Johannesburg, South Africa, 25 June 2015 — More than two thirds of organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) admit being challenged by the process of integrating multi-channel customer acquisitions.
The revelation comes as Experian outlines its Decisioning Vision for 2020 (DV2020) in EMEA (www.decisioningvision.com), revealing the new rules of customer engagement that will enable financial services and telecoms organisations across the region to meet greater customer expectations over the next five years.
The new market research analysed findings from 255 key decision makers from 195 telecoms and financial services organisations in eight regions across EMEA.
In South Africa, 47 per cent of the financial services and telecoms organisations surveyed there see the integration of multi-channel applications as a key challenge now. However, more expected it to present a significant challenge for them in the next five years - 53 per cent.
Michelle Beetar, Managing Director Experian South Africa said: “Across the financial services and telecoms industries, customer expectations are growing and vastly changing. They are seeking more from their providers than ever before, particularly when it comes to engaging across multiple channels. Access to price comparison sites, social media and customer reviews will continue to create a more empowered, informed and ‘self-directed’ customer. This new type of customer will want to make contact through the channel of their choice, at a time and place that suits them. And they will want to be served quickly, with efficient application processes, pre-qualification for relevant products and services, and instant credit decisions."
The market research warns that in order for EMEA organisations to achieve the ultimate customer experience, they must refocus their priorities on five key areas.
The survey revealed that 68 per cent of financial services and telecoms organisations in EMEA recognised the need to attain more data sources and planned to do so in the next five years. Organisations will need to ensure depth, breadth and quality of data, whilst respecting privacy, data policies and regulation on data security. This will require both structured and unstructured data, as well as the integration of internal and new external sources.
The research found that most organisations (90 per cent) were aware of the importance of a 360-degree view of customers and admitted they could be more customer centric. Internal silos were recognised as a barrier to achieving this by 42 per cent of organisations who plan to focus on eliminating data silos over the next five years, in order to bring together multiple data sources for a holistic view of customers and their circumstances.
Delivering real-time, reliable decisions that meet increasing customer expectations was recognised by 82 per cent of organisations as a factor in improving the overall customer experience. Yet, just over half of those (43 per cent) rated their ability to provide real-time decisions as poor/significant room for improvement. The systems used for such decisioning will need to be easy to integrate into existing IT infrastructure. This will make decisions easy to push out to all channels and customer touch points.
Integrating multi-channel applications was recognised as a top challenge by 69 per cent of organisations. Automated decisions should be applied across all channels and throughout the customer life cycle to enable positive customer experiences. These can be easily integrated with existing infrastructure and deployed across new and emerging technologies.
Advanced analytics provides a real opportunity for competitive advantage as recognised by 35 per cent of organisations who plan to outsource advanced analytics to a trusted partner in the next five years. Advanced analytics should be used across organisations and the customer life cycle to improve profitability, understand lifetime value and open up big data to drive good decision making.
Michelle Beetar, Managing Director Experian South Africa, said: “Our findings present a clear vision for data, analytics and decisioning in the next five years. We believe that organisations that focus their efforts on these five key areas will equip themselves to remain competitive and keep pace with the digital revolution and expanding data universe, while optimising the customer experience."
Organisations can read the full EMEA report and also use Experian’s interactive tool to find out if they are ready for 2020, by visiting www.decisioningvision.com. Join in the conversation on Twitter #dv2020.
ENDS
Contact:
Taryn Stanojevic
011 7993434
tstanojevic@experian.co.za
Note to editors:
Experian’s Decisioning Vision 2020 report summarises the data extracted from responses to a survey of 255 decision makers from telecom and finance sectors from eight regions in EMEA during October and November 2014.
About Experian
We are the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. We also help people to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft. In 2014, we were named by Forbes magazine as one of the ‘World’s Most Innovative Companies’.
We employ approximately 17,000 people in 39 countries and our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2015, was US$4.8 billion.
To find out more about our company, please visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our documentary, ‘Inside Experian’.