Under the leadership of Lara Truelove, Program Leader at the Centre for Experience Management, the CX Edge studies offer an in-depth analysis of the evolving customer experience (CX) landscape across Southeast Asia. Drawing insights from over 9,000 consumers in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia, these reports provide essential data on consumer loyalty, satisfaction, and likelihood to repurchase. As businesses adapt to post-pandemic realities, Lara Truelove emphasizes the importance of understanding these indicators to deliver the tailored experiences today’s consumers demand.
Which industries tend to score the highest levels of NPS across Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia? What are the reasons for these high scores, and how do the results differ between these markets?
What are the top areas of customer experience improvements that consumers in these regions are calling for?
Findings from the CX Edge studies in Southeast Asia reveal many organisations are heading in the right direction with their customer experience (CX) programs. Over the last 12 months the key indicators of a positive customer experience – including NPS, satisfaction, and likelihood to repurchase – increased in Singapore and Thailand, while Malaysia achieved promising results in the country’s inaugural CX Edge study.
| NPS | CSAT | Likelihood to repurchase | |
| Singapore | 9 (up from 4 in 2023) | 3.99 (up from 3.95) | 5.54 (up from 5.47) |
| Thailand | 49 (up from 39 in 2023) | 4.26 (up from 4.18) | 6.02 (up from 5.89) |
| Malaysia | 20 | 4.02 | 5.6 |
Industries with consumers most likely to recommend brands, as measured by NPS:
- Singapore – automotive, grocery retail, healthcare provider, airline, mobile wallet
- Thailand – hotel, automotive, streaming media, airline, healthcare provider
- Malaysia – hotel, fuel, mobile wallet, mobile devices, retail
The uplift in the indicators of a positive customer experience in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia are encouraging. Yet, there is still work to do to fully meet the needs and expectations of customers and unlock the value of AI. For example, complaints are on the rise across the region with customers vocal about the need for improvements during in-person interactions, and in the location and quality of physical spaces.
Rather than compare the differences between each country, there is greater value in focusing on the similarities between top-performing industries. The CX Edge studies show the common attributes of high-scoring industries are a commitment and ability to understand and address the digital needs of customers – especially through mobile – resolve problems quickly and efficiently, and deliver a suitable speed of service,
The positive impact of these attributes is reinforced through the desired CX improvements consumers are calling for in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia – where we see near-identical results. In each market, the top 5 improvements customers want are to increase the number of services available through mobile apps, feel like there is more of a personal touch through the engagement, receive a seamless experience across all channels, get personalised services and suggestions, and have the option to communicate and engage on the channel of my choice.
What steps and strategies can organizations across the region implement to deliver experiences that meet the needs of their customers?
To ensure levels of CX continue to rise across Southeast Asia, there are four critical step every organisation should follow:
- Prioritise connection and convenience – some of the most-cited concerns with organisations’ shift to new digital and AI technologies are a lack of personal connection, poor engagements, and misuse of personal data. As a result, the most successful CX programs we see are when businesses use feedback to firstly ensure customer-representatives have the tools, insights, and autonomy to deliver greater levels of personalised service, while identifying where people prefer to self-serve.
- Listen to customers where they are giving feedback – customers are giving feedback in more ways than ever before – such as in call center conversations, online chats, product reviews, social media posts, and – of course – surveys. It’s a reality that means organisations need to think beyond traditional CX programs to truly understand how their customers are thinking and feeling, and identify unmet needs, challenges, and opportunities. Modern CX technologies empower businesses to analyse the multiple sources of customer feedback available to brands today, and the result is often a more credible and authentic view of the experience being delivered and ways it can be meaningfully improved.
- Support and enable customer-facing teams – employees are often the greatest driver of positive CX, and yet separate Qualtrics research shows frontline employees often report the lowest levels of engagement and morale. As such, understanding how customer-representatives are thinking and feeling, and providing them with the resources and environment to do their best work is an impactful way to deliver great CX – and in some instances has been seen to help brands deliver a 20-point uplift in sales
- Deliver great digital support – while consumers are more likely to return if they have great digital support, compared to great customer support from a representative, research shows they are less satisfied with their digital support experience than human-assisted experience. By ensuring a positive digital customer experience, businesses across Southeast Asia will be in a stronger position to increase loyalty and advocacy.
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How has the digital transformation accelerated by the pandemic influenced consumer expectations and experiences across different industries in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia?
Role of Personalization in CX:
- In what ways do consumers in these markets value personalization in their interactions with brands, and what specific personalized experiences have the most significant impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty?
Despite already being some of the most-digitally-savvy populations in the world, findings from the CX Edge studies show consumers across Southeast Asia are calling for even more digital offerings and capabilities; specifically more self-serve options, more customisation, and more instantaneous action.
To satisfy growing demand for digital and personalisation in Southeast Asia, organisations should use feedback to identify the types of services and engagements where customers are asking for these capabilities, and identify if and how they can be delivered in a digital-first way. Importantly, this assessment should include customer complaint and problem resolution. With a greater understanding of what customers expect and need, businesses can then build the more personalised and tailored experiences, engagements, and journeys consumers are asking for, while consistently delivering meaningful changes to their CX based on the continuous feedback being received.
Speaking with CX leaders across the region and supported through findings in the CX Edge studies, it’s clear the momentum, maturity, and impact of CX programs are increasing across Southeast Asia. However, the CX discipline now finds itself at a critical tipping point. To ensure the region continues moving in the right direction, and that the significant benefits of great CX and AI are unlocked locally, leaders must ensure their CX progress continue to match the evolving needs and behaviours of consumers, and that the feedback they are capturing is acted on in a meaningful and appropriate way.
About CX Edge and Centre for XM
The CX Edge studies from the Centre for Experience Management are a valuable resource for CX and marketing leaders across Southeast Asia, giving organisations access to insights from more than 9,000 consumers in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Findings from the reports detail industry average scores for consumer loyalty, satisfaction, and likelihood to repurchase, equipping organisations with comparative data to better understand the types of services and engagements people want. They are some of the most in-depth studies of their kind designed specifically for business in Southeast Asia.
The Center for Experience Management aims to develop the experience management discipline in Singapore, build professional capabilities for experience management locally, foster a community of experience management professionals to further the category, and enable organisations to use experience as a key competitive differentiator. Since launching in 2022, more than 400 practitioners have engaged with the program.
