Category: Customer Experience / Engagement

New joint capabilities of Klaviyo and Shopify to accelerate global commerce growth

Klaviyo and Shopify have deepened their product integration to help unify customer data across regions and deliver consistent, localised experiences globally.

ZOLOZ launches operations hub in Malaysia to boost local customer service capabilities

ZOLOZ, the flagship AI product of Ant Digital Technologies, has launched an operations hub in Malaysia.

Infobip projects an agent-to-agent future in brand-consumer engagement

Global AI-first cloud communications platform Infobip forecasts a seismic shift from the current application-to-person (A2P) model to an agent-to-person (A2P) model in brand-consumer engagement.

Agentforce Sales app in ChatGPT connects intelligence to CRM

The offering enhances AI fluency in unique business contexts.

Study finds AI is transforming customer service in Singapore

Salesforce’s 7th State of Service report has revealed how AI is reshaping how service teams spend their time, grow their careers, and meet customer expectations. 

Blueprint for safe, scalable AI in regulated markets

The banking sector in Asia is experiencing a profound shift driven by artificial intelligence, with agentic AI—systems capable of autonomous planning, reasoning, and action—emerging as a key transformer. Coming into 2026, analyses from McKinsey, Capco, and others highlight rapid investments in AI, enabling hyper-personalisation, operational efficiency, and new revenue opportunities amid supportive regulatory environments in […]

Throwing a light on the rainbow model: Opening stores intelligently

Since its founding in 1984, Rainbow has grown into one of China’s biggest chain retailers. Now, in the innovative city of Shenzhen, Rainbow is leading the way with cutting-edge digital technologies to redefine smart retail and create unprecedented growth. At 10:30 in the morning on a Saturday, the Rainbow Shopping Mall in Shenzhen’s Bao’an District […]

Xiaomi unveils on-device AI innovations to enhance user experiences

Among the on-device AI features Xiaomi introduced is Pet Companion, an interactive AI pet that adds a playful, engaging element to the home screen.

Tata Communications and NiCE partner to transform global contact centres with AI-powered customer engagement

It aims to deliver intelligent, automated, and hyper-personalised customer experiences across more than 190 countries and territories.

Singapore leads APJ in digital impatience, Twilio reports

The report has revealed that 54% in Singapore feel less tolerant when interacting with AI, the highest in APJ and above the regional average of 42%.

Disconnect found in brand promise and customer experience in financial services firms in Singapore

There is a wide gap between how well banks, investment firms, and health insurers align their brand promises with customer experiences, according to Forrester’s inaugural Total Experience Score rankings for financial services firms in Singapore.

Zoom reports a rise of ‘AI natives’ in the Asia Pacific

The study has revealed that 53% say it is very or extremely important to be able to switch between channels during an interaction, such as from an AI agent to a human agent.

Tata Communications to transform BFSI customer journeys with Voice AI platform  

Tata Communications has launched an agentic AI-powered Voice AI platform, an industry-first speech-to-speech customer engagement solution.

Study reports wider AI trust gap in APAC than global average

Top barriers to scaling AI in APAC include non-optimised cloud data environments (49%), data governance struggles (44%), and talent shortages (41%)

Globe Business accelerates AI-powered customer experience with Salesforce

To equip its sales teams with instant access to critical, specific, and relevant customer data, Globe Business has also piloted Agentforce, the agentic layer of the Salesforce Platform.

AI literacy to ensure business value realisation

The most successful organisations are those that practice robust AI literacy, prioritising sustainable, cost-effective RAG systems that secure proprietary data and leverage converged content to enhance human capabilities and ensure lasting digital visibility.

Partnership makes mobile video CX now available across the Asia Pacific

The integration simplifies the process for organisations to launch one-click video chats from SMS, WhatsApp, or MMS, enhancing face-to-face engagements without requiring additional apps or causing delays.

Maxicare transforms dental care with Agentforce

With Agentforce in Service Cloud, Maxicare can now offer a more personalised and streamlined customer service experience.

AI agents can address bugbear in customer experience, but data issues persist

Already tipped to potentially change the way businesses operate, artificial intelligence (AI) agents are expected to also bring a much-needed breath of fresh air into customer service. Data issues, though, will still need to be resolved. Agentic AI has been forecast to fuel $227 billion in global spending this year, with 97% of Asia-Pacific business […]

TechData and HCLSoftware expand partnership to provide enterprise software solutions in Asia Pacific and Japan

TechData and HCLSoftware expand collaboration to provide enterprise software solutions across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ).

Goodnotes accelerates global HR transformation and talent Growth with Workday

AI note-taking app Goodnotes has selected Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) to facilitate the transformation of its global HR operations and talent strategy for growth.

37% of APAC organisations prioritise employee experience, study reports

The report finds that organisations look to AI and automation to boost efficiency, ensure compliance, and improve the employee experience.

HubSpot launches first CRM deep research connector with ChatGPT

HubSpot unveils its first CRM, launching a deep research connector with ChatGPT.

Heineken taps GenAI with aim to brew better as it seeks real-time data

It may not seem like a likely early adopter of emerging technologies, but Heineken hopes its investment in generative AI (GenAI) will yield better brews, even as it works to improve access to quality data. The Dutch beer brewer in March 2025 launched its global GenAI lab in Singapore, in collaboration with local government agency […]

Retailers in Singapore turn to AI agents to beat competition amid rising costs

Their purchase share is also declining in Singapore, from 43% in 2024 to a projected 38% by 2026.

ARTHALAND chooses OutSystems to advance real estate sustainability

ARTHALAND has chosen OutSystems to deliver transformative digital solutions and support its mission to provide 100% sustainable real estate developments.  

GXS Bank sees gains in monitoring accuracy and productivity with AI

Turning to automation and artificial intelligence (AI) has helped GXS Bank not only double its productivity, but also improve its ability to identify high-risk transactions, such as money laundering activities. Monitoring transactions is a critical part of the digital bank’s operations to ensure its financial ecosystem is protected against malicious actors, GXS Bank CTO Rajat […]

OpenPhone launches Sona, an always-on AI agent

OpenPhone has launched Sona, the always-on AI agent aimed at helping business owners serve customers better. 

UnionBank of the Philippines taps Cloudera to transform customer experience

Union Bank of the Philippines has embarked on a unique journey by partnering with Cloudera to revolutionise the customer experience through the strategic use of data.

MoneyHero launches AI Agent to enhance customer service and operational efficiency

It aims to provide accurate and instant responses to customer queries.

Forrester reveals top priorities of insurers for 2025

A recent Forrester report highlights insurers’ top business and technology priorities for 2025, including AI adoption and system modernisation.

New AI assistant aims to bridge gap between AI and monetisation

These agents are designed to conduct data-based and automatic interactions with clients and customers, ensuring lead generation and conversion, and ultimately, profits.

RingCentral unveils new AI receptionist solution

Named RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR), it promises to function as a dedicated receptionist, ensuring efficient call handling.

PodChats for FutureCIO: AI agents What you need to know (separate hype from reality)

A chatbot is an artificial intelligence program that chats with you. The first chatbot, Eliza, was developed by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum in the 1960s. Six decades later, we have ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot, joining Alexa and Siri. What are AI agents? While chatbots use pattern matching and natural language processing to interpret […]

Jollibee executives global customer experience program

In a strategic move to elevate customer experiences and drive growth across its brands, Jollibee Group signed a multi-year agreement with Qualtrics as its partner for a new global customer experience (CX) program. This agreement aims to enhance the customer interactions at renowned brands such as Jollibee, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and Smashburger. […]

Forrester introduces index to measure BX and CX interconnectedness

Forrester recommends that organisations use BX and CX indices to capture market share and increase revenue.

IDC predicts consumers in Asia/Pacific to spend $32 billion on programmatic shopping via AI agents by 2028

IDC underlines the pressing need for CX executives to pay attention to the potential of AI in CX.

AI spending to exceed $30 billion by 2027 for personalised customer experiences, IDC predicts

IDC also revealed the most urgent business and technology trends that marketing leaders must consider to to stay competitive in the face of evolving market conditions.

PLDT to transform industries through Managed SD-WAN and Managed Network Service

These services, with their distinct features, claim to offer enhanced connectivity, control, and convenience, paving the way for operational excellence and business success.

Netcore Cloud to elevate GenAI capabilities with Google Cloud

Netcore Cloud has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to elevateits product discovery, AI-powered search, merchandising, and customer engagement marketing platforms.

Study finds ASEAN telco users likely to switch providers due to poor customer service

44% of telco users across ASEAN who feel neutral to dissatisfied with their current service provider say they would switch providers due to poor customer service.

SK Telecom to introduce AI-powered customer service

SK Telecom’s Telco LMM claims to process text and telecommunications-related images.

Infrastructure, cybersecurity, and customer experience to drive major revenue shift to AI

4% of IT partners in Asia Pacific believe the demand for AI-related technology investments will grow by more than 75% in the next four to five years. 

RLC Residences aims to enhance customer experiences with Salesforce

RLC Residences, Robinsons Land’s residential division, has partnered with Salesforce to enhance customer experience.  

Leveraging TX and CX for growth

While TX ensures a seamless experience across all touchpoints, CX hones in on delivering value to the people who matter most: the customers.

Zendesk, first in the CX industry to offer Outcome-Based Pricing for AI agents

Zendesk announced a significant shift in its pricing model, introducing Outcome-Based Pricing for AI agents.

Lack of quality data and disjointed tech stack impact Singapore businesses

HubSpot’s new survey shows that many organisations in Singapore companies struggle with insufficient quality data and a disconnected tech stack even on top of rising costs and competition.

SkorLife reduced customer service costs by 50% and enhanced CX through GenAI

SkorLife has transformed its customer service operations and reduced costs by 50% by leveraging GenAI.

Juniper Networks unveils first blueprint for accelerating AI-native network platform adoption

Juniper Networks announced its Blueprint for AI-Native Acceleration, which aims to accelerate each stage of adoption of the company’s AI-Native Networking Platform and enable customers to deploy It up to 9x faster. “Juniper’s new Blueprint for AI-Native Acceleration perfectly complements our industry-leading portfolio with a package to guide CIOs and their teams through the journey, addressing potential […]

Financial services brands lack competitive differentiation, study finds

Forrester’s Singapore Customer Experience Index annual study found that the average customer experience (CX) quality of the brands is merely “OK.” It also found that the average industry scores across the banking, investment, and home and auto insurance industries mainly remained flat, indicating a lack of improvement in the overall CX quality. The three sectors logged […]

Tech trends highlighted in Gartner 2024 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies

The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2024, by Gartner, Inc., unveils a promising future with 25 disruptive technology trends that hold immense potential and fall into four key areas: autonomous AI, developer productivity, total experience, and human-centric security and privacy programmes. “Generative AI (GenAI) is over the Peak of Inflated Expectations as the business focus continues to shift […]

Globe collaborates with Red Hat Open Innovation Labs to modernise IT infrastructure

Globe and Red Hat, Inc. partner to modernise Globe’s IT infrastructure with Red Hat Open Innovation Labs to enhance customer experience. “Globe’s engagement with Red Hat Open Innovation Labs has been pivotal in enhancing its technological capabilities and service offerings. By leveraging Red Hat’s open-source solutions, including Red Hat OpenShift, Globe has modernised its IT […]

Alibaba Cloud and Shiseido China partner for AI-driven DRUNKGPT

Alibaba Cloud announced that Shiseido‘s Drunk Elephant‘s new DRUNKGPT technology had deployed its proprietary large language model, Qwen, to develop a 24/7 AI-powered skincare assistant that addresses consumer skincare concerns and provides personalised advice. Retail innovation Yosano Masahiro, head of solution architect for Japan at Alibaba Cloud, said: “We have seen growing demand from customers […]

Baiduri Bank and HID partner to streamline banking security and authentication

HID announced its partnership with Baiduri Bank to implement HID Approve, powered by the HID Authentication Platform, across its consumer and corporate banking platforms, providing a single trusted authentication source for customer identity. Lena Abdelahad, VP of the Authentication Business Unit at HID, said, “We are committed to providing solutions that help protect banking customers’ […]

Yellow.ai launches Analyze to elevate CX automation

Yellow.ai has unveiled Analyze, an automation platform powered by an in-house LLM to improve bot interactions with in-depth conversational insights and advanced self-learning capabilities.  It claims to reduce ticket volume by 30% and boost containment rates by 10%. Yellow.ai’s Analyze aims to provide detailed insights and uses this information to improve the bot’s ability to […]

Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad accelerates HR transformation with Workday 

The Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad (BPMB) has successfully deployed Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) to accelerate its digital transformation journey. “The changes and dynamism seen in the market landscape require businesses to have the right systems in place that can be agile in enabling and supporting business leaders to be decisive in their strategic planning and execution. […]

Doctor Anywhere accelerates customer experience with Zendesk

Doctor Anywhere has forged a partnership with Zendesk to scale and deliver better support for its users with Zendesk’s Suite, an offering that converges the service capabilities of Zendesk with messaging, analytics, community forums, and collaborations. “Delivering a seamless and intuitive healthcare experience has always been at the core of Doctor Anywhere, serving as the […]

Salesforce and Workday unveil new AI employee service agent 

Salesforce and Workday forged a partnership to deliver an AI-powered assistant that claims to automate tasks, provide personalised support, and surface data-driven insights that help employees work smarter and faster. Combining Salesforce’s new Agentforce Platform and Einstein AI with the Workday platform and Workday AI will enable organisations to create and manage agents to drive employee and customer […]

ServiceNow and Boomi partner to elevate customer experiences through AI-powered self-service

ServiceNow and Boomi announced a partnership to elevate customer experiences through AI-powered self-service. “This collaboration not only empowers Boomi and ServiceNow customers to harness the full potential of AI and automation but also sets the stage for a new era of seamless, personalised business transformation, all built on reliable and trusted data,” said Steve Lucas, CEO […]

AWS and Workday expand partnership to build GenAI capabilities

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) expands its partnership with Workday, Inc. to build generative artificial intelligence (genAI) capabilities, innovate customer experiences, and help accelerate customer cloud transformation. “By leveraging AWS, we can focus more directly on that goal while using the tools and services they provide for a range of model management and operations,” said Shane […]

Lion Parcel integrates GenAI with Salesforce to optimise customer service

Lion Parcel, an Indonesian logistics service provider, has forged a partnership with Salesforce to optimise customer service through generative AI (GenAI) integration. Budi Santoso, chief experience officer at Lion Parcel, said, “Using Salesforce and AI solutions, we can effectively analyse and take action on real-time customer data on one platform and deliver superior customer service […]

Digital CX and design trends

Every year, Forrester’s CX analysts identify top trends in digital customer experience (CX) and design. We’ve just completed this exercise for 2024. This year, organisations must stay abreast of advances in generative AI (genAI), which drives change across digital experiences, research, and design. Meanwhile, organisations are acting hastily due to financial pressures, putting the quality […]

It’s time to be more strategic about AI in customer service

Generative AI has topped the list of customer inquiries and conversations that I have been having this year — no surprises there! Interestingly, at least half of them have been about AI in customer service and chatbots, virtual assistants, and knowledge bots for customers, which seem top of mind for most customer service leaders. This […]

House730 leverages Azure OpenAI Service to enhance customer satisfaction

House730 has adopted Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service’s GPT-3.5-Turbo-16K to address customer inquiries and capture every listing in Hong Kong in a one-stop, easy-to-navigate arena. This makes it the first search engine that uses Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service’s natural language processing in the real estate market of Hong Kong. “House730 is always on the lookout for innovative […]

SG service professionals expect customer service to contribute more revenue in 2024

Salesforce‘s State of Service report reveals that a significant percentage (80%) of service professionals anticipate customer service contributing more revenue this year. Gavin Barfield, the chief technology officer and vice president of Solutions at Salesforce ASEAN, underscores the transformative role of artificial intelligence in customer service. He states, “Service teams must seize every opportunity in the […]

SG businesses experienced more change in the last 4 years than previous two decades

Around 81% of companies in Singapore observed evolving more in the past four years than the previous two decades – the highest across all countries surveyed, according to a recent study by HubSpot. “A combination of rising business costs, new technology, and evolving customer expectations have impacted the effectiveness of conventional growth tactics among Singapore’s businesses, accelerating a […]

The future of customer experience: invisible

It’s an iconic scene — the Ring of Power flying through the air in slow motion as Frodo tumbles to the floor of the Prancing Pony. As drunken revelers look on and the ring slips onto his finger, the small, frightened hobbit vanishes into thin air. Frodo Baggins is invisible. And so begins Frodo’s fraught […]

Oracle to improve operational efficiency and patient services of IHH Healthcare

IHH Healthcare (IHH) selected the Oracle Exadata Database Service running on the Oracle Exadata platform to improve patient services and meet the unique local market and regulatory needs for its operations in Singapore and Malaysia. Cloud migration IHH Singapore and Malaysia have migrated workloads to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer , respectively. The consolidation aims to improve user […]

Podchats for FutureCIO: How inclusion deepens customer experience

In Asia, one cannot overstate the importance of inclusion in enhancing customer experience with its diverse population, comprising various ethnicities, cultures, languages, and traditions. Creating an inclusive environment is crucial for businesses to cater to their needs and preferences. In embracing diversity and fostering inclusion, companies can better understand the perspectives and requirements of customers, […]

Minor International elevates employee experience with Workday 

Workday, Inc. is collaborating with Minor International Pcl (MINT) to elevate the employee experience and talent management across the entire organisation. Through Workday’s AI-powered solutions, MINT will streamline its HR processes and increase employee productivity.  “At Minor, we are a people-powered business and it is as crucial for us to deliver exceptional experiences for our customers as for our people. […]

Accelya to power Korean Air’s retail modernisation

Accelya announces its partnership with Korean Air, enabling the airline company to innovate its customer experience and take control of its retailing. Accelya FLX Platform The Accelya FLX Platform combines the power of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud and the latest technologies to enable airlines to showcase retail offers across all channels with scalability and reliability. With Accelya’s NDC and […]

Kyndryl and BPI marks a decade of partnership

Kyndryl and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) commemorate one decade of their technology infrastructure services partnership that made significant advancements across BPI’s Data Center Operations, Server and Storage Management, IT Service Desk, Security Management, and Asset Management operations, fine-tuning standard procedures and tools across its organisation. Continued collaboration  “Our continued collaboration with Kyndryl underscores our shared commitment […]

Jobstreet transforms employment platform

Jobstreet by SEEK announced the transformation of its employment platform, which uses SEEK’s AI technology for improved job matches, better experiences, and upgraded insights for both job seekers and employers in Singapore. “We are thrilled to announce a transformative update for Jobstreet by SEEK, aimed at enhancing support for the job and talent search process in Singapore. We are excited to […]

Holiday havoc: Surge in cyber threats threatens festive season joy

At the end-of-year holiday season, with major sales events and digital events, we’ll start to see a higher frequency of security threats. It’s the time of year when the highest amount of money changes hands, whether in the digital or physical realm. According to the Entering through the Gift Shop: Attacks on Commerce report, globally, […]

Lalamove partners with Freshworks to improve sales efficiency 

Freshworks Inc. announced that Lalamove uses Freshdesk™ and Freshsales™ to improve sales conversion and increase customer engagement. Better service Freshworks Inc. creates AI-boosted business software, built for IT, customer support, and sales and marketing teams, to improve work efficiency and deliver immediate and valuable business impact.  Freshworks solutions enable Lalamove to build detailed customer profiles on Freshworks’ Unified Customer Record […]

Singapore Airlines enhances customer experience with Tata Communications

Tata Communications announced its partnership with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to transform its airlines’ communications and collaboration tools which will enhance employee productivity and improve customer experience. “We take great pride in our long-standing relationship with Singapore Airlines. As a global CommTech player, we are privileged to be chosen as their partner in progress as they […]

Zendesk launches generative AI offerings for CX

Zendesk, Inc. announced its customer experience (CX) generative AI advancements improving enterprises’ customer satisfaction, reducing costs, and increasing customer loyalty. New GenAI offerings “In line with our security principles and privacy framework, we have built-in safeguards and control for companies to set limits for bots. For example, when sensitive information (such as medical history) comes up, an agent must […]

Dell brings its four-pronged AI strategy to APJ

John Roese, global chief technology officer of Dell Technologies shared the four pillars of Dell’s AI Strategy – AI-In, AI-On, AI-For, and AI-With as he discussed the recent launch of Dell Generative AI Solutions and Dell Validated Designs for Generative AI helping users capitalise on the benefits of AI. “Our focus is on private GenAI solutions, […]

Malaysian banks continue to improve CX quality

Forrester’s (Nasdaq: FORR) 2023 Malaysia Banking Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) reveals that banks in Malaysia have been steadily improving their CX quality over the past two years. Maybank leads CX performance This year’s top brand, Maybank, saw an improvement in its CX performance as it recorded 21 positive interactions for every negative one, which is more than […]

SFA and GenAI to reshape the process automation

Gartner predicts that by 2028, 60% of B2B seller work will be executed through conversational user interfaces via generative AI (GenAI) sales technologies, up from less than 5% in 2023. “Sales operations leaders and their technology teams must prepare for the convergence of new forms of artificial intelligence, dynamic process automation and reinvented deal-planning activities […]

Forrester’s 2023 Singapore CX Index shows scores flat to down

Since 2018, Forrester has been tracking how Singaporean customers rate their experience with some of the biggest brands in banking and auto and home insurance. This year’s Singapore Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) study reveals several important findings: Originally published on Forrester.

PodChats for FutureCIO: Improving CRM’s value in customer engagement

A McKinsey global survey of executives noted that companies have accelerated the digitisation of their customer and supply-chain interactions and their internal operations by three to four years. Just as interesting, the share of digitally enabled products in their portfolios accelerated by seven years. As reported in the State of CRM report, a Forrester survey […]

Overall CX quality declines among multichannel banks

There is an overall decline in customer experience (CX) quality amongst multichannel banks according to Forrester’s 2023 Singapore Banking Customer Experience Index (CX Index). This year’s CX Index rankings reveal that Citibank and DBS Bank improved their CX scores; CX scores of Standard Chartered, OCBC Bank, and United Overseas Bank (UOB) declined; and HSBC appeared on […]

EmotionsAI, the first AI to detect users’ emotional needs, launched

AB Tasty launches EmotionsAI, a new technology that revolutionizes brands’ abilities to personalize the customer experience through their emotional needs. Alix de Sagazan, co-CEO and co-founder of AB Tasty says that it is critical to understand the needs of customers to achieve commercial success.  “They place a high value on experience and personalization, and catering to customers’ emotional […]

Technologies transforming customer service by 2028

Generative AI, digital customer service, and conversational user interfaces (CUIs) will transform customer service and support by 2028. “The common theme of these three technologies is their ability to streamline the customer journey and enable customer service leaders to meet customers’ growing expectations,” said Drew Kraus, VP Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service and Support […]

Customer expectations rise as technology advances

Customer service takes center stage as customers’ expectation continue to rise along with technology advances, according to the newly-released State of the Connected Customer report by Salesforce. Results of the survey, from 14,300 consumers and business buyers across 25 countries — including 650 consumers and 150 business buyers from Singapore, revealed how shifts in technology […]

Mismanaged rights request can erode trust, warns Gartner

Gartner defines subject rights requests (SRRs) as a set of legal rights that enable individuals to make demands and, in some instances, changes for clarity regarding the uses of their data. The analyst predicts that by 2026, fines due to mismanagement of subject rights will have increased tenfold from 2022, to total over US$1 billion. […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: Excelling in customer experience measurement

History suggests that the ideals of customer experience can be traced to the development of market research as a method of improving advertising in the 1920s. The practice spread to other sectors following World War II the boom of consumerism. Nearly a hundred years have passed with much experience and an abundance of technology, we […]

Digi-TAC-approved CRM solution for businesses eyed 

Freshworks has partnered with Asia’s visionary distributor, Truvisor as they offer Freshsales Suite Pro all-in-one Customer Relationship Management solution (CRM)to businesses in Singapore.To improve business relationships, CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability, according to Salesforce. The CRM solution offers distinct advantages over other CRM solutions in the market. Simon Ma, […]

Accelerate and scale initiatives through digital business platforms

One of the common features among leading organisations is the use of digital business platforms (DBPs) to scale and accelerate their digital initiatives. In a recent IDC Perspective titled The Rising Digital Bar: How Leading Organisations are Scaling Their Digital Business with Digital Business Platforms, IDC shows that 17% of Asia/Pacific including Japan (APJ) organisations […]

Fujitsu trials customer service AI at Japan’s supermarket chain

The new AI model generates AI avatars and customise promotional content on digital signage based on customers’ in-store behaviour data.

Consumers will change to tackle environmental issues

A global Alibaba study revealed that 73% of (surveyed) consumers want to live more sustainable lifestyles, particularly among those living in emerging Asian markets (87%), but inconvenience and high costs are cited as the main stumbling blocks to the adoption of sustainable lifestyles. The commissioned research, “The Sustainability Trends Report 2023”, polled more than 14,000 […]

Seamless transition between channels is key to CX outcomes

Gartner warns that 62% of customer service channel transitions are “high-effort” for customers, with less than half of customers who experience a high-effort transition likely to use self-service for their next interaction. A Gartner survey of 1,492 B2B and B2C customers in December 2022 found that a seamless transition between channels is a key driver […]

Forrester: state of consumer trust during a volatile year

In the report, The State Of Global Consumer Trust, 2023, Forrester finds that even during a volatile year, consumer trust remains relatively consistent. Understanding consumer trust is key to developing strategies that improve it. Forrester research shows that business leaders who apply a systematic and scientific approach to cultivating trust drive revenue by building unbreakable […]

IDC study reveals how Gen AI is being applied in customer experience

IDC’s FERS 2023 Survey Wave 2 APJ results show 70% of Asia/Pacific C-suite executives are either exploring generative AI use cases or already investing in them. “Gen AI holds immense potential for CX. Experimenting with this technology will also help determine which use cases – customer-facing or employee-facing constitute the greatest value for a specific […]

Customer adoption remains low despite significant chatbot investments

A Gartner survey of 497 B2B and B2C customers from December 2022 through February 2023 reveals that only 8% of customers used a chatbot during their most recent customer service experience. Even worst, just 25% said they would use that chatbot again in the future. Despite customer service and support leaders’ growing focus on chatbots, […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: How to design experiences that drive loyalty

According to Forrester, a customer experience (CX) leader, is in-charged of aligning the organisation around customer value. From the C-suite on down, the customer experience leader needs to advance customer-centricity — evaluating experiences from the customer’s point of view. Forrester says this approach drives loyalty and growth. But rallying the necessary level of focus and […]

Salesforce, Google Cloud unveil new data and AI integration

New hyper-efficient data sharing between Salesforce Data Cloud and Google BigQuery will provide bi-directional secure data access without the need to copy or move data.

APAC consumers want security and ease-of-use

Consumers are spending more time and money in the digital space. The e-Conomy Southeast Asia (SEA) 2022 report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company forecasts that the region will spend US$300 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2025, before tripling to USD600 billion by 2030. An Okta survey of nearly 5,000 consumers in […]

ExecOpinion: The real value of cloud computing to your business

IDC research vice president, Dave McCarthy says the cloud is no longer considered a location but rather an operating model for future innovation. “The agility provided by cloud methodologies enables organisations to quickly deliver at scale on rapidly changing requirements from internal and external stakeholders,” he added. In the Asia-Pacific region, IDC says organisations have […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: A focus on data-driven enables AIA to deliver on its customer promises

The COVID-19 crisis continues to have a significant impact on individuals, society, businesses and the wider economy across the globe. The insurance industry has not escaped its impact, but insurers have responded quickly to the crisis. Deloitte says as the broader economy recovers and responds to the pandemic, insurers will face several challenges but also […]

Forrester: Customer trust in FSI remains weak in APAC

Forrester’s, Financial Services Customer Trust Index, reveals that earning the trust of customers is crucial to driving revenue, especially in times of economic volatility. In Asia Pacific (APAC), the results show that customer trust in banks, investment firms, and life insurers is lacking in most of the region. For example, less than half of customers […]

Hotel chain to deepen guest experience globally with SevenRooms

SevenRooms is a data-driven guest experience and retention platform focused 100% on building operator-focused tools. The platform offers solutions to global brands that not only increase revenue generation but help them build long-term relationships with guests. SevenRooms is currently live across 25 countries at Marriott brands including W Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Sheraton, JW […]

What technologies CS&S leaders value most in 2023

Gartner says the technologies with the most current value to service and support organisations are those that support assisted service. “Today, the most impactful technologies in service are ones that support reps to deliver low-effort, value-enhanced experiences in the live channel,” said Lauren Villeneuve, Sr. director of advisory in the Gartner Customer Service & Support […]

ChatGPT is driving greater AI investments

Among Gartner poll of more than 2,500 executive leaders, 45% reported that the publicity of ChatGPT has prompted them to increase artificial intelligence (AI) investments. About 70% of executives said their organisation is in investigation and exploration mode with generative AI, while 19% are in pilot or production mode. “The generative AI frenzy shows no […]

BT and Five9 to hasten cloud contact centre adoption

Customers can now access Five9 Intelligent CX Platform embedded with BT’s global voice and data services.

Winning the battle for attention amid a growing consumption crisis

As the digital economy in SEA enters a new phase of growth, powered by improved connectivity and thriving online marketplaces such as Lazada and Shopee, businesses are now grappling with a deficit in what is arguably the most critical factor to their success – the attention of consumers. Contentsquare’s 2023 Digital Experience Benchmark Report reveals […]

Sa Sa seeks personalised OMO experience for customers

SAP Emarsys e-Commerce enables Sa Sa to build on this foundation and pursue a two-pronged approach to customer loyalty that optimizes both acquisition and retention.

The digital banking race: ball in the incumbent’s court

Singapore consumers have a love-hate relationship with queues. We often (willingly) put ourselves through long queues for good food and freebies, but absolutely abhor waiting for other matters, banking services included. In fact, the wait time is one of many pain points that Singapore’s new digital banks (or digibanks) are seeking to eradicate. These digitally […]

Faced with disruption few marketers execute plan B

In a Gartner survey of 400 marketing leaders, 81% claim a contingency plan to respond to disruptions. However, just 21% of respondents said they follow these plans, as marketers weather the storm of continued economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Conducted in November and December 2022, the survey also revealed that 44% of digital marketing leaders who […]

AI-powered Personalisation: Core to modern business-customer interactions

The Southeast Asian retail industry continues to evolve as digital transformations across the region accelerate. A digital-first approach to business has become the new reality for retail driven by high levels of digital maturity and the rise of e-commerce. The latter is nearing full adoption, at (94%) among digital users. These changes in consumer behaviour […]

Customer preference to unbundle is a threat to the bank’s future

A global survey of 30,000 consumers reveals that more than 70% said they are interested in having their primary bank use their personal data if it means their banking experiences will be more personalised. The Bain report “Customer Behavior and Loyalty in Banking” shows a fragmentation, or unbundling, of services in all 11 countries and […]

Adobe’s speeds up content supply chain

Adobe’s new generative AI services will be integrated as a co-pilot for marketers and creative professionals to enable rapid development of content variations and improve end-to-end marketing workflows.

Real-time customer intelligence for an exceptional experience

Digital engagement has led to higher customer expectations, greater demands, and more choices if one brand doesn’t deliver. Privacy laws and changes in the technology landscape have marketers scrambling to get the data they need to meet customer expectations. With customer experience (CX) programmes buckling under pressure, the CMO Council and SAS embarked on an […]

Ignoring commerce ethics can damage customer trust

Gartner predicts that by 2027, fines from government and other regulatory bodies focused on commerce ethics will exceed US$5 billion. “Aggressive digital commerce practices are innovative, but they often introduce ethical pitfalls,” said Jason Daigler, vice president analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice. “When ignored, these issues erode customer trust, damage the customer experience, and […]

Prioritising first-party data exceed customer retention expectations

A Gartner survey of 400 marketing leaders reveals that 60% of marketing leaders believe collecting first-party customer data with an appropriate balance of customer value exchange and privacy will become more challenging in 2023. Among respondents, to the survey, 85% have implemented a formal policy to manage customer data, yet privacy remains an ongoing challenge. […]

PepsiCo expands Greenhouse Accelerator Program to APAC

The selected start-ups are granted USD$20,000 in funding and will participate in a four-month business optimisation program designed to accelerate growth.

Customer alignment turbocharges company growth

Forrester warns that outdated short-term growth strategies that focus on extracting value from customers no longer work. Dramatic changes in buyers’ behaviour, evolving business models, and technological advances mandate a shift in how companies design their strategies and operate their organisations. To drive profitable and sustainable business growth in this environment, alignment across sales, marketing, […]

Tips on customer engagement for Hong Kong Businesses in 2023

Driven largely by the digitisation of virtually every aspect of our lives, customer expectations have shifted dramatically over the past few years. To keep pace, businesses must invest in the right areas to ensure their customer experience (CX) really generates value. But in a city of 7.6 million people with high demographic diversity, this is […]

KDDI upgraded mobile payment and customer loyalty systems

KDDI chose Oracle in February 2021 with Oracle Consulting Japan as the implementation partner for this purpose.

How to up contact centre efficiency by 30%

Gartner predicts that by 2026 customer service functions that implement the “connected rep” will improve contact centre efficiency by 30%. The connected rep is a strategy that enables customer service reps (CSRs) to perform high-quality assisted service at scale. It bridges technology and talent, using context, guidance, and design to reduce rep effort and increase […]

The biggest barrier to customer service modernisation

A Gartner online survey of 888 customer service reps (CSRs) and support specialists from August 2022 revealed access to legacy systems is the main barrier to new technology adoption. The survey revealed that 45% avoid adopting new technologies by relying on legacy systems and tools. “Many leaders believe that certain groups are less likely to […]

CX equal to operational efficiency as priority in APeJ

IDC predicts that by 2024, 50% of the A1000 will adopt CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) as the enterprise customer data service for real-time customer interactions like a central nervous system, increasing CX metrics and revenue by 5%. This is just one of IDC’s predictions unveiled in its latest report, IDC FutureScape : Worldwide Future of […]

Zurich Insurance to move 1,000 apps to AWS by 2025

Zurich Insurance Group will develop and bring new products to market quicker, saving approximately US$30 million a year.

Digital banking in China and Hong Kong: same but different

Post COVID, to remain competitive and to win over customers, retail banks must adopt an omnichannel banking strategy focusing on customer experience, says Bain & Company. “Consumers shifted their banking behaviours out of necessity but are staying with digital channels for the experience. That means online and mobile banking are not secondary channels or value-added […]

Adtech innovator Teads expands into Taiwan

The company’s entry into the Taiwanese market follows recent announcements including Teads Ad Manager becoming the first cookieless platform on the open web.

Customers need more reassurance about data privacy

Besides the disconnect between customers’ expectation and companies’ privacy strategy, the survey also finds that organisations privacy priorities differ from those expressed by consumers.

Enterprises doubling down on CXM outsourcing

Following the pandemic shutdowns in 2020, the global outsourced customer experience management (CXM) market spiked in 2021, with the fastest year-on-year growth (12-14%) in recent history. Everest Group noted that the growth of the customer experience management (CXM) outsourcing market, which currently stands at 31% of overall global CXM spend including in-house contact centres, outpaced […]

Customer service and support priorities in 2023

In a Gartner online survey of 283 customer service and support leaders from August-October 2022, 84% of customer service and service support leaders cited customer data and analytics as “very or extremely important” for achieving their organisational goals in 2023. Eighty per cent of respondents ranked digital channel effectiveness as “very or extremely important,” along […]

Singtel enterprise customers got the metaverse vibe

In the long term, SKT and Singtel aim to expand their metaverse offerings to countries where Singtel has a presence in, such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Insurers’ priorities in 2023: customer experience and operational efficiency

The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey revealed that improving the customer experience and operational excellence, not growth, are the driving forces for the majority of insurance digitalisation initiatives in 2023. “Improving the customer experience (CX) ranked higher in the survey this year than more strategic focuses, such as growing revenue or new products/services […]

Micro-targeting changes the game in the food service industry

Every medium has a purpose. TV advertising, for example, targets consumers who because they can watch television suggests there are certain demographics, mainly affluent and educated enough to be sold an idea or a product. It sounds cynical and discriminatory but that is essentially marketing – to separate a specific group of consumers that are […]

Web3 opportunities and hurdles for banks

Bain says senior executives within the financial industry estimate that web3 capabilities could cut operational costs needed to deliver banking services by as much as one quarter. Bain’s Senior Financial Services Stakeholders Survey shows that more than half of nearly 70 executives believe that web3 will disrupt activities historically performed by banks. Lack of regulatory […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: Trends for CMOs and CIOs in 2023

Gartner says customer demand and buying behaviours continue to fluctuate unpredictably amid pandemic waves, supply chain disruption, inflationary price increases and geopolitical instability. At the same time, strategic marketing priorities — such as innovation, customer experience (CX) and digital commerce — transcend functional boundaries, becoming enterprise priorities with complex cross-functional execution. Also, traditional sources of […]

5 steps for marketing to regain business confidence in 2023

“Against a backdrop of unrelenting social and economic pressures, marketing leaders look toward a future where smarter marketing leads to deeper, more valuable connections between customers and brands,” said Andrew Frank, distinguished VP analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice. “From managing misinformation to ensuring effective first-party data collection, this year’s predictions prioritise the trends that […]

The value of digital touchpoints in the cloud

According to the 2022 Gartner Overcoming the Barriers to Digital Execution Survey, 48% of respondents’ primary objective for making digital technology investments is to improve the customer (or citizen) experience. According to the 2023 CIO and Technology Executive Survey, 18% of respondents have already deployed edge computing, while another 51% are planning to deploy it […]

Bank of Ningbo unveils first AI digital employee

To bring Xiaoning to life, Bank of Ningbo partnered with AI giant SenseTime which has been deploying in recent years multi-functional AI digital humans across different scenarios in the banking and finance industry.

Manulife’s journey towards becoming a digital customer leader

Damien Green, president and CEO of Manulife Asia, wants the insurer to become the digital customer leader in its industry in Asia. To help achieve this ambition, the company has brought in 20-year industry veteran, Harshal Shah as its new chief marketing and experience design officer for Asia. FutureCIO spoke to Shah to understand how […]

HK firms risk 6.5% of their revenue due to poor CX

After receiving a poor customer experience, 43% say they reduce their spending with that brand or stop spending with them altogether.

Gartner identifies top hurdles facing CMOs in 2023

“As CMOs enter 2023, the current environment demands a relentless focus on customer value, purposeful evolution of the marketing function, and continual optimization of brand value,” said Ewan McIntyre, chief of research in the Gartner Marketing practice. “In order to meet the enterprise mandate of driving growth amid continued disruption, CMOs must act decisively to […]

CX values will centre on empathy and outcomes in 2023

Customers are demanding greater value, more memorable and immersive experiences, and greater control over how they engage with enterprises, becoming equal stakeholders in the customer experience (CX) ecosystem. Going forward, customer-centric business resilience will require enterprises to move beyond transactional-level experiences and tie business outcomes to relationship-based experiences that will be fulfilled by delivering customer […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: Aligning IT support and ESG at IHH Healthcare

Central to the success of any environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitment is data. Any organisation that chooses to commit itself to an ESG initiative must be able to measure change and accelerate transformation in areas such as emissions, governance and diversity, equity and inclusion, organisations need access to data from outside the organisation. Gartner […]

Desay SV and Parkopedia forge parking services pact

Drivers will benefit from Parkopedia’s on-street and off-street parking data, as well as payments via in-vehicle QR codes.

Digital trust “extremely important” among APAC consumers

In the newly published 2022 State of Digital Trust Survey, results also show that 88% of customers in the region would consider switching if companies do not manage digital trust, with 57% saying switching would be likely.

TCS to create immersive digital experience at SG marathon

TCS also streamlines the entire marathon experience for active and passive participants through a single digitally integrated platform with high functionality and excellent user experience.

Mobile operators to lose US$2.5B to OTT apps in 2023

The report found that promotional messages will account for 30% of this revenue loss in 2023, with enterprises embracing up-selling and cross-selling capabilities through rich-media marketing campaigns.

New IT paradigm that supports growth and revenue enablement

With increasing disruptions to traditional business models and the rapid adoption of exponential technologies such as Web 3.0, the metaverse and 5G, enterprises need a new technology strategy to compete in the market. The role of an IT team is no longer as “simple” as keeping the infrastructure running efficiently; today, IT organisations also are […]

Cisco Webex fortifies capabilities for next-gen hybrid work

New advancements address hybrid work challenges in security and manageability.

APAC firms will struggle with rising customer expectations in 2023

Forrester’s 2023 Asia Pacific (APAC) Predictions predict geopolitical friction, global economic pressures, and post-pandemic challenges will force APAC firms to prioritise their technology investments in 2023. However, despite embracing technology-led solutions to improve the lives of customers and citizens, firms will struggle to keep pace with rising customer expectations around omnichannel experiences and environmental, social, […]

IDC outlines the four reasons for DX spending in Asia

Organisations that pursue digital transformation (DX) want to create new sources of value through digital products, services, and experiences. The pandemic revealed another benefit of digital transformation – it improves an organisation’s resilience against market disruptions. Given its importance to future success, global DX spending is forecast to reach US$3.4 trillion in 2026 with a […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: Solving the death by personalisation dilemma

Deloitte Hong Kong Digital Leader Allen Wong believes that the business landscape has changed since the onset of the pandemic in terms of delivering an outstanding customer experience due to more channels to deal with customers, the need to understand customer data to drive targeted experience, as well as the increasing trend of loyalty programmes […]

Affin Bank taps Aspire Systems to hasten digital banking journey

Bank has chosen Temenos Infinity Digital Banking Experience platform (Infinity) to provide the bank with most features that are available “out of the box”.

Meralco rolls out data solution to improve CX and OPs

It used to be that when you have a monopoly on a market, you can sit back and just rake in the rewards without a care for the service you deliver or the state of customer satisfaction. That may not hold up today. A study in the Journal of Marketing Research suggests customer satisfaction predicts […]

Prudential, Google Cloud forge a strategic partnership

Prudential will leverage Google Cloud’s data analytics capabilities, secure and sustainable infrastructure, and the broader Google ecosystem, to accelerate its digital transformation and to enhance user engagement of its health and wealth platform, Pulse.

APAC firms seek tech-led transformation to meet changing customer needs

Companies looking to reskill existing employees as skills gap hinders progress in technology-enabled transformation.

Cathay Pacific is using conversational AI to enhance customers’ digital experience

Accenture notes that the pandemic has put pressure on organisations and industries to reduce overall costs to outweigh missing revenues. Within in the travel industry, operational deficits caused by staff shortages have negatively impacted processes, costs, and customer experiences. In reporting a loss of nearly HK$5 billion during the first half of 2022, Patrick Healey, […]

Vietnam’s Techcombank and Masan in cashless push

WIN member customers will not have to carry cash or a credit card when using new modern cashless payment methods via Techcombank Mobile, such as Pay by Push (one-touch payment via the mobile phone) or QR Code.

How to respond to the customer experience trends that will shape your business in 2022 and beyond

Customer experience has emerged as a key battleground and businesses that can win the customer experience war will be more likely to succeed in the long term. Today’s customers have been conditioned to expect outstanding experiences based on hyper-personalisation. To achieve this, organisations need access to accurate, real-time data and technology solutions that can help […]

Metaverse increase trust risks for enterprises and users

“The metaverse is attracting large investments from technology giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and Nvidia to make the virtual world a reality, and the applications hold unlimited economic and social potential for both good and bad,” said Rajesh Ranjan, partner at Everest Group. As enterprises apply their best creative and strategic thinking to how […]

Gartner survey outlines barriers to analytics adoption

“CMOs often believe that achieving marketing data integration goals will lead to greater influence and increased value of marketing analytics,” said Joseph Enever, sr director analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice. “The reality is that better data won’t increase marketing analytics’ decision influence alone. CMOs must address the real challenges — cognitive biases and the […]

Swire Hotels adds more payment options with Adyen

Swire Hotels has teamed up with Adyen to enable more payment options, payment tokenisation and unified commerce – offering flexibility and security to the hotel group’s payment processes. Adyen’s solutions have now been implemented in the accommodation services in EAST Hong Kong, EAST Residence, The Upper House and Pacific Place Apartments, where guest can now […]

Why Singapore businesses are failing to meet customer expectations

The Zendesk CX Accelerator report revealed that Singaporean businesses are struggling to deliver on their exceptional customer experience (CX) aspirations. The report noted that just seven per cent of Singapore businesses are qualified as ‘CX Champions’ – those considered the highest standard-bearers. As of the report, Singapore ranked 10th across the 13 global markets surveyed. […]

Sustainable retail practices at Decathlon

COVID-19 may not be over, but life is beginning to return to some normalcy for retailers. McKinsey says the medium-term outlook is positive, with the global sportswear market expected to grow 8 to 10% a year to 2025. Since 2020, retailers have been on a roller coaster ride. On the one hand, early mobility restrictions […]

HubSpot enables WhatApp and SMS channels via Infobip integration

By syncing Infobip’s WhatsApp and SMS channels with HubSpot, businesses can send automated messages and updates to deliver faster and more efficient communication.

APAC outpaces rest of the world in digital payment adoption

While the current pandemic has been a catalyst for the unprecedented, rapid uptake of digital payments, it indicates that the change has been lasting.

Three sales priorities to counter economic headwinds

Gartner lists three key priorities for chief sales officers (CSOs) in response to high inflation and recession risk. They include adopting flexible planning techniques, retaining/retraining high-performing sellers, and embracing strategic cost management. “Economic headwinds require sales organisations to take bold, pre-emptive actions that strengthen the core of their business and point the organisation toward growth […]

Four drivers of technology innovation in customer service

According to Gartner, the four pillars driving technology innovation across customer service and support (CSS) organisations are getting connected, process orchestration, knowledge and insight, and resource management. The Gartner Hype Cycle for CSS Technologies, 2022 contains the most-important maturing technologies for supporting customers (see Figure 1). The Gartner Hype Cycle provides a view of how […]

Changi Airport Group and Accenture extend collaboration

Adopting a customer-centric approach based on rapid prototyping, the two organisations will jointly design and roll-out new digital products across Changi.

Being paperless helped YF Life adjust to a hybrid work model

The company is able to save on manpower resources, significantly reduce the duration of administrative processes from weeks to days, and eliminates over 100 types of physical forms.

CCaaS market to reach US$15.6 billion by 2027

The research predicts that social media platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, will become an important medium for enterprises to interact with their customers in the future.

Money management features of mobile banking apps need improvement

Rising inflation, a looming energy crisis, and the increased cost of living in Australia mean more and more customers need help managing their money. Participants in a Forrester survey noted that 54% of Australian online adults say they need help with money management, yet only 21% strongly believe that their financial institution cares about their […]

Number of agility leaders in APAC nearly doubled in 2022

Organisations in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), and Singapore have upped their digital agility index scores by between 0.5 and 0.9 since 2020.

Delighting customers in real time on their preferred channel

Conversational-style business messaging integrate maps and search functions  A recent Forrester report commissioned by Google found that 54 percent of consumers expect faster responses from brands and 48 percent want it to happen on the channel of their choice. One company is empowering business owners with an integrated tool that works across platforms  to synch […]

Gov’t IT spending in APAC to reach US$151-B by 2025

More than three quarters, 77%, of citizens now primarily use a digital platform to access government services.

Pandemic drives hyper-personalization demand in India

When the pandemic hit, more consumers in India started to use digital channels and platforms for daily tasks such as buying groceries, opening a bank account, and purchasing medicines, thus changing customer interaction and expectations. As good customer experience (CX) often influences future purchase decisions, increasing customer engagement and satisfaction is the top business priority […]

Chatbots to become the primary customer service channel

Gartner predicts that by 2027, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organisations. “Chatbots and virtual customer assistants (VCAs) have evolved over the past decade to become a critical technology component of a service organisation’s strategy,” said Uma Challa, sr director analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support […]

Don’t compromise products to cut cost

At a time of uncertainty and rising inflation, consumers are focused on how to extend every dollar. At some point, they will notice the shrinking packaging of a preferred brand. A Gartner survey of 252 consumers in June 2022 found that shrinkflation— when the size or quantity of packaged goods is reduced without a commensurate […]

Centralising marketing function to attain operational efficiency

A Gartner survey of North America and European marketers revealed that 60% have centralised some (23%) or all (37%) of their functions. Chief marketing officers (CMOs) cited operational excellence issues — such as prioritisation, workflows and collaboration — as the primary reasons for making changes to their organisational structures. “CMOs may be lured by the […]

Man and machine – a love-locked relationship

Interview with Don Ong, head of innovation, Advantest at a regional automation showcase Robotics may be known for fast, repetitive and precision work but it relies on human supervision to excel. AI and machine learning can capture data and gather intelligence from previous tasks to shorten production lines. But there is an interdependency to improve […]

Profiling the best adopters in robotics and automation in Asia

At its inaugural APAC conference held in Singapore, Blue Prism World on Tour 2022, Asia Pacific, SC&C Blue Prism showcased some of the latest trends and innovative use cases around the use of robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent automation (IA). Speakers from Schroders, Advantest, National Australia Bank, and Air New Zealand shared how RPA […]

New data lab is making sports more accessible and exciting

In the pursuit of making sports and healthy lifestyles more accessible, Decathlon unveiled its data lab, recently in Singapore.  What started out as an e-commerce sports retailer in Singapore. Decathlon has became one of the pioneers in the omni-channel approach with the establishment of their first experience store in 2016.  Since then, the company has […]

NextBlock – hyperlocal platform brings Singapore residents closer together

Social platform connects residents to get more local information and support home businesses Living within the confines of a flat does not have to make one feel isolated because you are only an app away to connecting with your neighbours. Even as the majority of Singaporeans who live in densely populated high-rise apartments, they get […]

Enterprises not happy with IT service providers

Although enterprise satisfaction with technology service providers improved 5% overall in 2021, talent management has emerged as the biggest reason for enterprises’ dissatisfaction, according to Everest Group. Everest Group conducted 496 unique interviews with global enterprise executives in 2021 and determined that attrition is enterprises’ biggest pain point with respect to their technology service providers. […]

Almost half of employees polled globally are frustrated by work tech

State of the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) study measures tech-use satisfaction Innovation remains to be the driving force behind the rise of hybrid work, but unfortunately, the truth is that many organisations still experience major challenges in tech adoption. The top challenges reported include too many emails or chat messages 28%, a lack of connection […]

Business strategies for winning in the Sheconomy

“Since 2010, the percentage of women executives increased across all developed regions, with the largest gains in Asia with a doubling of participation since 2010.” Morgan Stanley First coined in 2007, sheconomy refers to a new economy driven by the increase in female consumers in industries like tourism, healthcare, food, beauty and wellness, culture, media, […]

CIAM is the simplest solution to reduce friction for user access

Okta reports on the State of CIAM in Asia-Pacific 2022 In today’s digital-first world, the urgency for businesses to deliver customer experiences that balance security and UX is driving the widespread awareness and adoption of Customer Identification Access Management (CIAM) across the Asia-Pacific. CIAM is also proving its value beyond end consumer interactions, helping to […]

Paradox of personalisation versus privacy

State of Personalisation Report Uncovers Consumer Behaviours   In the race to personalise everything sold online and making that experience memorable, companies have to obtain your personal data first before they can customise.  Now this changes consumer attitudes because in the process your data is being shared online and in return, creates a paradox for businesses. […]

Gartner outlines how to improve sales outcomes

A Gartner survey of 725 B2B buyers from November through December 2021 found that digital commerce has rapidly become the norm and the preferred way to complete B2B purchases. Among respondents, 83% say they prefer ordering or paying through digital commerce. Currently, the two levers available to commercial organizations — digital commerce and sales rep […]

Frosts says digital health to drive new business models

The increased number of patients using digital health tools, such as telehealth and other enterprise IT solutions, is empowering consumers to manage their health. Frost says this is accelerating the global digital health market growth. According to Frost & Sullivan’s analysis, Global Digital Health Outlook, these tools will help ensure patient engagement and avoid staff […]

Human touch is still relevant to customer experience

Commissioned by Infobip, the Forrester Consulting study ‘Redefining Human and Automated Engagement – How APAC Consumers Have Impacted the CX Agenda’, revealed that customers in Hong Kong and 10 other Asian markets, expect real-time personalised services and interactions enabled by digital and automated engagement mechanisms. Organisations should therefore holistically weave human-assisted and automated service capabilities […]

Improving your customer service strategy in 2022

A Salesforce survey (of US consumers) noted that 82% of consumers expect to continue contacting customer service at pandemic-level rates, and an additional 10% say their contact rates will rise even higher. The survey also observed that only 36% of service professionals feel fully prepared to handle a surge in service and support cases. Further, […]

Customers want personalisation but are wary of privacy violations

Seventy-one per cent of B2C customers and 86% of B2B customers expect companies to be well-informed about their personal information during a service interaction. A December 2021 Gartner survey of more than 5,800 customers found that while customers want companies to be well-informed about their personal information, customers also expect their data to remain private […]

Telegram will launch a paid subscription plan for its users

Messaging app Telegram will launch a paid subscription plan for its users this month, founder Pavel Durov said on Friday. Users who will opt for Telegram Premium will get a higher limit for chats, media and file uploads, Durov said in a blogpost. “The only way to let our most demanding fans get more while […]

Three BNPL growth opportunities for B2B companies

Emerging as an alternative credit payment approach, buy now, pay later (BNPL) aims to meet the need of younger consumers who often have a limited credit history and low credit scores. The global BNPL market is expected to reach $656.34 billion by 2026 from $136.55 billion in 2021, registering exponential growth at a compound annual […]

Consumer identity verification preference when shopping online

Singaporeans access 12 online accounts each week — which is the highest compared to the UK, US and Mexico — and 70% have to use their digital identity “constantly” or “often” to access online accounts. A global study conducted by Opinium found that Singaporeans think financial services (63%) is the most important industry to use […]

Embrace scaled judgement and empathetic influence for growth

Marketing teams that are effective at scaled judgment and empathetic influence are more likely to report revenue growth. Gartner says marketing teams who implemented these skills were 11% more likely to report organisational revenue growth in 2021. “Most marketers have crossed the digital business threshold, meaning digital is no longer the differentiator,” said Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone, […]

Gartner says time to rethink customer engagement

Gartner says sales leaders looking to cultivate an adaptable sales organisation should rethink their current sales efforts across three dimensions. Those dimensions include customer understanding, customer engagement and operating models. “From virtual selling to inflation, the pace of unrelenting change has had a massive impact on B2B commerce,” said Scott Collins, managing vice president in […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: Maximise the impact of automation on CX

In a Forrester study commissioned by CINNOX, only 16% of all surveyed customers recently experienced interactions that exceeded their expectations. It indicates that although organisations are committed to becoming more customer-focused, they have insufficient understanding of customers’ expectations and are failing to deliver quality experiences. In more developed markets like Hong Kong and Singapore, customer […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: Why automatedly human is the way forward in CX

* Editor’s note: This article is co-produced by Sukhpreet Kaur According to Forrester, 44% of purchase influencers in Asia-Pacific consider improving customer experience (CX) as one of their top priorities over the next 12 months. Even a minor improvement to a brand’s customer experience quality can add revenue by reducing customer churn and lowering the […]

When CX programs fail their prime directive

Gartner surveyed 362 global customer experience (CX) practitioners from October through December 2021 to understand CX priorities, processes, and measures that currently exist as well as the organisational structures in place to support these efforts. The study noted that organisations that demonstrate how customer satisfaction is associated with growth, margin and profitability are more likely […]

Mobile security will drive MFA-related revenue

Juniper Research forecasts that operators will generate US$27 billion from the termination of SMS messages related to multi-factor authentication in 2022. This is five per cent increase from 2021. The researcher attributes this growth to increased pressure on digital service providers to offer highly secure authentication that reduces risk of data breaches and protects user […]

What will drive consumer behaviour and markets

As digital transformation takes root across the consumer ecosystem, businesses must expand and deepen their relationships with consumers to better understand their wants, needs, and aspirations. “Technology is causing massive shifts in the way consumers live their lives, and technology companies, from hardware vendors to software developers to service and infrastructure providers, must think hard […]

Hyper-personalisation – the aspirations and the reality

Recently I was calling my airline to inquire about expiring award miles. I approached them via three channels: through their customer hotline, via online chat, and customer WhatsApp number. Long story short, I hung up after listening to an automated voice tell me that ‘the lines are busy’ after two hours. I placed the call […]

Tokio Marine Vietnam modernises client communication strategy

As of 2020, there were 71 insurance companies operating in Vietnam, up from one player in the 1990s. According to Statista, the total premium value of the non-life insurance business reached 57 trillion Vietnamese dong in 2020 with 32 non-life insurers serving 97.34 million. Providing high-quality insurance and risk management services to enterprises across the […]

Study highlights ROI of digitalised customer engagement

Twilio’s (third annual State of Customer Engagement Report found that investment in digital customer engagement and personalisation technologies has had a significant positive impact on customer retention and trust — and on revenues. In Singapore, for instance, B2C companies that invested in digital customer engagement also saw an average increase in total revenue of 61%. […]

Proactive service rewarded with value enhancement scores

Two-thirds of customers contact customer service after receiving proactive outreach from a brand, often using costly assisted channels because they needed additional information or confirmation. This flawed approach to proactive customer service can create customer confusion and unanswered questions that erode the benefits of a proactive strategy. The findings show that proactive service creates a […]

Centralisation is not the answer, warns Gartner

A Gartner survey revealed that 60% of marketing organisations have centralised some or all their functions. Chief marketing officers (CMOs) cited operational excellence issues — such as prioritisation, workflows, and collaboration — as the primary reasons for making changes to their organisational structures. The findings show that the pace of centralisation has quickened in comparison […]

Three ways not to lose an insurance customer

Whether it’s applying for a new policy or filing a claim, customer interactions are where the battle for lifetime brand loyalty begins. Customers expect ease of use, intuitive, self-service, fast response, and visibility into the process. Failure to offer this level of service and engagement your customers will walk away from your competition. Leveraging a […]

Monetizing security – a banking challenge in 2022

The global transformation of banking and payments has only accelerated over the past few years, and between web trends and a global pandemic, the industry has seen disruption from all angles. Consumers are digitally connected in almost all facets of their lives — and it’s evident they expect the same from their banks and payment […]

IDC calls for rethink of customer engagement strategies

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the region continues to adjust with cycles of change and adaptation. Customers today are more connected, consume more digital products and services, and are sharing more data because of their digital consumption. For organisations, digital engagements, products, and services have turned mainstream as they accelerated the expansions of digital […]

Time to break up with poor fit customers

Gartner predicts that by 2025, 75% of companies will “break up” with poor-fit customers as the cost of retaining them eclipses good-fit customer acquisition costs. When “breaking up” with a poor-fit customer, organisations proactively end the relationship on their own terms rather than waiting for the customer to end the relationship. This shift will expose […]

Skills and capability hold back CX investments

Asia-Pacific businesses are set to outstrip other global regions in customer experience investment in 2022 in response to a pandemic-induced surge in new digital consumers and online behaviours. However, gaps in critical skills and capability may be holding them back as they seek to maximise this world-leading commitment to serving digital-first consumers. “The digital rewiring […]

Focus on situational buyer insights to improve conversion

Standardized customer engagement in today’s buying environment will only get sellers so far, even with the best methodology. Gartner suggests that B2B sales organisations must take a more situationally aware approach, tuning engagement skills and tactics with empathy for, and personalization to, a prospective buyer’s current state. “Today’s buyers have strong preferences and seemingly endless […]

CSCO action items to improve supply chain CX

Gartner says the increased pace of change in customer preferences and expectations will force chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) to take three actions to improve the supply chain customer experience (CX). “Supply chain customers today are looking for improvements in areas such as on-time, in-full (OTIF). They also expect shorter lead time and personalized products […]

Data privacy at a crossroads in 2022

In the 29 January 2007, Esquire interview, Andy Grove, at the time, 63 and chairman of Intel, said “Privacy is one of the biggest problems in this new electronic age. At the heart of the Internet culture is a force that wants to find out everything about you. And once it has found out everything […]

3 ways AI benefits customer service operations

Insights, user experience and process improvement are three ways artificial intelligence (AI) can benefit customer service organizations. Gartner suggests service and support leaders understand these three benefits in order to thoroughly develop and track the right metrics for evaluating their solutions’ effectiveness and prove business cases for further investment. “Customer service and support leaders are […]

Customer service is still an afterthought

The annual Zendesk Customer Experience (CX) Trends Report highlighted the potential for businesses to drive business success with a focus on customer experiences. However, it also uncovered a gap between consumer expectations and company actions when it comes to customer service. The 2022 report reveals that 68% of Asia Pacific (APAC) consumers feel as though […]

The need for smart and agile contact centres

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is becoming more widespread, proving to be a significant business driver especially when it facilitates stronger conversations between humans. McKinsey anticipates that AI could potentially deliver an additional economic output of around $13 trillion by 2030, boosting global GDP by about 1.2% a year. This could also save […]

Five consumer trends marketers should evaluate in 2022

A Gartner survey of 1,752 consumers during October 2021 identified the top consumer and cultural trends for marketers in 2022. Sixty-four per cent of consumers have identified trying to keep their work-self and personal-self separate. “Marketers responsible for strategic planning, targeting, positioning, messaging and corporate responsibility initiatives can use these trends to better align their […]

Frost says APM to help contact centres realise enhanced CX

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a temporary shift in investment priorities in the contact centre. Millions of agents suddenly needed to work remotely, and businesses needed to figure out how to manage and provision for a remote workforce. Investments were focused on developing new ways of working, new channels of customer engagement, and enhanced e-commerce capabilities. […]

What customers don’t care about

Most financial services leaders are heavily invested in learning more about what customers care about most. Often overlooked, however, are the things customers DON’T care about. A closer look at the other side of the coin can help with project and investment prioritization, cultural changes, and improved customer experience. And I’ll bet they surprise you… […]

Metaverse – still a long way for enterprise reality

Tuong H. Nguyen, senior principal analyst and a member of Gartner’s emerging technologies and trends team, has identified smart spaces and homomorphic encryption as technologies 3-6 years away and generative AI as only slightly further out at 6-8 years. One emerging technology with a much further timeline but meriting attention is metaverse– a technology that […]

Getting chatbots to deliver the value deserving of the hype

Chatbots are software that simulates conversation through voice or text or both. Since the first chatbot ELIZA, developed in the 1960s by MIT Professor Joseph Weizenbaum), the technology has evolved. In more recent years, two core technology – natural language processing and artificial intelligence – are furthering the use cases with more recent interests around […]

How voice is changing how we connect with customers

As we come to the end of 2021, yet another wave of COVID-19 is sweeping the globe. While the Omicron variant is adding further strain to global travel, we’ve already seen this movie before with the Delta variant. And we’re likely to see further confusion again with the next variant. In this volatile and uncertain […]

Amazon CTO sees ubiquitous connectivity in 2022

Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels opined that the world is entering where data is abundant, access to it is almost instantaneous, and our ability to make sense of it in new and subtle ways is practically automatic. “2022 will be an exciting year for technology, with it pushing all of us, and our planet, forward in […]

Predictions 2022: The Future of Trust

Organizations in Asia/Pacific – private sector, government, and educational institutions – have reached a digital transformation tipping point and are aggressively embracing digital-first strategies. Data security, confidentiality, integrity, and availability are now key issues for all organizations, as is imperative to use data ethically while complying with a complex web of industry and regional regulations. […]

Sales success occur when customers’ needs come first

By 2026, B2B sales organizations that unify commercial strategies and leverage multithreaded commercial strategies will realize revenue growth that outperforms the competition by 50%. Gartner explains that sales leaders must rethink their go-to-market strategies with what Gartner calls “orchestrated customer engagement” to better align to today’s buying behaviours. Orchestrated customer engagement helps commercial leaders transition […]

Predictions 2022: AI-guided selling solutions to augment B2B sales tactics

By 2025, 75% of B2B sales organizations will augment traditional sales playbooks with artificial intelligence (AI) guided selling solutions. Despite current low adoption rates, increasing pressure created by massive amounts of data available to sales organizations and revitalized budgets is driving many sales leaders to invest in AI and machine learning (ML) technology to analyse […]

The state of modernization, transformation, and innovation in the digital age

The insights in this Boomi report, The State of Modernization, Transformation, and Innovation in the Digital Age, are based on a survey by market research firm Vanson Bourne. The survey asked business and IT leaders around the world about their efforts and initiatives to bring greater speed, agility, and efficiencies to their organizations. The report […]

Customer journey and security are key priorities for APAC businesses in 2022

Although higher than pre-pandemic levels, the levelling of online activity since Wave 2 of Experian’s Global Insights Report (mid-September 2020) means businesses need to shift their focus to address these changing consumer needs and establish trust when it comes to communicating how they utilise personal information and data protection. As industries grapple with pandemic recovery, […]

Predictions 2022: Opt-out rates for mobile app tracking to plunge by 65%

The opt-out rate for mobile app tracking will decline from 85% in 2021 to 60% by 2023 as consumers gain experience with untargeted ads. While Apple has added new privacy features in iOS for consumers to manage how they are tracked, marketers must demonstrate the benefit to consumers in allowing mobile app tracking. “Roughly one-quarter […]

Predictions 2022: IDC FutureScape’s future of customers and consumers

Technology will be the cornerstone of brands that try to re-establish relationships with customers and consumers in a new version of the physical and digital world. IDC says organizations that focus on resiliency in systems, processes, and business models that influence how companies and brands engage with customers will find success in the future of […]

Prepping CS&S for the lonely customer

By 2026, 75% of customers who call customer service and support organizations will do so out of loneliness, not because they have a customer service issue According to Gartner, this will affect service and support leaders’ priority of migrating customers to self-service and ensuring rep well-being. “Lonely customers looking to fulfil their interpersonal needs through […]

Use self-service instant issuance to drive digital branch value

There is a global trend towards a reduction in physical bank branches as banks look for ways to lower operating costs while enhancing traction and engagement. Research from data specialist CACI suggests that consumers still prefer branches for more complex financial needs. The decline in branch visitors remains a modest 1-1.5% annually with digital channels […]

Five must-dos to transform APAC retailers in 2022

“As retailers adapt to changing consumer behaviours and strive for transformational growth, it is critical for them to consider how they incorporate new customer needs and expectations into their current business models,” said Guy Elliott, retail industry lead, Publicis Sapient, EMEA and APAC. The Publicis Sapient report, 2022 Retail Guide to Next, highlights the top […]

Predictions 2022: APAC to address employee and customer expectations

After two years, it only took a global pandemic, turbulence, and uncertainty, for firms in Asia-Pacific to proactively address changing customer and employee expectations. Forrester predicts that in 2022 business leaders in Asia-Pacific will embrace controlled, positive change — implementing future-fit technology strategies to improve business agility and new ways of regionally aligned hybrid ways […]

Gartner reveals CS&S priorities for 2022

Sixty-four per cent of customer service and support (CS&S) leaders report “grow the business” is their most critical priority in 2022. A Gartner survey of 170 customer service and support leaders, conducted in August-September 2021, indicated a significant shift towards adding value and growing existing clients for a function that has historically been viewed as […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: Innovations transforming insurance in Asia

It is said that modern insurance can trace its roots at the Greater Fire of London in 1666, and the first accident insurance became available in the late 19th century. But as they say… that is ancient history. These days, the insurance industry is under siege not by a customer looking to buy insurance but […]

Forrester: human interaction is part of digital customer experience

Forrester’s CX Index benchmarks the CX quality of brands and is based on a survey of more than 5,000 Australian adult customers, including more than 1,400 customers of five banks: ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, NAB, Suncorp, and Westpac. The analyst says in 2021 the quality of customer experience in the banking sector has improved, […]

Changing how you engage your customers

“COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how businesses operate and how consumers interact with those organisations,” said Joy Corso, chief marketing officer for Vonage. Vonage’s 10th Global Customer Engagement Report showed 47% of consumers worldwide have increased their use of digital channels to engage with businesses and service providers over the past 12-18 months and 87% expect […]

Podchats for FutureCIO: Leading the bank branch of tomorrow

The geographic fragmentation of the Philippines with its 7,100 islands has been a decades-old, insurmountable challenge for banks in the country, which seek to expand their branch network into far-flung areas. More than 18-months into the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and physical distancing measures have caused a massive drop in physical transactions but the volume of […]

Entrust announces a safer way to travel

Continuing concerns about COVID-19 contagion may not be enough to stifle commerce and the itch to travel. The McKinsey–World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) report, Adapting to Endemic COVID-19: The Outlook for Business Travel, forecasts that business travel may return faster in Asia compared to other markets. The projected recovery may likely be in phases […]

Omnisumer creates new opportunities for energy providers

According to the EY report, Navigating the Energy Transition Consumer Survey, a perfect storm of government policy, consumer trends and technology is accelerating the energy transition. And while much of the discussion centres around renewables and infrastructure, it mostly overlooks the customer. EY says a new generation of energy consumer is looking for options that […]

IDC outlines the future of enterprise resiliency and spending

According to the IDC Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) survey improving the customer experience (CX) directly impacts the organization’s bottom line. About 34% of respondents globally reported improved profit margins as one of the top five benefits arising from their CX initiatives. Organizations attributed these higher profit margins to increased revenue (27%), cost reductions […]

Best practices for managing customer experience

To cope with restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, companies accelerated the digitalization of their customer experience journey. With an increase in digital interaction between customers and businesses, companies are now eager to optimize customers experiences for engagement and business insights. In a Cxociety C-Suite virtual roundtable discussion titled “Best kept secrets in sustained customer […]

Banking experience in Malaysia lacks differentiation

According to Forrester’s 2021 Malaysia Customer Experience Index (CX Index), banks in Malaysia provide average customer experience with little differentiation between each brand. Based on a survey of more than 2,000 consumers in Malaysia, Forrester’s CX Index benchmarks the CX quality of seven multichannel banks — AmBank, Bank Rakyat, CIMB Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Maybank, […]

Crestron enhances the hybrid meeting experience with intelligent video

As businesses shift to a hybrid-first environment, where seamless collaboration between dispersed teams is a top priority, one of the biggest challenges has been ensuring every person in the meeting has an equal seat at the table. Room systems with intelligent audio and video features, paired with the software innovations from meeting service providers, such […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: The why and how of becoming a data-driven insurance

As the world pivots and adjusts to a pandemic environment, the disruption that has impacted business has driven many organisations to re-structure and re-calibrate their operating models. According to the OECD, insurance companies experienced a slowdown in gross premiums underwritten in 2020, with life insurance premiums declining by 2.2%. Non-life grew by 1.2% in 2020. […]

Only one in five consumers have exceptional CX

Commissioned by CINNOX, the Forrester Opportunity Snapshot report Infuse Digital Experiences with the Right Dose of Human Touch revealed that while customer experience (CX) is becoming more imperative for competitive differentiation, organisations often fail in exceeding customer expectations. Only 16% of the 1,200 customers that participated in the survey acknowledged having recently experienced interactions that […]

Security and compliance: top areas for trust perception

Organizations are more frequently embedding trust metrics into their request for proposals (RFPs) to ensure that potential vendors can also be trusted ecosystem partners. Trusted ecosystems help improve an organization’s brand, reputation, and trust perceptions, which, in turn, drive stronger business performance. IDC’s new Future of Trust survey ranked security and compliance as the top […]

AI to become a mainstay tool of M&E services

ABI Research predicts that spending in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in the media and entertainment (M&E) to reach US$16.5 billion by 2026. Click here for top use cases for AI in M&E. Influence AI/ML adoption The M&E industry is undergoing a transformative process, adapting to changes in consumer behaviour and preferences, new […]

SG insurers get upper hand in customer experience

According to Forrester’s 2021 Singapore Customer Experience Index (CX Index), the quality of customer experience improved significantly in the automotive/home insurance industry compared to the banking industry for the first time since the inception of the study in 2018. Based on a survey of more than 2,000 consumers in Singapore across 11 brands, including six […]

Hyper personalisation: key to the future of digital banking in ASEAN

The Boston Consulting Group says evolving customer expectations, enhanced digital penetration and the pandemic are conspiring to accelerate ASEAN consumers transition to digital. The opportunities have attracted new market players with fresh ideas. For incumbent players, this new competitive landscape presents a natural threat to their dominance and an opportunity to re-emerge better than before […]

Monetising inflight experiences

Most air travellers have grown accustomed to a custom inflight entertainment system that aims to glue the traveller to his or her seat for the duration of the flight. Sure, you can call on the flight crew for services but even then all they can tell you is what you already have in front of […]

A customer-centric supply chain needs a PRISM framework

Gartner says CSCOs need a “PRISM” framework to shift the supply chain culture towards customer-centricity

How IHiS optimised customer experience for HealthHub

With a rapidly growing user base and a surge in the use of its services in recent years, HealthHub needed a listening engine to capture the voice of the customer in a timely manner.

Six technologies to drive new customer acquisition and growth

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are transitioning from a focus on customer retention last year to now looking to new customer acquisition and growth as they navigate into a post-pandemic world. As the COVID-19 pandemic led many marketers to shift focus to pure customer retention strategies, it also brought an acceleration to digital transformations for many […]

When Asians abandon online banking onboarding

Banks know full well that customers want a seamless banking experience. More importantly, they don’t want to be kept waiting too long. Banks know this but still they expect consumers to wait their turn.

APAC hunger for digital content driving mobile app services

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis reveals that the mobile services market in Asia-Pacific (APAC) is witnessing increased mobile applications consumption.

PodChats for FutureCIO: Modernizing process automation in ASEAN

From a CIO’s perspective, process automation including RPA has enabled the organisation to remain competitive by helping reduce cost, improve resource allocation, and streamline repetitive tasks.

Customer service to drive the revival of chatbots, AI and analytics

Gartner research signals a shift from rep-enablement technologies to increasing focus and investments in understanding customers through analytics

Ensuring digital onboarding excellence for modern banking success

For CIOs/CTOs/customer experience leads at banks in Asia-Pacific, the stakes have never been higher – one step wrong in the digital world and the customer is lost.

Singaporean consumers prefer being treated as individuals

OpenText survey highlights the critical role digital experience plays for customers post-pandemic, with almost three quarters (72%) saying the pandemic has changed their expectations of brands’ digital offerings

Growing optimism for recovery to pre-covid levels

Omdia says 69% of global enterprises expect their levels of business to recover to at least pre-Covid19 levels in 2021.

Eight risk points when planning sales strategy post-COVID

Gartner has identified 8 risk points chief sales officers should manage when planning sales strategy in a post-pandemic world

PodChats for FutureCIO: Optimising digital touchpoints for greater customer satisfaction

With the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a big shift in customer behaviour in terms of the fear of missing out, lockdown, and limited mobility. This requires them to find other channels, and this is where digital plays a big role.

2021 marketing budgets plummet 6.4% – all-time low

Gartner says CMO spend survey reveals budgets have fallen to their lowest level in recent history, dropping over 4% in seven years

PodChats for FutureCIO: How AI reshapes the customer engagement of tomorrow

A platform that is powered by AI creates an intent-enabled action by the system and use that information to support the agent to carry out a conversation.

APAC consumer loyalty traced to customer experience

New Qualtrics study reveals that consumers are willing to move to digital-only providers for a better product and customer experience

Business agility is harder than C-suites think

To listen and respond to customer needs, businesses must invest in the tools, processes and resources that empower agility and drive long-term success.

Investments tech on both sides of the APAC divide

Asia/Pacific Organizations ramping up CX investments but vendors must combat privacy and data security challenges, IDC Reports

Why Hong Kong business leaders resist DX

Rackspace Technology survey finds continued resistance to digital transformation among Hong Kong businesses

Poor CS&S engagement has an economic cost

Gartner says rampant rep disengagement could lead to poor customer service experience and economic cost

Keysight claims it can verify QoE across 4G and 5G

Keysight’s new network benchmarking solution enables mobile operators to verify quality of experience across multiple 4G and 5G Networks

Customer experience future hinges on personalization

Personalization will be key to the post-pandemic customer experience journey. Should you join the bandwagon? After that, how?

Remote onboarding to fuel digital identity verification market

Juniper Research forecasts digital identity verification spending to exceed $16.7 billion globally in 2026, fuelled by remote onboarding

IDC identifies new CXM opportunities in the utility space

CX events elsewhere are having their impact on utility companies, themselves focusing on the customer journey and all touchpoints along the way.

Gartner: 4 ways to boost sales pipeline

Gartner says CSOs should focus on improving productivity for sales development teams to increase pipeline generation

Let the data do the pitching

As B2B marketers, we would like to think that marketing has since moved away from solely depending on traditional marketing tactics to performance marketing. The traditional marketing funnel typically covers five key stages of customer conversion—awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty, and advocacy. These stages parallel customer lifecycle stages and sales—from acquisition through retention. In this information […]

PodChats for FutureCIO: Privacy when building a sustainable customer engagement strategy

A study by Cisco revealed just how important privacy is to the continuing growth of economies, including the COVID-19 pandemic recovery. Privacy has evolved to be much more than just a compliance issue, but rather a fundamental human right and a mission-critical C-suite priority – heralding a change in digital transformation priorities for businesses. Despite […]

Gartner predicts the end of cookies

With the predicted end of web cookies, marketing leaders should take immediate steps to come to terms with consent-based advertising

Solutions address the need to attract and retain loyal customers

Qualtrics claims new solutions help companies design web and in-app experiences that combine consumer feedback and digital analytics to acquire new customers, engage existing customers, and improve brand loyalty

Techcombank selects Backbase to power its revolutionary digital-first transformation

Vietnam bank to leverage Backbase’s engagement banking platform to offer the next generation of corporate and retail banking services

Re-imagining the networks to power next-gen digital ecosystems

By re-imagining the possibilities with a network that can support next-generation digital ecosystems, we can envision a more connected world with limitless potential for digital experiences.

How Singapore is tapping Asia’s economic bull run during COVID-19

Checkout.com report reveals rapid Singapore adoption of digital commerce driving “ecommerce bull run”

Gartner survey says digital experience doesn’t impact purchases

Gartner marketing research shows 58% of customers believe most digital experiences don’t impact their purchase decisions

In brands we trust?

Trusted organizations build unbreakable bonds with customers, attract the best talent, and have greater growth potential

Embedding data and analytics into your enterprise

If we can’t turn that data into better decision making through quantitative analysis, we are both wasting data and probably creating suboptimal performance.

Social dilemma: the right to privacy

Study reveals social media users concerned over leveraging of their private data by tech companies creating distrust of Big Tech

APAC enterprises still struggle with encryption

Customer data is important but not as much as financial records (55%), payment-related data (55%), employee/HR data (48%) and intellectual property (48%), says Ponemon Institute study

PodChats for FutureCIO: Redefining banking services in Asia

Data will remain at the core of every organisation’s activity. How to tie that data into an organisation’s business strategy is the subject of this PodChat with TIBCO’s Erich Gerber

Forrester warns consumer loyalty is waning hard

Trusted organizations build unbreakable bonds with customers, attract the best talent, and have greater growth potential

Why D&A leaders are deep in the DX trenches

Gartner survey finds 72% of data & analytics leaders are leading or heavily involved in digital transformation initiatives

Contact centres can up the CX game with CPaaS says Frost

AI- and cloud-based CPaaS platforms enable a true omnichannel experience across generations and preferred communications types, claims Frost & Sullivan

Vietnam’s FE Credit consolidates IT infrastructure under AWS

Vietnam’s non-bank financial institution, FE Credit, has chosen AWS to accelerate its transformation into a comprehensive digital consumer finance provider

Strategies to deliver frictionless customer experiences

This OutSystems eBook to learn how customer feedback and AI can help you constantly iterate and improve your application releases and develop a coveted omnichannel presence.

ASEAN becoming aware of digital identity theft

FICO survey shows a growing acceptance of security measures as online account opening surges thanks in part to the social distancing measures during COVID-19

How to make sure we are capturing valuable data

The right data that matters for your business needs to be looked at to focus on the business outcomes that are relevant and can be used across the entire organisation.

Hong Kong’s YF Life gets a new policy management system

YF Life has adopted eBaoTech LifeSystem Suite for its policy management system as part of its digital transformation journey.

Consumers driving the digitization of retail experience

More than 80% of decision-makers view smart checkout, workforce software and prescriptive analytics as key emerging technologies by 2025

Product analytics ranked top for measuring digital success, says HBR

Product analytics has overtaken legacy marketing analytics to measure digital customer experiences

IDC: why FSIs in APAC are buying RPA

Leading FSIs are betting on tech like automation, AI, and cloud to minimize the impact of the crisis, and have identified opportunities to survive and thrive after 2021.

4 CS&S tips targeting millennials and Gen Z customers

Gartner says millennials and Gen Z customers prefer third-party customer service channels, CS&S leaders should take note of how this trend contributes to customer loyalty

Gartner says emerging tech key to effective personalization

Gartner says 63% of digital marketing leaders still struggle with personalization, yet only 17% use AI and machine learning across the function

ASEAN 2021 business priorities in crisis and beyond

The Oxford Economics study commissioned by SAP Study revealed that ASEAN enterprises have set sights on post-pandemic success with growth and customer experience considered top priorities

Payments by facial ID not hindered by face mask

Facial recognition for payments authentication to be used by over 1.4 billion people globally by 2025, face masks are not stopping adoption.

Infobip study warns digitise customer service or else

Companies in APAC must meet rapidly increasing digital customer service needs or risk falling behind,

Business continuity reveal weaknesses in comms and collaboration

Cloud applications will be the main focus for post-pandemic investment with cybersecurity representing a key technology focal area

Chatbots to lead conversational tech spending

Conversational commerce channels to facilitate spending of over $290 billion globally by 2025, as omnichannel strategies drive interest

4 must-have core competencies for marketing leaders in 2021

To be more agile and adaptive in 2021, marketing leaders must prioritise four core competencies with a renewed focus that accounts for the unprecedented changes of 2020.

How vendors can better understand enterprise customers

Why is it that vendors often miss the mark when it comes to understanding what is driving the CIO of a specific company? Gartner’s Hank Barnes suggests developing Fusion Teams. Not enough to have one person like a CTO represent the customer.

PodChats for FutureCIO: what predictive modelling means to insurers

Predictive modelling is collecting data from internal and external sources to better understand and predict the behaviour of customers.

A modern application platform for a customer-first culture

This complementary eBook from OutSystems reveals how to make a customer-first culture a reality rather than an unrealisable aspiration.

Will COVID-19 permanently change consumer payment behaviour?

In the face of witnessing a massive change in payments across the region, many banks are seen to be making strategic investments in payments infrastructure (i.e. payment hubs) which will allow them to cope with the potential new wave of payments soon to be upon them.

Gartner: 4 action items to correct B2B sales impact by COVID-19

Gartner says COVID-19 significantly impacted 41% of key customers’ spending with b2b sales organizations and offers 4 action items to make course correction

COVID-19 accelerates CS&S self-service initiatives

Gartner says Customer Service and Support leaders accelerate self-service initiatives due to COVID-19 impact on service contact volumes

Gen Z to lead in hyperautomation of autonomous supply chain

The future supply chain will have minimal direct human involvement and interference from a traditional work perspective. This will suit the expectations of Gen Z employees.

WAH agents to accelerate cloudification of contact centre apps

Work-at-home agent model to accelerate migration from on-premise to cloud application solutions landing $7.4 billion market by 2026

To succeed businesses must become software producers

IDC says organizations will have to transform themselves from software consumers to software producers to be successful. To act like digital natives they must make software the central activity of their business goals.

B2B sales reps struggle selling online

Gartner research reveals business to business (B2B) sales reps continue to struggle selling virtually, as they do in a live, onsite setting. Gartner says only 23% of B2B sales reps believe they are equally effective selling virtually as they are in a live, onsite setting. Gartner’s Seller Skill Assessment, which surveyed 1,122 sales reps September […]

3 B2B marketing content tactics in times of crisis

Gartner says B2B marketing leaders must understand customers’ shifting needs to produce and deliver effective content

IDC outlines what the future of customer looks like for APEJ

COVID-19 pandemic has shown that customers want and need organizations to deliver on empathy. Also it takes an entire organization to transform to effectively empathize with customers.

Severe consequences for failing at digital customer engagement

98% of APAC enterprises report failing to digitize customer engagement would have negatively impacted their business

PodChats for FutureCIO: How data drives the business of NTUC Income

Anny Huang, head of Digital Business at NTUC Income, shares her experience helping push the digital envelope in Singapore’s burgeoning insurance marketplace.

Gartner’s 3Cs to guide the future of customer service

Gartner survey reveals 70% of customer service and support employees want to continue working from home after the pandemic ends

Indian banks shifting trade finance and treasury to cloud

Corporates are increasingly relying upon their bankers to help them with their working capital contingencies while supporting them in seizing the emerging opportunities

Frost outlines how the user interface will shape CX

Frost says user interface technologies have moved beyond the concept of simply representing machines to their users to enabling sophisticated and personalized interaction.

Brands suck at unifying customer engagement channels

Gartner marketing research shows 50% of brands will have failed to unify customer engagement channels by 2022

Focus on digital channels and capabilities in 2021

Gartner says CS&S priorities for 2021 will include greater use of self-service and enhancing digital channels

COVID-19 fuels spending on consumer robotics in the home

Pandemic lockdowns boost consumer robotics market to US$10 billion in 2020 revenues, consumers shifting focus and spending from outside to inside the home

FPT Telecom upgrades network to meet Vietnam’s broadband needs

FPT Telecom in Vietnam has deployed solutions from Ciena to build a more resilient network and manage rising residential broadband traffic nationwide.

Talent gap is the key obstacle to AI success

Talent gap emerges as primary obstacle to AI adoption; making AI accessible to all is imperative to digital transformation efforts.

BAIN: COVID-19 triggers shift to digital banking

COVID-19 is helping accelerate digital banking adoption and forcing banks to update their digital strategy. Bain says customer defection is also accelerating

Brands rethinking the customer experience strategy

Customer loyalty drivers shift as consumers trade cost and quality for safety and personalization; immersive tech adoption accelerated by COVID-19 pandemic

Consumers are losing the data privacy wars

Kaspersky privacy experts see behavioural analytics, data hoarding and government crackdowns on encryption as influencing privacy development in 2021

Tech to support customer-centric strategies for FSIs

IDC says financial institutions are implementing ecosystem and context strategies and neglecting influence strategies because of their short-term business focus.

The future of e-signing rests with young consumers

Digital documents are now the currency of business productivity – how businesses, governments and consumers communicate, collaborate and transact, thereby setting the agenda for the future economy

CMOs to milk old customers to drive new growth in 2021

New research reveals dichotomy between CMOs’ low risk go-to-market approach and desire to rescale strategies from 2020

Contact routing and analytics to lead APAC contact centre trends for 2021

Comprising of on-premise and cloud applications, the Asia-Pacific contact centre applications market is expected to see strong growth due to inbound contact routing and analytics.

Operational efficiency and CX to drive RPA adoption into 2022

As the COVID-19 crisis drives home the importance of automation, enterprises look to scale RPA initiatives and large tech players enter the vendor landscape

Ecommerce and contactless spend to drive digital wallets use

Juniper Research found that the increased use of contactless mobile payments during the pandemic, prompted by concerns around cash, has seeded greater wallet use across the payments’ ecosystem.

Cloud-native MDM to reimagine the customer experience

Customer experience remains the ultimate battle ground where if you don’t innovate, you will be disrupted. But how to make this happen during a pandemic?

Contactless payments to continue post-COVID-19

A global Visa study suggests contactless payments will continue after the pandemic is gone, and SMEs investing in payment technology

Forget mobile apps, go for messaging

Are the days of mobile apps numbered? Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of customer service organizations will have abandoned native mobile apps in favour of messaging for a better customer experience. Digital transformation for service organizations initially focused on websites for desktop users but shifted to enterprise-native mobile app experiences with the proliferation of […]

How B2B sales team can accelerate growth in 2021

Gartner research outlines four growth pillars csos must prioritize to optimize a customer-centric buying experience

5 practical uses for predictive analytics in marketing

Sophisticated marketers know that the true value lies in being able to predict what is likely to happen and then respond to what does happen to influence the outcome.

FSIs need customer-centric data management strategy in 2021

Financial institutions must create a data strategy that is supportive of this customer-centric paradigm they wish to become.

Opensignal 2021 predictions: the mobile future

Mobile telecom networks and service provider businesses have proved resilient in 2020 despite the increased reliance placed upon them. Can they continue in 2021?

PodChats for FutureCIO: Insights from Zalora’s data-driven business model

What makes Zalora and its partners successful is not just the availability of customer insight but having access to real-time data.

Playing the long game with chatbots

The global chatbot market is expected to grow by US$1.11 billion accelerating at a CAGR of almost 29% between 2020-2024. Technavio noted that during 2019, the retail segment dominated the Global Chatbot Market in 2019. Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba, and Snapdeal are a few of the major e-commerce platforms. These retailers are implementing chatbots to provide […]

Hong Kong: no market for virtual insurance?

Hongkongers are broadly familiar with online insurance and that virtual insurance offered a more competitive product choice at a competitive price.

“Heart-ing” Digital

How do you achieve financial inclusion in rural Asia? RCBC’s Lito Villanueva shares the innovative strategies that the bank took to win the hearts and minds of Pinoys nationwide

6 steps to customer service excellence using VoC

Service organizations can gain insights from customer motivations, impressions and experiences using a VoC strategy focused on cx

Gartner’s marketing predictions in the digital normal post-COVID-19

Gartner’s marketing predictions explore how post-pandemic renewal strategies put marketing on the hook for redefining and re-establishing customer relationships in line with digital’s “new normal.”

Predictions 2021: The continuing evolution of customer insights practices

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that change is inevitable and that customer insights leaders must constantly look to evolve their techniques, their technology, and their organizations.

Slack acquisition to strike at the Death Star

Salesforce’s play to acquire Slack has one clear target – Microsoft. Is it enough to stave off the competition? Forrester says “it depends” and “not really”

AFFINBANK modernises multi-channel customer engagement

AFFINBANK builds deeper customer relationships, lowers operational costs, improves telesales capabilities and reduces average call abandonment rate using Genesys customer experience platform

The value of instant communication for Fisher & Paykel

Digital customer experiences continue to play a huge role in engaging with and retaining customers. Delivering prompt customer service across multiple countries in a consistent manner can be a challenge.

Forrester APAC Predictions 2021

The success of organisations will depend on how quickly and how well they harness technology to enable their workforce in the new normal

Gartner warns of 3 self-service failure points in customer self-service

Research shows how customer service and support leaders can improve self-service containment and reduce high-effort customer experiences

XL Axiata uses event broker tech to enhance data offerings

Adopting an event-driven architecture has enabled XL Axiata to ingest all transaction data around its data offerings and distribute it to relevant systems through a centralized platform.

5 tips to overcome sales transformation hurdles

Sales transformations are challenging as most sales don’t exactly get a free pass in terms of meeting their near-term targets.

Empathy-at-scale: the key to customer retention in new normal

IDC says Asia/Pacific enterprises must deliver empathy at scale to acquire and retain customers in the New Normal

Forrester says firms will double down on tech in 2021

Forrester says digitally advanced firms will have a sustained advantage over their competitors, and predicts accelerated investments in technology to both enable their workforce and provide differentiated experiences

Advocating for a digital-lead business recovery from COVID-19

From supporting a remote workforce to delivering an optimal digital experience for the consumer, it is crucial that IT investments in 2021 reflect emerging business needs.

6 forces that will impact tech providers through 2025

Gartner Tech Providers 2025 special report highlights long-term changes and actions TSPs must take now.

CX metrics critical to supply chain success

To help build the business case for customer experience, look at metrics such as cost of service or compensation costs. These can help to justify the move to more customer-centric practices

Digital fuels cloud adoption in the financial sector

FS industry now recognizes that cloud-based solutions can help them safely and securely accelerate their digital transformation initiatives while focusing on their core business.

The future of advertising lies in protecting user identities

THE ICONIC and Tata CLiQ are implementing best practices of protecting the privacy of customers while adopting technology to enhance engagement and deliver personalized experiences.

Complexity and validation: the bane of Philippine lenders

FICO survey reveals complexity and cost of validating digital banking customers top pain points for lenders in the Philippines, and 50% of Philippine banks say processes are still too manual

How CIOs can put humans at the centre of their agenda

As CIOs drive technology transformation within their teams and the wider organisation, working with the CHRO to put humans at the centre of change is vital.

IT to reset, restart and respond to a world of uncertainty

The future technologies that will lead the ‘reset of everything’ have three key commonalities: they promote greater innovation and efficiency in the enterprise; they are more effective than the technologies that they are replacing, and they have a transformational impact on society

Move from a reactive to proactive customer service approach

Gartner customer service and support leaders must transform their service experience with dynamic customer engagement (DCE) to enable personalized proactive conversations with customers.

Marketers disappointed in analytics results

Gartner survey identifies top reasons why marketers are not using analytics to make critical marketing decisions

APAC lead the world in the use of AI to improve CX

TCS survey sees large APAC remain focused on digital transformation amid COVID-19, and overtaking rivals in North America and Europe around digital readiness

COVID-19 gives rise to empathetic enterprise in the next normal

IDC says the most digitally mature organizations adapted quicker to challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

8 trends define the consumer of the future

In the consumer products sector, the companies that will win are the ones who recognized what has changed for good but still manage to take into account uncertainties and shape possible outcomes.

Ineffective management strategy leads to competitive disadvantage

IDC says failure to better manage data will lead to a reduction in competitive advantage that could ultimately lead to business disruption

Thailand’s TOT tightens customer engagement operations

TOT ups customer engagement by embedding machine learning and conversational AI capabilities into its existing processes, savings allowed it to add 1,000 more agents.

Very Best CIOs in Asia: Change is the new normal

FutureCIO spoke to Vikram Subrahmanyam, Asia-Pacific chief information officer and head of operations & technology for Citi, on the everyday challenges of leading the regional operations and technology requirements of a global bank.

IDC framework to support differentiated customer-centric strategies of APAC Banks

Contextual banking – the next level of customer relationship – is realized through developing a deeper relationship with each customer based on trust from the past, present, and future

PodChats for FutureCIO: Why we need conversational analytics

how advances around conversational analytics may finally help stop the frustrations caused when two parties in a conversational are talking but nobody is listening.

Check CS&S tech for the ability to deliver CX goals, warns Gartner

Customer Service and Support technology investments must be scrutinized for their ability to deliver on customer experience goals

Bank Mandiri aims for resiliency and agility in COVID-19 fight

The Indonesian bank is using data-driven insights to help customers, employees, and stakeholders adapt to the changes resulting from the pandemic.

PodChats for FutureCIO: How edge influences your customer engagement strategy

In this episode of Podchats for FutureCIO entitled “How edge influences your customer engagement strategy” we dissect how businesses are adopting (or not) edge technology and its wider application within the context of customer experience.

Accelerating digital transformation with software OEM

Implementing a Software OEM strategy can result in an increase in sales of existing products and services by increasing their value with improved capabilities—and delivering new solutions to customers and prospects faster

Forrester outlines the future of banking

Changing customer expectations, an erosion of consumer trust, and regulatory influence will drive banking to be invisible, connected, insights-driven, and purposeful by 2030

Re-imagining retail for post-COVID resilience

There is no doubt that the pandemic has brought many changes to the retail sector, but it’s also pointing to new opportunities.

Podchats for FutureCIO: Role of AI in analytics in the customer service setting

In this episode of PodChats for FutureCIO, Ravi Saraogi, co-founder and president of Uniphore APAC talks about the role of AI in analytics in the customer service setting.

Should the future contact centre be intelligent, smart, or hybrid?

Organisation leaders need to understand that a workplace is more than just a physical space – it is a strategic tool for professional and personal growth.

Surviving and thriving in the New Normal

Tools and solutions were already there before the COVID-19 pandemic; new capabilities are being added as companies face off-market and operational challenges or pivot their business model.

COVID-19 is good for PC sales in 2020, says IDC

IDC says traditional PC shipments continue to grow amid the global economic slowdown, with inventory able to keep up with demand.

COVID-19 drives online banking trend in SG

SingSaver survey says 80% of Singaporeans agree they will continue to bank online even after the pandemic dies down, including older Singaporeans who have adapted to more online services during the Circuit Breaker period.

Hong Kongers prefer a hybrid online approach to banking

HSBC survey claims that while Hong Kongers favour digital hybrid approach to banking and investing, they haven’t dropped the human interaction altogether

Digital banking attitudes among Malaysians and Filipinos

FICO survey says struggling with their passwords 78% of Malaysians are happy to provide their bank with a biometric, Filipinos welcome mobile banking

Forrester: Build CX that engage at an emotional level

Forrester’s US 2020 Customer Experience Index reveals CX differentiation is the key to post-pandemic success building experiences that help them empathetically engage with their customers will bolster customer loyalty

COVID-19 accelerates growth in immersive XR collaboration

ABI Research says social distancing and work from home is accelerating immersive collaboration tools and platforms to the tune of US$400 million by 2025

Podchats for FutureCIO: Strategies for getting AI off the ground

Shanhong Liu, a technology and telecommunications researcher for Statista, opined that the limitness applications of artificial intelligence (AI) – the creation of intelligent hardware or software that seeks to replicate human behaviours, such as learning and problem solving. Despite acknowledging that AI continues to the subject of people’s imagination and science fiction for decades, Statista, […]

COVID-19 doesn’t dampen DX spending much

COVID-19 has wiped off almost $500 billion of worldwide DX technology investment between 2020-2023 from our pre-COVID-19 forecast – that’s the bad news.

Transforming customer engagement at Great Eastern

Fitch Ratings recently revised its outlook for the life insurance industry in Asia-Pacific to negative from stable, attributing the revision to the coronavirus outbreak and the impact on the credit quality of life insurers in the region. But even before the outbreak, insurers were already busy prepping for the transformation of the industry, including technology-led […]

Time to pivot to digital execution

Marketing ops are the workhorse of marketing – the unglorified worker bees that do many of the real work in marketing. Gartner says these pros can do much more in the digital era

Marketers blame COVID-19 for their own underperformance

Gartner says nearly 30% of marketing leaders believe lack of agility and flexibility negatively impacts marketing execution during COVID-19 pandemic.

How to offer the best business UX during a crisis

Understanding the end-user experience of your business application can help diagnose critical problems before they impact application performance.

Nielsen says in-stor tech may boost retail resurgence

Brick-and-mortar retail may be readying for a resurgence. And somewhat ironically, a handful of digital brands are leading the charge, and showing the way.

Selling conversational AI to the CEO-CFO-CIO

Conversational AI is the process of enabling machines to have a conversation with the customers, with the end customers and human beings, and the machine should be capable enough.

How Macy’s drives millennial traffic with TIBCO Cloud Mashery

Learn how Macy’s used TIBCO Cloud Mashery API Management Platform to help drive innovations for mobile buys, increase conversion and ensure it has an infrastructure that scales to the needs of the moment.

FE CREDIT says CX shot up 90% with Genesys Engage

Deployment of Genesys Engage by Vietnam’s leading consumer finance firm leads to a significant increase in customer satisfaction levels by up to 90%.

Rolling out a secure multi-experience outcome from the inside-out

IT must interpret what product marketing is telling them and bring together technologies, including applications, to enable the creation of the final products (and or services), and to do so without disrupting business-as-usual.

SMO lets mainland customers open HSBC China savings account

launch of HSBC China’s Smart Mobile Onboarding (SMO) for customers across mainland China, to enable individual customers to apply for the opening of Category I RMB accounts via the mobile channel

Customer experience at 5G cross-roads

5G is almost here. I say ‘almost’ because we have yet to see broad deployment by major mobile operators across Asia – either at the consumer-retail level or enterprise. Yes, lots of PR wins by smartphone makers touting their next generation smartphones bearing the 5G standard. Similarly, network equipment vendors are giving themselves praises for […]

Five channel partner action items amidst COVID-19

What channel partners in Asia need to quickly wake up to is accept that nothing right now is business-as-usual. Here are five key challenges that will confront channel partners and what actions need to be taken.

Omnichannel strategies will fuel spend in chatbots by retailers

By 2020 80% of global consumer spend over chatbots will be attributable to discrete chatbots, embedded directly into a retailer’s mobile app, rather than accessed via a browser or messaging application.

Gartner outlines top 5 customer service tech trends in 2020

Technology plays an integral role in the operations and future strategy of service organizations — from self-service to improving the customer service rep experience

AI to assist in 40% of privacy compliance tech by 2023

Over 40% of privacy compliance technology will rely on artificial intelligence (AI) by 2023, up from 5% today, says Gartner. 

Exnovation spiral for HK banks

Banks are obsessed to create innovative products, but it must use blockchain. His view is that blockchain is a technology still looking for a problem to solve.

Greater customer experience is when marketing and technology intersect

Most everyone will agree the strategy and execution rests largely on the CMO. But for winning sales leaders, CX is a team sport.

New data monetisation opportunities for telcos in Asia

Kostas Anagnostakis, CEO and founder of Niometrics, said: “With the amount and variety of data at their fingertips, there is so much opportunity to do more and do better for customers, and with that, strike a competitive advantage.”

FutureCIO QuickTakes: CX begins with the CEO but starts with $

Any customer experience initiative must be helmed by the CEO, says Tony Bates of Genesys. Forrester counters that talking to the CEO about CX must start with dollars.

StanChart and Assembly Payments JV targets US$29 trillion global e-commerce industry

Enabling Real-time Faster Payments and high-volume transactions has been a core area of investment for Standard Chartered in line with the evolving needs of clients, including e-commerce

Catching up with human intelligence

Interest in AI adoption is growing but the bottleneck is around generating creative content. 

Human-centric culture powers innovation at RCBC

Lito Villanueva, executive vice president and chief innovation & inclusion officer with RCBC talks about the strategies taken by RCBC to create products and programmes that engaged its evolving customers.

Fannie Mae project nabs Ventana Research’s Big Data Award for TIBCO

Fannie Mae’s application of TIBCO integrated solutions to enhance its enterprise data infrastructure has enabled it to react faster to market in real-time.

InsurTech investments surge in 2019, business value still missing

Despite the nearly US$2 billion going into InsurTech projects in Q4 2019, 184 funded InsurTechs have closed permanently over a three-year period.

Customer loyalty is only as good as bad experience

The Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2020 says ease and excellence of customer experience has a direct impact on customer loyalty

Gartner predicts the role of privacy officers in 2020

Increased regulation will lead organizations to hire capable, empowered senior-level privacy officers to deliver both compliance and customer satisfaction.

Using AI to create connected commerce in APAC

In 2019, ecommerce continues to spike as consumers experience the convenience of shopping online, accept the relative safety of mobile payments, and not having to carry groceries back home. The free delivery is an added perk. How will the retail sector fair in 2020. Forrester vice president and research director, Fiona Swerdlow, cautions that deep-seated […]

The ROI of digital transformation in insurance

In 2020, execs who can’t or don’t link these initiatives to revenue and expenses will fall victim to stagnating or reduced budgets and may even risk their careers.

Data-driven factories to drive industrial software purchases

“Data underpins activities such as onboarding raw materials, optimizing the production line, organizing the facility, and even to understand clients and the final customer,” said Michael Larner, principal analyst at ABI Research.

Use social listening to understand what your customers think

Social listening can uncover hidden links between consumer markets that are heavily influenced by others, as consumers take cultural or fashion cues from places they feel an affinity for.

The hidden agenda behind HK’s virtual banks

My guess is that these virtual banks are going to be razor-focused finding customer pain points. And that’s going to be the challenge I think

Gartner lists top priorities for service and support leaders in 2020

CS&S leaders face increased pressure from leadership on the role of the service function in improving operational excellence and growing the business.

CX not tech and channels key to 2020 success

CIO’s close working relationship with the executive leadership team is what will drive organisations to move to the next level – creating an experience-as-a-service mechanism

Decentralization bad for competitive advantage?

Competitive intelligence as identifying what your competitive landscape looks like, who are the potential competitors and how to displace them.

IKEA deploys Wirecard’s in-store installment plan solution in Malaysia

IKEA can now provide in-store customers the option to pay by installment without any of the usual hassle that comes with such financing. 

Decoding Union Bank Philippines’ data strategy

As Henry Aguda, senior executive vice president, chief technology & operation officer Union Bank Philippines and chairman of the Board at UBX Philippines, put it: “data to us is everything that we have on our customers.”

Patients drive healthcare trends and opportunities in 2020

The hfma report, Healthcare 2020: Transformative Innovation, calls a grim wakeup to the healthcare industry: “Over the next three to five years, innovations in clinical care delivery and healthcare business processes have the potential to reshape the competitive landscape in the industry. These innovations are enabled by the confluence of three trends: rapidly advancing technological […]

FutureTrends: UX experience depends on AX

Tony Sandberg, regional director for Asia Pacific at Kemp, talks about the role of technologies application performance management tools and techniques in achieving desired user experience benchmarks.

What customer experience means to a CIO

Barry Libenson, global chief information officer at Experian, says traditionalist CIOs tend to focus too much on operations and not enough on what is important to the business – customer experience.

Asia cashes in on booming business in online food delivery

McKinsey forecasts that the global addressable market for the new delivery to reach more than Euro20 billion by 2025. It also predicts that while there is an opportunity for new players to come in, consolidation will be a major characteristic of the industry in the years to come.

Singapore businesses take 118 hours on average to detect and respond to breaches

The process of detecting, triaging, investigating, and containing a cyber incident takes Singapore organizations an average of 118 hours.

AXA uses cloud to create seamless digital experience

The Move to the Cloud is a programme AXA claims will enable it to provide that seamless digital experience for its customers.

Why HK’s YF Life decided to move its entire storage infrastructure to Pure Storage

 YF Life needed a new solution as it prepared to launch its new core administration system. Together with its technology partner, HKBN Enterprise Solutions, YF Life decided to move its entire storage infrastructure to Pure Storage.

Singapore’s GovTech launches Vulnerability Disclosure Programme with HackerOne

GovTech is launching a Vulnerability Disclosure Programme (VDP) on the HackerOne platform, to discover vulnerabilities in all government internet-facing web-based and mobile applications.

Creating differentiated value for 270 million people

We found out that the essential advantage of RBI is the massive amount of data that we own. We built contextual risk management using big data. We focused on three things: credit scoring, fraud detection services, and merchant assessment services.

Report reveals the key to the growth of online retailers in APAC

Adobe report underpins the ever-increasing importance of customer experiences for brands looking to stay ahead in the hyper-competitive online retail space.

Consumers spend approximately 5 hours a day checking their emails

Consumers spend approximately five hours a day checking their emails, specifically three-plus hours a day on work email and two-plus hours a day personal email, according to Adobe’s 5th annual 2019 Email Usage Study, which surveyed 1,000 white collar workers in the U.S. These consumers refresh their inboxes from a variety of times and places too: while […]

Focus on customer experience driving supply chain innovation

Customer experience will overtake price and product as the number-one brand differentiator in the next five years.

Focus on customer experience driving supply chain innovation

Customer experience will overtake price and product as the number-one brand differentiator in the next five years.

Astra Daihatsu Motor minimizes the risk of costly downtime with Commvault

Astra Daihatsu Motor has implemented Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery to minimize the risk of costly downtime on its vehicle production lines.

How Zalora keeps pace with double-digit growth

Find out how SAP helps Zalora keep pace in meeting customer demands as the company undergoes rapid growth in the region.

SingEx looks to the cloud to transform global finance operations

As part of this digital transformation journey, SingEx is working with SAP to build an adaptable and scalable Global Finance System.

C-suite must transform or be marginalised

A team effort, having the right people on the executive team who understand and tie together the company strategy and the vision, from a technology point of view, is absolutely essential to successful digital transformation.

CX to benefit most from AI Augmentation

Augmented intelligence reduces mistakes while delivering customer convenience and personalization at scale, democratizing what was previously available to the select few.

Why, when and how of behavioural analytics

Management consultant and author Geoffrey Moore is quoted as saying: “Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the web like deer on a freeway.” As organisations start to delve deeper in the use of data analytics, in part driven by suggestions that they become data-driven organisations, concerns are rising to […]

Measure customer effort right each time

How do you measure customer effort? Most customer experience (CX) pros use surveys. While the question text and scale they use can differ, the resulting score measures the level of effort. But we need to move beyond only measuring the level of effort. My new report explains why and gives suggestions for improving customer effort […]

Making money with data

Understandably there is more than one way to skin a cat, in this case, to monetize data.

Consumerization of Industrial IoT

IoT is already growing quickly, and edge computing is rapidly becoming a major trend. But in my opinion, what will really light a fire under both is the consumerization of IoT. IoT is, of course, a growing trend in enterprises, and in industry. In fact, in IT circles, the discussion is mostly about Industrial IoT (IIoT), […]

IoT to drive $35 billion of new revenues for operators

There are still high levels of dissatisfaction with regard to issues such as time taken to answer complaint calls. Furthermore, as operators seek to diversify and offer new services they will, in turn, need to ensure that their CRM services are robust enough to cope with the inevitable array of queries these will provoke.