Failing to digitise their customer engagements in 2020 would have negatively impacted their business, according to 98% of enterprises in Asia Pacific.
This was revealed in the NYSE-listed Twilio’s 2021 State of Customer Engagement Report released on Mar 2.
This report captures the perspectives of over 2,500 enterprise decision-makers in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
It outlines major trends in digital engagement that had emerged in 2020, as well as how they are shaping digital adoption in companies across industries and the world.
“For nearly every organisation dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, increased digital engagement was a core part of their solutions,” observes Glenn Weinsten, Twilio’s chief customer officer.
This comes as the movement restrictions imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus infections had necessitated the need for companies to tap on online platforms to stay connected with their stakeholders.
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As such, 86% of APAC companies in finance, government and healthcare report that the pandemic spurred their “highly regulated organisation” to explore new strategies to serve customers.
Meanwhile, 93% of businesses back home acknowledge that the pandemic had accelerated their move to the cloud, thereby equipping them with the flexibility to serve customers from anywhere.
With this came increased customer engagement, according to 90% of the businesses here.
Enterprises in Singapore also have an interesting observation: companies that adopt a “builder” mindset will survive, while those that do not will be outcompeted.
In line with this, 89% of enterprise decision makers here report that they will “choose to build communications solutions to meet customer demands in the future, rather than buy a pre-configured solution”.
Going forward, 82% of Singapore’s businesses note that digital customer engagement will be critical for businesses’ success.
Conversely, 78% of the businesses in APAC say that it will be critical or very important.
Twilio’s Weinstein agrees. “From remote learning, to work-from-home contact center agents, to vaccine distribution logistics, digital communications have played a critical role. We expect that to accelerate through the pandemic recovery and become the new normal,” he predicts.
