In a survey conducted by the Saudi arm of auditing company KPMG, the retail sector in the country has emerged as a leader in ‘customer experience.’
According to KPMG, customer experience is measured by ranking companies based on metrics like personalisation, customer data privacy, and digitalisation, among other factors.
The survey was based on the CEE (Customer Experience Excellence) methodology, developed by KPMG’s global CEE Centre of Excellence. The Saudi version of the survey included 96 brands across nine different sectors and inputs from 1,550 consumers in the country.
In terms of overall CEE performance, the non-grocery retail sector emerged as the leader among other sectors in Saudi Arabia, with a score of 8.08 in 2022, surpassing its previous year’s performance. It was closely followed by the grocery retail sector, with a score of 8.05.
Meanwhile, the country’s non-grocery retail sector also leads in the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a popular market research metric based on a single survey question asking respondents to rate their likelihood of recommending a company, product, or service to a friend or colleague.
“In the Net Promotor Score index area, non-grocery retail, grocery retail, and financial services scored the highest among the other sectors. In contrast, logistics and entertainment & leisure obtained the lowest NPS scores,” a statement said.
Adib Kilzie, Head of Customer Experience, Cloud and Enterprise Solutions at KPMG in Saudi Arabia said, “today’s customers are better informed, better connected and more demanding than ever before. In some cases, customer experience has overtaken price and product as the number one brand differentiator. Although many organisations are investing record amounts in customer-related initiatives, not all are seeing the desired ROI in the absence of a clear CX strategy.”
Having the right customer insight through segmentation and persona development continues to be a major challenge for businesses; a challenge that is likely to impede the ability of businesses to personalise their services and orchestrate exceptional customer journeys.
“Although most businesses appreciate that need and its impact on their market share and profitability, they continue to face challenges in data collection and customer insight. The market has witnessed a rise in the use of Voice of Customer (VoC) solutions, surveys and questionnaires; however, many businesses have not been able to leverage the needed real-time data collection and decision capabilities,” Mr. Kilzie concluded.
