% to 20% 21% to 50% 51%+
GLOBAL
28%
28%
22%
8%
Average
14%
8%
1%
-51%+ -21% to -50% -1% to -20% 0% to 20% 21% to 50% 51%+

Industry Snapshot: 50% of customer service leaders in industries like Travel & Transport
and Manufacturing & Utilities saw a decrease in staff, while 60% of customer service leaders
in ‘Healthcare’ added more staff during the pandemic.
GLOBAL
How has your customer service staff increased or decreased compared to Feb 2020?
Finance 1% 12% 32% 26% 21% 7%
Healthcare 11% 16% 27% 34% 9%

37%
IT & Telecoms 1% 13% 35% 14% 26% 11%
Manufacturing
2% 17% 41% 24% 8% 8%
& Utilities
Retail, catering
1% 14% 29% 22% 26% 8%
& leisure
Travel
5% 17% 27% 21% 21% 8%
& transport
-75% -50% -25% 0% 25% 50% 75%
-51% -50% to -21% -20% to -1% 0% to 20% 21 to 50% 51%+

With human capital in short supply,

technology became key.
With rising customer expectations, Which tools, if any, are the most critically
important in helping you maintain service
high customer contact volumes,
levels through the crisis?
and volatile staffing changes,
businesses turned to technology for GLOBAL
a stable way to cope with the crisis. Live chat across web, mobile and messaging 44%
44% of customer service

Workforce management software 43%
leaders worldwide said live
chat & messaging were critical
Collaboration tools 42%
for them to maintain service
levels through the crisis.
Self-service customer portal 41%
Chat is a familiar, easy-to-use

channel for customers, and it also Internal knowledge management system 40%
boosts productivity internally.

Service agents are upto 3x more Feedback and coaching software 39%
productive on chat vs. voice
channels because they can handle Cloud-hosted customer service software 38%
customers concurrently.
Cloud telephony system 36%

Interestingly, customer-facing
AI-chatbots did not feature
Customer-facing AI-chatbots 35%
prominently.
“We were typically handling 35 calls per agent, but with chat, we’re able to increase that
number to 95 chats per agent. That’s 3x productivity!”
Rajan Manoharan
Head of Customer Care, SOCAR SEA

Regional Snapshot: In SEA, the most critical tools that helped customer service teams
through the crisis were collaboration tools, internal knowledge management systems, live
chat & messaging, workforce management software and cloud telephony systems.
Which tools, if any, are the most critically important in helping you maintain
service levels through the crisis?
SEA
Internal knowledge management system 37%
Live-chat across web, mobile and messaging 36%
Workforce management software 36%
Cloud telephony system 36%
Feedback and coaching software 35%
Cloud-hosted customer service software 33%
Self-service customer portal 29%
Customer-facing AI-chatbots 28%

Understanding
2021 priorities

Contact volumes are expected to continue

rising in 2021.
64% of customer service leaders in Southeast Asia expect in-store enquiries to

increase by June 2021. This indicates that leaders feel some degree of normalcy will
return with customers returning to stores.
Despite this, over 71% of leaders expect contact centre volumes to continue
increasing through 2021 across phone, email, chat & messaging, web and social
media.
Businesses need to be able to keep up with the growing support volumes and find a
balance between in-office and remote support.
How do you expect support volumes to evolve by June 2021 when compared to
June 2020 levels?
SEA
Decrease 6%
No Change 23%
Increase 71%
Overall contact volume
Decrease 3% Decrease 5% Decrease 3%

No Change 23% No Change 18% No Change 14%
Increase 73% Increase 76% Increase 82%
Phone Email Live chat & messaging
Decrease 8% Decrease 4% Decrease 12%

No Change 21% No Change 15% No Change 24%
Increase 71% Increase 80% Increase 64%
Website Social media In-store
However, staffing is not expected to return to

pre-crisis levels before June 2021.
By what point do you expect staffing to recover to February 2020 levels?
SEA
End of 2020 22%
June 2021 44%
December 2021 19%
2022 or later 12%
Not sure 2%
We don't expect a complete recovery to previous staffing levels 0%

Employees are overworked, and automation

comes to the forefront.
With businesses moving to remote Which, if any, are the most important
work, employees have been forced priorities for your customer service
operations?
to try and manage the overlap
GLOBAL
between their personal and
professional lives. Over 50% of Boost employee morale and engagement 32%
customer service leaders

around the world feel that the Maintaining service quality without adding headcount 31%
mental health of their agents
has suffered on the back of the
Deploying new service channels like chat
crisis. and social messaging 30%
Because remote work is likely to

Remote quality management 29%
continue well into 2021, businesses
are focusing on identifying ways to
Improving knowledge management capabilities 29%
help their staff transition while
boosting morale and engagement.
Increasing the adoption and usage of
internal collaboration tools 28%
Other high-ranking priorities
include:
Adjusting Service Level Agreements 27%
Maintaining service quality
without adding headcount
Developing virtual coaching programs 26%
Deploying new service

channels like chat & social Enhancing self-service capabilities 25%
Building customer-facing chatbots 25%
Bringing support back in-house 25%
Building on BCP and ensuring remote readiness 24%
Outsourcing/Offshoring operations 24%
Re-evaluating vendor contracts 23%
Regional Snapshot: In Southeast Which, if any, are the most important

Asia, the top 3 most important priorities for your customer service
operations?
priorities for customer service
SEA
operations are:
Maintaining service quality without
29%
Maintaining service quality adding headcount
without adding headcount

Boost employee morale and engagement 27%
Boosting employee morale

and engagement Adjusting Service Level Agreements 27%
Adjusting service level

Remote quality management 25%
agreements
The focus of customer service Re-evaluating vendor contracts 24%

leaders in SEA is on increasing
the efficiency of their existing
Bringing support back in-house 24%
staff without affecting morale
negatively. An automation-first
approach to customer service Improving knowledge management capabilities 23%
would help solve for this.
Developing virtual coaching programs 23%
Building customer-facing chatbots 23%
Increasing the adoption and usage of internal

collaboration tools 22%
Enhancing self-service capabilities 22%
Outsourcing/Offshoring operations 22%
Building on BCP and ensuring remote readiness 18%
Deploying new service channels like chat

and social messaging 17%
‘Back to work’ is going to look different.

65% of customer service leaders worldwide are embracing remote or hybrid
operating models that accommodate work-from-home as well as working from
office as they move forward. With this change, we’re witnessing the rise of a new
brand of customer service that’s centered around agility.
GLOBAL
How did your team operate in the following times?
69%
60%
47%
35%
26%
22%
18% 18%
5%
Before the crisis During the crisis Future state

100% in office Hybrid model 100% remote
Founder & CEO, Native
“The hybrid work model is here to stay and proved

its resilience during the last few months. However,
this new workstyle requires more than flexible office
set-ups and remote collaboration tools. It calls for a
significant culture change as customers and
employees do expect state-of-the art productivity
(chatbots, messaging apps, deep personalisation)
while requiring extra care and empathy. Future CX
leaders will master those two opposite mandates:
Nicolas Petit integrating hyper-productive tools while promoting
real customer service empowerment.”

Regional Snapshot: 68% of customer service leaders in SEA are embracing remote
or hybrid operating models that accommodate work-from-home and working from
office as they move forward.
SEA
How did your team operate in the following times?
84%
64%
43%
32%
24% 25%
13% 12%
3%
Before the crisis During the crisis Future state
EXPECTED FUTURE STATE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE OPERATING MODELS
SEA
32% 43% 25%
Global
35% 47% 18%
United States
41% 41% 17%
Europe
35% 47% 17%
United Kingdom
38% 43% 20%
ANZ
25% 60% 14%
Investing in remote-ready tech is the way

forward.
Transitioning to remote work meant SEA

each employee needed the
Have your investments increased
remote-ready hardware (74%) in the following areas?
infrastructure to work from home.
Hardware 74%
This included headsets, laptops,
routers, monitors, etc. that help make
it easier for them to work effectively, Self-service 72%
wherever they are.

AI-chatbots & automation 72%
Self-service (72%) has become a key

focus for organisations and will Customer service platform 72%
continue to be one going forward. With
the rise in contact volumes, customer
service leaders are looking for ways to
enable customers to help themselves.
Knowledge management 71%
AI-chatbots & automation (72%)

enable customer service leaders to Measurement & analytics 69%
provide 24/7 support without burning

out their staff. Chatbots can also help Facilities 69%
deflect simple queries, saving time and
effort for agents so they can focus on Cloud telephony 68%
more complex issues.
Live chat & messaging 68%

The right customer service platform
(72%) empowers customer service
teams by allowing them to work from Workforce management 65%
anywhere, automate manual and

repetitive tasks, categorize requests Please note: The percentages are rounded off to the nearest number
coming into the system, and gather

data on ticket trends to help with
forecasting and shift-scheduling.

Breaking it down further...
72%
of customer service leaders
are investing 26% more in
self-service
72%
customer service platforms
72%
AI-chatbots & automation

What do we expect in 2021?
Customers are focused on the safety-first approach, and where possible, they’re looking to benefit from
‘contactless customer service’. This trend is set to continue in 2021, and we’ve identified three key themes
customer service leaders need to be aware of to ensure your teams are better prepared for the future.
Chat becomes the new toll-free The future is hybrid

44% of customer service leaders worldwide 65% of customer service leaders worldwide
voted chat as the most critical tool in expect remote or hybrid work models that
maintaining service levels through the crisis. allow for work-from-home and working
In addition to this, we’ve seen that 68% of from office as the way forward. To prepare
customer service leaders in Southeast Asia for this, we’re seeing over 69% of customer
are investing more in live chat & messaging service leaders in SEA increase their
as compared to pre-crisis plans. The reason budgets and investments in hardware,
this channel is gaining popularity and analytics, and collaboration tools.
effectiveness is that it provides benefits to Identifying and implementing the right
both customers as a familiar, easy-to-use remote-ready technology stack for your
channel and contact centres by increasing customer service operations will enable
agent productivity exponentially. your team to react to any situation while
working from anywhere.
With volatile staffing,

automation becomes key
‘Operating with reduced staff’ ranked
second amongst the biggest challenges
faced by customer service teams through
the crisis worldwide, and 44% of customer
service leaders in Southeast Asia expect
staffing levels to recover to pre-crisis levels
only by June 2021. In addition to this, over
71% of leaders expect contact centre
volumes to continue increasing through
2021. Technology and automation are the
answer. In SEA, 72% of leaders are investing
more in self-service and AI-chatbots &
automation. Allow customers to help
themselves with a support portal, an
extensive knowledge base, AI-powered
chatbots that are able to answer routine
queries, etc. Identify and automate
time-consuming tasks and allow your agents
to focus on the customer.
The world is moving past the ‘new normal’ to

the ‘next normal’. You need to ensure your
customer service teams are ready for it.

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The New CX Mandate

Insights & predictions of

Germany Sweden Australia

United States France United Kingdom

Netherlands New Zealand

2 | The New CX Mandate

Customer expectations rose through the crisis

Globally, budgets have increased as well

2021 will be about agility

3 | The New CX Mandate

4 | The New CX Mandate

Customers have become more demanding

Increase No change Decrease

5 | The New CX Mandate

11% 14% 9% 17% 10% 22% Changes in customer

SEA Global US EU UK ANZ

Changes in customer 8% 14% 8% 16% 11% 20%

SEA Global US EU UK ANZ

11% 14% 5% 18% 11% 24% Changes in customer

SEA Global US EU UK ANZ

Director, Fifth Quadrant

"During the early stages of the coronavirus

Founder, Konnect Insights

"Think of your user and everything else will

7 | The New CX Mandate

Customer contact volumes have also gone up.

Phone 14% 52% 30% 3%

Email 16% 49% 28% 6%

Live chat &

Website 1% 15% 51% 27% 5%

Social media 1% 11% 51% 31% 5%

0% 25% 50% 75%

-51% -50% to -21% -20% to -1% 0% to 20% 21 to 50% 51%+

8 | The New CX Mandate

Customer service teams are trying to keep

Crisis impact on quality 45% 46% 41% 45% 52% 49%

Positive No effect Negative

26% 26% 29% 27% 29%

SEA Global US EU UK ANZ

Crisis impact on first

Positive No effect Negative

24% 26% 20%

27% 29% 31%

SEA Global US EU UK ANZ

Crisis impact on agent 47% 47% 45% 46% 49% 48%

Positive No effect Negative

25% 27% 26% 25% 35% 25%

28% 30% 29% 27%

SEA Global US EU UK ANZ

Productivity and efficiency took a hit.

Making process changes Forecasting and shift-scheduling 28%

Several legacy platforms are rigid, and

leaders will have to work extensively

Ineffective internal Internal collaboration 25%

With employees working from home

10 | The New CX Mandate

11 | The New CX Mandate

Thankfully, customer service leaders received

-51%+ -21% to -50% -1% to -20% 0% to 20% 21% to 50% 51%+

-51%+ -21% to -50% -1% to -20% 0% to 20% 21% to 50% 51%+

12 | The New CX Mandate

Finance 1% 14% 30% 35% 13% 7%

Healthcare 13% 15% 34% 34% 4%