“Customer expectations have changed profoundly since the Covid-19 pandemic”

All of us have become accustomed to using new technologies, and it has changed the way people expect to interact with providers forever, says Aimie Chapple, Chief Executive Officer at Capita Experience.

Chapple says: “I think things have changed permanently. More people are using digital technology than they've ever been before. Even your granny is having conversations with her doctor online. And in some ways that makes interactions a lot easier but it also has it’s frustrations. Some of which will be solved by bringing back some face to face interactions - but overall I think we’re going to see a combination of the two.”

This surge in digital has substantially increased customer expectations in terms of service.

But many providers are still performing poorly delivering these, the research found.

Just 19pc of customers feel like providers have their best interests in mind, and only 31pc of customers feel like providers are making things easy for them, Capita’s research showed.

Capita’s CX framework, created using thousands of interviews with customers, is a standardised benchmark to help providers better current expectations.

Chapple says: “The CX Index report is very much about ensuring that we are thinking about and pulling together a data set that helps us navigate changing customer expectations. To understand this, we talked to customers, we worked with CX experts, our clients and specialist teams. We then brought all of this together with Ipsos.

“What the CX index does is it gives us these benchmarks of what ‘good’ looks like across great CX journeys, both from an organisational or industry level”, Chapple says.

Customers are largely dissatisfied with providers at present, Capita’s research showed, with just 33pc of financial services customers agreeing that their provider meets their needs, this is the same for Telecoms, also at 33pc while only 27pc for Utilities.

But the CX Index could be a crucial tool for providers hoping to improve, says Jamie Thorpe, Head of Experience Management at Ipsos.

Thorpe says: “Capita wants to create a meaningful benchmark, they’re trying to get to a point where they can really start to benchmark what is happening in CX. From those findings they want to be able to help their client organisations understand how to better improve their customers’ experience.

“How do we get closer to clients? How do we create stronger relationships and build a mutually beneficial partnership that grows, that means customers tend to churn less, spend more, and stay longer?”

Thorpe says that customer experience was already increasing in importance prior to the pandemic.

“In the years that preceded the pandemic, what we saw is people expected a lot from organisations,” he says.

“They wanted to stay wanted. It was awakening a recognition of their own value. In terms of changing suppliers, we’ve got plenty of research that shows that customers will leave a brand they love after one poor interaction. So, the thing that has amplified is people’s ability to act, but also what has heightened in the pandemic is the need for trust, how people are treated by organisations now. And we’ve seen that where organisations treat their customers poorly, the customer will defect as soon as they have an alternative.”

Chapple says that the CX Index “raises the game” for companies willing to respond.

She says: “For us, the CX report is a piece of thought leadership in the sense that it's helping to put that gold standard out there in the market. But equally, it's helping us to help our clients to guide that value creation with their customers, as those customer experiences and expectations change over time.”

Tech for good

Capita is a consulting, transformation and digital services business. Every day 55,000 colleagues help millions of people, by delivering innovative solutions to transform and simplify the connections between government and citizens, businesses and customers.

Capita has partnered with Telegraph Media Group to help tell the story of how it works with its clients to provide the insight and cutting-edge technologies that give time back, allowing them to focus on what they do best, and making people’s lives easier and simpler.

For more information, visit capita.com or download the full CX Index report.