A survey conducted by AMR, a research firm based in Sydney, indicates that the Philippines has an overall digital experience score of 33 percent, based on services given by various brands.
The findings, reported by software company SAP Philippines, was based on the responses of 500 Filipino consumers who rated two to three brands each, resulting in at least 1,500 digital interactions.
The 15-minute online survey asked the respondents to rate their digital experience in the industries of banking, utilities, telecommunications, consumer retail and media and entertainment through the 14 digital experience attributes ranging from functional to emotional traits.
“It’s the overall interaction in the digital experience. Everything from the first engagement to transaction to delivery to sales, the survey was conducted in a four-spectrum interaction,” says SAP Philippines managing director Ryan Poggi.
The 33-percent score, which was obtained by subtracting the unsatisfied consumers from the satisfied ones, indicated that most Filipinos are satisfied with their digital experience.
The results show that 54 percent of Filipinos are delighted with the digital services offered by different brands in the country, while 21 percent are unsatisfied, and 25 percent remain ambivalent.
“What we found is that the digital experience score here in the Philippines, which is 33 percent, is extremely high. It is 6 percent higher than the Asean model in general and the reason for that is because it is based on the consumers’ expectations at the time they were taking the survey,” he says.
Of the 14 given attributes, Poggi says the top three most important in the Philippines are mostly from the functional attributes and at par with Asean model—brands must be safe and secure, available anytime and anywhere, and are easy to access.
“Those were the same three we found in most of the Asean nations. The only difference was the third one being connectivity because it scored higher in other countries in the region,” he says.
However, internet speed and connectivity, which is what most Filipinos complain about, is out of the picture in the consumers’ top three concerns given both the wireless and mobile internet connections are prorated in the survey.
“The study shows there is a strong correlation between digital experience performance and customer loyalty. Over three-quarters said they were likely to remain loyal to the brand and only 9% will stay loyal from the unsatisfied batch,” the report says.
The lone brand that graced the event was Globe Telecom, one of the biggest telecommunications company in the Philippines. Their head of strategy and corporate development consumer business, Bennett Aquino, says the study will help them improve their services in the country.
“I think all of the information presented will help us ground to where we really are and whether or not we are able to predict it properly. We take in a lot of other information as well as far as global trends and other benchmarks within the world to see where we might potentially go,” Aquino says.
Poggi believes that aside from giving business their positions through this survey, the Philippines is ahead in terms of digital transformation in general.
“We find it extremely positive and that positivity has a real business impact in and around customer loyalty and customer efficiency. But being in the Philippines now in this state of the space of technology is exciting because it allows us, especially brands, that acknowledge the opportunity and are willing to invest ahead of that curve,” he says.
This is SAP’s second time of conducting such survey but first time in both the Asean region and in the Philippines.