Nine in ten Australian business leaders believe digital transformation will have a positive impact on customer experience – but just 6% have sufficient resources to meet timelines, according to recent research commissioned by CX vendor Cyara.
Moreover, there is a significant gap in the perception of success of digital transformation initiatives between leaders and the front line, and a lack of consensus on who owns these initiatives.
Other findings, include:
- There is consensus on the importance of digital transformation – Nearly all Australian companies recognise the importance of digital transformation for competitive advantage (90%) and for enhancing the customer experience (90%). Globally, these figures were even higher with 98% of companies recognising the importance of digital transformation for competitive advantage and 94% for enhancing the customer experience.
- However insufficient resources are causing a lag – Only 6% of business decision makers and 4% of IT decision makers believe they have sufficient resources to meet timelines. Australian business decision makers that feel their team is not keeping pace report being, on average, seven months (6.73 months) behind where they should be on digital transformation implementation, compared to 5.34 months globally.
- There is no clear standard on ownership of digital transformation and customer experience initiatives – When asked who is driving digital transformation initiatives, 50% of Australian respondents identified the CTO/CIO compared to just 37% globally. One in five (20%) pointed to an IT leader, 23% said the CEO and 8% specified other C-suite leadership members as the drivers. Similarly, when asked who owns the customer experience, 72% of Australian respondents identified their Customer Service team as responsible for customer loyalty compared with just 50% globally. More than six in ten (64%) of Australian respondents identified C-suite leadership (globally, that figure was 28%) and 55% said responsibility for customer loyalty resides with Marketing/Sales, compared with just 41% globally. The lack of clear ownership leaves a concerning gap for the future of CX.
- Regarding the success of digital transformation, the responses varied significantly – The more senior, the more positive the respondents were around digital transformation success. Estimates on the success of digital transformation implementations drop off precipitously as seniority decreases – with 90% of business owners and 75% of managing directors vs. 38% of department heads and 35% at the manager level describing their digital transformation initiatives as “very successful.”
- IT teams cannot be cut out of the equation – When asked if business leaders consulted their IT teams on the decision-making process, only 49% said “yes, every time” – matching global results – meaning more than half of IT teams are left in the dark.
The COVID-19 crisis raised the stakes further and stepped up the importance of digital transformation to stay resilient and responsive to customers. Taken together, the survey highlights pivotal areas ripe for more organisational alignment to accelerate their digital transformation journeys.
The survey findings show that, moving into 2022, companies must lean into digital transformation strategies that will allow them to automate what they can and better utilise their employees. Success and ROI will be measured through better customer experience – 98% of companies already state having KPIs related to customer satisfaction and/or customer loyalty – more revenue and reduced digital risks in modern connected organisations.
Cyara commissioned Sapio Research to perform the independent survey. Respondents overall were split evenly (500 each) between business decision makers and IT business decision makers polled by the survey in four countries – 400 from the United States, 300 from Australia, and 300 from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Respondents worked at companies with a workforce of at least 1,000. The top three industries represented were financial services and banking (30%); computer software, hardware and technology (20%); and retail (12%). Seniority breakdown among the 1,000 respondents polled was 12% Business Owner/Partner; 45% Managing Director/C-level; 16% Department Head/President/Director; and 27% Manager roles.
Access the full survey report here.
