A new report from Forrester has revealed that the quality of customer experience (CX) in Australia has either stagnated or declined across various industries. Based on the 2024 Australia Customer Experience Index (CX Index) Rankings unveiled at the CX Summit APAC, the findings paint a less-than-stellar picture for many Australian brands and agencies.
The survey assessed the experiences of over 8,900 adults in Australia, benchmarking the customer experience quality of 30 brands across four distinct sectors: banking, government, superannuation, and investment. The study specifically measured how the quality of customer experience impacted customer loyalty.
The banking sector experienced a noteworthy decline, recording its lowest average score since 2020. This year, ING and Bendigo emerged as the leaders within the sector and were the only banks to achieve a "good" category rating for their customer experience. The results indicate a significant challenge for other banking institutions to effectively meet customer expectations.
The government sector also saw a sharp dip in its customer experience scores, marking a 3.5-point decline from the previous year. This deterioration led to the government's lowest average score ever recorded, with all ten government agencies included in the study ranking in the "poor" or "very poor" categories for customer experience.
The study found that the overall quality of customer experience had plateaued in the superannuation industry, showing no significant improvement. The industry exhibited a lack of differentiation, with only a 2.4-point disparity between the highest- and lowest-scoring brands. No superannuation firm stood out with notably good customer experience, signalling that many companies might need to reevaluate their customer engagement strategies.
This year's survey also marked the inaugural evaluation of investment firms within the CX Index. The average customer experience score for investment firms was categorised as "OK", indicating a nascent recognition of the importance of customer experience but also highlighting substantial room for improvement. Similar to the superannuation sector, investment firms displayed minimal differentiation in their scores, suggesting a competitive environment where firms struggle to distinguish themselves based on customer experiences.
Riccardo Pasto, Principal Analyst at Forrester and the author of the report, commented on the declining trend, stating, "The quality of customer experience has been mostly flat in the last few years, with 2024 seeing a further decline. Despite the continued drop in CX quality, the silver lining is that more organisations are aware that they need to prioritise their customers' needs to drive business growth."
Pasto went on to emphasise the importance of integrating advanced technologies to meet customer expectations in the digital era. "In this digital age, companies need to leverage and infuse emerging technologies like AI into human capabilities to create differentiated experiences for their customers. When companies invest in improving their CX quality, they receive many benefits, including higher customer loyalty, retention, and devotion," he added.
