Yahoo Finance Here's a look at Australia's top 10 brands for customer experience
Coles, Woolworths and Aldi are locked in a fierce supermarket war – but none of them featured in this year’s list of favourite Aussie brands.
According to the 2019 KPMG Customer Experience Excellence report, which surveyed more than 2,500 Australians about their interactions with more than 100 local and international brands, Aussies prized outstanding customer service, which saw the financial services sector highly represented in the list of top 10 favourite brands for the year.
Singapore Airlines topped the list, followed by RACQ Insurance, Bendigo Bank and PayPal.
Millennial favourite Afterpay came in fifth place, followed by ING and NRMA Insurance.
RACV Insurance and Subway rounded out the top 10.
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All eyes on customer service
According to the report, Australian brands are ‘good but not great’ at customer service, with the average customer experience excellence (CEE) rating in Australia at 7.14 out of 10, only incrementally higher than last year’s score of 7.10.
KPMG Australia customer, brand and marketing advisory partner in charge Amanda Hicks said Aussie businesses struggled to take a holistic approach to customer experience.
"Customer experience has been heightened as a topical conversation in the Australian market through increased attention over the past 18 months in areas as diverse as aged care and financial services,” she said.
Customer experience is also a major area where newcomers can one-up incumbents, she indicated.
“Traditional Australian organisations, which are often tied to legacy ways of working, are struggling to match the digital experience offered by new market entrants,” Hicks said.
“The future challenge for these organisations will be successfully translating their physical presence into a digital blueprint that captures the essence of their brand."
Yet customer experience alone won’t cut it anymore
Consumers now expect more than just a great experience: they’re expecting brands to take the lead in being altruistic and community-driven, said KPMG Australia customer, brand and marketing advisory partner Sudeep Gohil.
The findings suggest “brands that are community-led, abiding by collective values and playing an active role in the community are likely to engage customers over brands that are focused solely on building their customer base,” he said.
“It’s evident amongst customer experience leaders across industry that holding an altruistic stance has become common practice and therefore organisations that choose not to be community focused risk falling behind in years to come.”
Australia’s top insurance brands RACQ, RACV and NRMA, have all made major in-roads in delivering meaningful customer experience, he added.
“Members continually praise these brands for the significant impact they have on communities across Australia.
“They do so by partnering with not-for-profit organisations and charities to practice purpose-driven promises they promote to their respective membership bases.”
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