Netflix, AA Insurance, BNZ tops for ‘digital experience’ says SAP

SAP New Zealand has released the results of its inaugural survey of NZ businesses’ provision of digital customer experience. It ranks Netflix, AA Insurance, Bank NZ as the best performers but warns that many well-known brands are losing customers and damaging their reputations by delivering a poor digital experience.

SAP said the results showed that digital experiences make or break business performance. “Strong correlation [is] evident between delightful digital experiences and improved loyalty, advocacy and consumers’ willingness to share private data,” SAP said.

SAP surveyed 2500 consumers who rated more than 6500 digital interactions against 14 digital-experience attributes, including security, engagement, personalisation, responsiveness, simplicity.

According to SAP, the study shows that New Zealanders who are delighted with their digital experience are over four and a half times more likely to remain loyal to a brand than those who are unsatisfied: “The Net Promoter Score for this segment was an impressive 69 percent. However, among New Zealanders unsatisfied with the digital experience, business outcomes took a dramatic turn. The research found just 17 percent of consumers that are unsatisfied with the digital experience would remain loyal, while the NPS score for this segment is a staggering -54 percent.”

SAP New Zealand managing director, Graeme Riley, said: “With SAP’s New Zealand Digital Experience Report, we’re offering a framework to help organisations measure and manage their digital experience performance from their customers’ perspective. Whilst these frameworks might differ by industry, the central component will always be the customer. Brands that perform best in this new digital marketplace are those that unite their people and processes on a single system to deliver on their customers’ ever increasing demands.”

SAP said that top performing brands offer services that establish a deeper emotional connection with customers. “Two New Zealand brands that bucked the trend and that performed at the top of their industries included Bank of New Zealand in the banking sector and AA Insurance in the insurance sector. Netflix scored highest in the media and entertainment sector and highest among all industries.”

SAP also asked participants about their data privacy and personalisation preferences. It found those “delighted” with the digital experience to be more willing to share private data than those who were unsatisfied.

Forty percent of delighted customers were willing disclose their buying preferences, 28 percent their social media usage, 25 percent their health records and 21 percent their web browsing history. Among unsatisfied consumers the rates were 13 percent; eight percent; four percent; and four percent respectively.

Of the eight industries assessed for the report, banking was the top performer, closely followed by insurance. Both sectors returned positive digital experience scores, with more delighted than unsatisfied customers. Retail groceries was the next best performing industry with a score of zero, meaning the survey found equal numbers of both delighted and unsatisfied customers. Telecommunications, consumer goods retail and government were the three lowest scoring sectors.

At an individual brand level, 13 of the 38 organisations assessed by consumers delivered positive digital experience scores. The banking industry provided four of these brands, with two each from the insurance, retail grocery, and media and entertainment sectors. The final positive scores came from the consumer goods, telecommunication, and government sectors. The utilities industry was the only sector where an individual brand did not post a positive score.

The full report is available from SAP’s website.